Principal Solution Architect
23 hours ago
Manchester
Principal Solution Architect Enterprise SaaS | World-Class Engineering Location: Manchester (Central) – Hybrid Package: Up to £100,000 base + up to 30% bonus + car allowance The Opportunity This is a senior architecture role within a high-growth, enterprise-scale SaaS business building mission-critical platforms used at serious scale. The organisation is actively modernising a complex technology estate into a cloud-native, shared SaaS platform, designed for reuse, speed, and long-term resilience. Architecture is not an afterthought here — it is a first-class discipline with real influence over how systems are designed, built, and evolved. This role is for a Principal-level Solution Architect who wants to shape platforms, guide engineering teams, and design solutions that will still make sense in five years’ time. What You’ll Own You will operate as a technical authority, working closely with senior engineering, product, and technology leaders. Your focus is end-to-end solution architecture, not diagram production. Key responsibilities: • Owning solution architecture across complex enterprise SaaS platforms, • Designing cloud-native, scalable, resilient systems, • Translating product and business needs into clear, executable technical designs, • Defining architectural patterns, standards, and guardrails, • Guiding engineering teams through architectural trade-offs, • Ensuring solutions meet expectations around performance, availability, security, and scalability, • Managing architectural risk and technical debt proactively The Environment You’ll be working in: • A true product-led SaaS environment, • Modern cloud platforms (AWS/Azure), • Event-driven and distributed systems, • High-calibre engineering teams who value good architecture The Profile This Role Is Built For This role is suited to someone who: • Operates comfortably at Principal / Lead Solution Architect level, • Has a strong software engineering background, • Has designed and delivered enterprise SaaS solutions, • Is fluent in modern cloud and distributed system design, • Can influence without ego and challenge constructively, • Working across product, engineering, and senior stakeholders, • Getting close to engineering teams Experience in areas such as: • Cloud-native architecture (AWS / Azure), • Microservices and event-driven systems, • REST APIs and integration patterns, • Distributed systems, • SQL and NoSQL data stores, • Containerisation (Docker / Kubernetes) Working Model & Package • Hybrid working – Manchester (central), • Up to £100,000 base salary, • Up to 30% bonus, • Additional car allowance, • Senior-level autonomy and trust, • Real influence over a large-scale SaaS platform