Senior Solutions Architect

Description

We are seeking an experienced senior solutions architect – cards & payments platform to lead architecture design and delivery for strategic cards and payments initiatives within a leading banking environment.

The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in cards processing, card management platforms, payment ecosystems, banking integrations, API architecture, security, and enterprise-scale solution design. This role requires ownership of end-to-end architecture solutions that balance business requirements, customer experience, scalability, resiliency, security, and operational excellence.

Requirements

Key responsibilities:

Required experience

• 10+ years of overall technology experience.
• Minimum 2–3 years as a solution architect or technical architect within cards/payments domain.
• Strong experience in banking and financial services environments.
• Proven experience delivering enterprise-scale cards and payments solutions.

Solution architecture & delivery

• Design end-to-end architecture solutions for cards and payments platforms.
• Produce architecture artifacts, solution designs, and technical specifications.
• Define scalable, resilient, secure, and reusable architecture patterns.
• Ensure alignment with enterprise architecture standards and business objectives.
• Evaluate and integrate third-party card management and payment solutions.
• Support solution estimation, feasibility studies, vendor assessments, and technology selection.
• Collaborate with product, business, engineering, infrastructure, security, and operations teams.
• Drive architecture governance, reviews, and compliance processes.

Cards & payments domain leadership

Architect solutions across the complete card lifecycle:

• Card issuance
• Card activation
• Card management
• Transaction processing
• Acquiring
• Authorization
• Clearing
• Settlement
• Chargebacks
• Dispute management

Design solutions for:

• Credit cards
• Debit cards
• Prepaid cards
• Corporate cards
• Co-branded cards
• Loyalty & rewards programs
• Cashback solutions
• Installment payment programs

Work with payment gateways, processors, switches, clearing systems, and banking ecosystems.

Architecture governance

• Develop reusable reference architectures and architecture blueprints.
• Conduct peer reviews and architecture assessments.
• Mentor junior architects and engineering teams.
• Deliver architecture workshops and knowledge-sharing sessions.
• Contribute to architecture standards, patterns, and best practices.

Mandatory domain expertise

Card management platforms

Hands-on architecture experience with one or more of:

• VisionPLUS
• Way4
• First Data
• CardPac
• Similar card management systems

Cards processing

Strong understanding of:

• Authorization processing
• Clearing & settlement
• Card switching
• Acquiring
• Issuing
• Merchant payments
• Chargebacks
• Dispute management
• Reconciliation processes

Payment ecosystem

Experience with:

• Payment gateways
• Payment processors
• Card networks
• Clearing systems
• Banking integration platforms
• Third-party financial ecosystems

Industry standards & compliance

Strong knowledge of:

• PCI-DSS
• EMV
• PSD2
• UAE Central Bank regulations
• GDPR
• Financial services security standards

Security & fraud prevention

Experience implementing:

• Tokenization
• 3D Secure (3DS)
• Encryption technologies
• Authentication & authorization frameworks
• Secure API design
• Data protection controls

Technical skills

Architecture & integration

• Enterprise architecture
• Solution architecture
• Technical architecture
• API architecture
• Microservices architecture
• Event-driven architecture
• Distributed systems design
• Integration architecture

Banking & payments technologies

• REST APIs
• SOAP services
• ISO 8583
• Payment switch integrations
• Core banking integrations
• Middleware platforms
• Enterprise service bus (ESB)

Security architecture

• Threat modeling
• Data classification
• Asset valuation
• Security by design
• Security logging & monitoring
• Encryption & key management
• Authentication & authorization
• Cybersecurity controls

Cloud & modern engineering (preferred)

Exposure to:

• Cloud architecture
• DevOps practices
• Container platforms
• CI/CD pipelines

AI knowledge (preferred)

Awareness or experience with:

• Artificial intelligence
• Machine learning
• Generative AI
• Large language models (LLMs)
• Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
• Embedding models
• Vector databases
• AI agents / agentic AI
• Model context protocol (MCP)
• GitHub Copilot
• Claude Code

Key competencies

• Strong stakeholder management skills
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Strategic and analytical thinking
• Strong problem-solving capabilities
• Delivery-focused mindset
• Ability to balance customer experience, functionality, security, performance, and resiliency
• Self-driven and capable of working with minimal supervision
• Strong mentoring and coaching abilities
• High learning agility and adaptability