Consulting Solution Architect

As an IBM Consulting Architect, you will act as a trusted technical advisor to our clients, shaping architecture decisions that enable complex business and technology transformation. You will operate across the lifecycle - from early discovery and design through delivery and transition - providing architectural leadership to ensure solutions are coherent, fit-for-purpose, and aligned to client objectives.

You will work closely with clients, delivery teams, and partners, bringing industry insight and structured architectural thinking to complex environments. This role requires strong stakeholder engagement, the ability to operate in multi-supplier or 'rainbow' teams, and confidence guiding teams through ambiguity, trade-offs, and change.

Core Responsibilities (Common Across All Architect Roles)

• Build strong relationships with client stakeholders and act as a trusted advisor, providing clear architectural guidance aligned to business outcomes.
• Lead and influence architectural decision-making across teams, ensuring design integrity, quality, and consistency throughout delivery.
• Apply industry best practices, architectural patterns, and standards to shape pragmatic, sustainable solutions.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers, architects, and delivery leads, supporting capability development within teams.
• Collaborate effectively across architecture, engineering, security, and platform communities to deliver cohesive outcomes.
• Support architectural governance activities, including design reviews, assurance, and risk management where appropriate.
• Operate effectively within consulting environments, balancing client needs, delivery constraints, and long-term sustainability.

In addition to the core responsibilities above, a Consulting Solution Architect will primarily focus on, * Lead end to end solution architecture design across complex transformation programmes, from discovery through delivery and transition into live service.

• Engage senior stakeholders to understand business objectives, constraints, and priorities, translating these into clear architectural outcomes.
• Define target and transitional architectures spanning applications, data, integration, cloud, and security domains.
• Produce high quality architectural artefacts, including HLDs, solution designs, roadmap views, and trade off analyses.
• Support secure by design, resilience, and operability considerations within solution designs, working closely with security and platform teams.
• Guide delivery teams through design intent, resolving architectural decisions and risks throughout implementation.
• Support governance activities, including architectural assurance, design review boards, and investment decision processes.
• Facilitate workshops and collaborative design sessions with business, technical, and delivery stakeholders., IBM wants you to bring your whole self to work and for you this might mean the ability to work flexibly. If you are interested in a flexible working pattern, please talk to our recruitment team to find out if this is possible in the current working environment.

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Proven experience operating as a Solution Architect within consulting or enterprise scale transformation environments.
• Strong understanding of modern technology architectures, including cloud, data platforms, integration patterns, and hybrid environments.
• Experience designing solutions across multiple delivery teams and technology domains.
• Ability to communicate architectural concepts clearly to both technical and non technical audiences.
• Experience producing client ready architectural documentation and decision artefacts.
• Consulting experience, including stakeholder management, structured problem solving, and delivery ownership.

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government's Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personal Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NVS) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Experience delivering enterprise or domain led transformations (e.g. public sector, healthcare, manufacturing).
• Exposure to hybrid or multi cloud environments.
• Familiarity with operating models, service design, and technology road mapping.
• Background in data led or digital transformation initiatives., Being an IBMer means you'll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you'll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You'll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you'll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You'll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences. In this role, you'll work in one of our IBM Consulting Client Innovation Centers (Delivery Centers), where we deliver deep technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients around the world. Our delivery centers offer our clients locally based skills and technical expertise to drive innovation and adoption of new technology., IBM Consulting is IBM's consulting and global professional services business, with market leading capabilities in business and technology transformation. With deep expertise in many industries, we offer strategy, experience, technology, and operations services to many of the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Our people are focused on accelerating our clients' businesses through the power of collaboration. We believe in the power of technology responsibly used to help people, partners and the planet., In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better., IBM's greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world. Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we're also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business. At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it's time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world. IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.