Principal Architect

About Benchmark

Our award-winning, proprietary solutions cover regulatory, platform and investment services, and are designed to support advisers at every step of their journey – from starting and running a financial advice business more productively and effectively, to accelerating its growth and realising its value.

We support high quality financial advisers with our award-winning technology and support services. And with our own Financial Advice business, we help families find solutions to meet their needs and aspirations and achieve peace of mind. By providing access to higher quality solutions, we make it easier for them to meet and exceed their goals.

Ensuring good client outcomes, with the client’s interests central to decision making, is very important at Benchmark. Treating Customers Fairly principles are embedded within our organisation and we take responsibility for embracing and promoting our duty of care to all clients, including those who may be more vulnerable than others.

The base

You'll be based at our Schroders Business Campus near Horsham in West Sussex. It has high standards and international reputation, without being in the city: a big, countryside campus means life will feel a little different. We support our offices by using cutting edge software and hardware and our spacious campus facilities mean there's a great working environment for the team. With an on-site restaurant, coffee shop and gym, our campus has much to offer. And commuters can relax on our dedicated regular shuttle bus to and from Horsham’s main line train station.

What you'll do

This position is responsible for the large parts design and assurance of both the current and future Benchmark Capital suite of applications, along with the associated processes, systems and integrations.

(This is not an exhaustive list of the duties to be performed.  Job descriptions do not limit the tasks that an employee may reasonably be requested to perform.  Changes in job descriptions may be necessary as the needs of the Organisation change over time.)
-    As an expert work with in our scaled agile environment to lead the collaboration with product owners and product managers to determine functional and non-functional requirements for new features, new software or applications
-    At the value stream, lead the design to develop high-level Features and Enablers specifications.
-    Lead as an expert the hands-on developing of spikes and proof of concepts for emerging technologies, 
-    Lead with fellow architects and principal developers/testers to promote alignment with the Architecture Governance Framework and associated processes and policies.
-    Own some aspects of architectural, security and engineering related policies.
-    Own when required the design and implementation of cloud infrastructure in Azure, providing guidance and review from an architectural, business and security perspective
-    Own the definition of some aspects of development from appropriate technology and workflow to coding standards
-    Lead the communication of all concepts and guidelines to the business stake holders, other architects and development teams
-    Oversee progress of the Safe Train to ensure consistency with initial design through to delivery.
-    Lead technical guidance and coaching to architects and principal developers
-    Define how the products and software meets all requirements of quality, security, modifiability, extensibility etc.
-    Lead in the communication of architectural concepts and requirements to key stakeholders, articulate decisions and strategies whilst responding to challenges.
-    Define and develop an in-depth knowledge of the business’s processes, strategy and products and align the architectural designs accordingly
-    Work with 3rd party vendors to buy in solutions where appropriate 
-    Attend meetings with Schroders to collaborate in joint initiatives
-    Assist the business as required in pre-sales meetings to provide possible technical solutions to help progress the project
-    Proactively keep up with the latest industry thinking and technologies and feed them back to the Architectural Runway to help shape the future of the company’s architectural solutions
-    Work within an Agile environment and be able to facilitate emergent design sessions with the development teams as well as upfront designs when necessary
-    Provide cost and/or resource estimates to enable quick and well-informed business decisions.

The knowledge, experience and qualifications you need

-    Proven experience as a solution/software architect, with strong knowledge of .NET, ASP.NET and Azure Technologies.
-    Experience in software development and coding in various languages, primarily C#.
-    Excellent knowledge of software and application design, architecture and patterns [Solid, DDD, TDD, SOA, Service Design thinking and Distributed Systems]
-    Proven experience of implementing Event Driven Architectures.
-    Good understanding of cloud design patterns and implementations in Azure
-    Experience of integrating with third party/external systems, and the appropriate integration patterns.
-    Understanding of software quality assurance principles
-    A technical mindset with great attention to detail
-    High quality organizational and leadership skills
-    Outstanding presentation abilities
-    Excellent interpersonal, time management and communication skills- both written and oral.
-    Customer focussed and can present ideas and concepts in user-friendly language.
-    Flexible and willing to work outside core business hours as required.

What you'll be like

The ideal candidate is energetic, motivated with a ‘can do’ attitude, possesses good analytical and problem-solving abilities, and is keen to take on a role in a department with development and advancement opportunities.  Due to the unpredictable nature of the IT industry, it is also important for this person to be willing to expand their Architecture, Software and IT knowledge, and to upgrade their skills set as and when required.  The role will involve working in a small team in an environment of open information-sharing to assure cross-training and cover within the department.

We're looking for the best, whoever they are

Our purpose is to provide excellent investment performance to clients through active management. Diversity of thought facilitated by an inclusive culture will allow us to make better decisions and better achieve our purpose. This is why inclusion and diversity are a strategic priority for us and why we are an equal opportunities employer: you are welcome here regardless of your age, disability, gender identity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socio-economic background or any other protected characteristics.