Solutions Architect

About the role

You will join a small senior crew embedded inside a client organisation, usually a bank, telco, health system or energy operator. You will work in their repository, on their CI, in their on-call rotation. The systems are consequential and the constraints are real: regulatory scrutiny, legacy integration, and a business that cannot tolerate a bad release.

This is an architecture role that stays close to the code. You will be expected to defend your decisions in front of engineers who have to live with them, and to change your mind when the evidence says you should.

The team you join

You will work across several teams and often several organisations, with client architects who may or may not welcome you at first.

What you will do

• Design end-to-end solutions across new services and existing legacy estates.
• Lead technical discovery, and turn ambiguity into a plan a team can execute.
• Define integration contracts between systems and between organisations.
• Make and document the architectural decisions that outlast the engagement.
• Coach client architects and engineers rather than handing over diagrams.

Minimum qualifications

• Eight or more years building systems, several of them designing at the whole-system level.
• Deep integration experience, including with systems you cannot change.
• Fluency in cloud architecture and in the trade-offs it forces.
• The ability to write a design down clearly and defend it.
• Credibility with both engineers and executives, in the same week.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in banking, telecoms, health or energy.
• Exposure to event-driven and data-intensive architectures.
• Track record of replacing a legacy system without a big-bang cutover.

Your first three months

1. Understand the estate as it is, including the parts everyone avoids.
2. Produce one decision record that settles a live argument.
3. Get a target architecture agreed that people believe is achievable.
4. By month three, be the reference point when a design decision is contested.

Compensation and benefits

Rates are agreed per engagement and depend on scope and seniority. We discuss numbers openly on the first call, before you spend time on a practical.

• Rates are agreed per engagement and discussed openly on the first call, before you spend time on a practical.
• Remote across Africa, with on-site weeks where the engagement calls for them.
• Work embedded inside regulated institutions, on systems with real consequences, alongside senior engineers who review your work and expect you to review theirs.
• Small crews and direct access to partners, with no layers between you and the decisions.
• Long relationships. We would rather work with the same capable people across engagements than hire for a single project.
• Straight answers. We tell you what we can and cannot offer before you commit, and we do not promise what we cannot deliver.

How we interview

The whole process is normally two to three weeks, and we work around your current job.

1. Application review. A partner reads every application. You hear back either way, usually within two working days.
2. Intro call, 45 minutes. Your background, what you want next, and honest answers about the work, the rate and the constraints.
3. Practical session, 4 to 6 hours. A realistic problem close to what the role actually involves, scheduled around you and sized to respect your time.
4. Practical review, 60 minutes. We walk through what you built, why, and what you would change with more time.
5. Partner conversation, 45 minutes. Scope, expectations, terms, and your questions.
6. Decision, normally within two working days of the last conversation.

How to apply

Send an application through the form. A partner reads every one, and you will hear back either way. If you are unsure whether you qualify, apply anyway and say what you are unsure about.

We will tell you what we can and cannot offer before you commit to anything.

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