Product Architect

Product Architect

Division – Data Technology and Innovation

Department – Core Technology

Salary – National – ranging from £67,100 – £109,000 and London from £73,700 – £119,800 per annum (salary offered will be based on skills and experience)

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. Follow this link to find out more About the FCA

Data, Technology and Innovation (DTI) is leveraging state-of-the-art data & digital capabilities to deliver innovation in regulation. We utilise data science and intelligence gathering to proactively identify and intervene to prevent harm and protect consumers.

The Product Architect role sits within the Product Group, and is responsible for the overall architecture, including service, for a suite of products and quality assurance of architectural decisions, technical designs and other architectural deliverables (e.g. systems engineering document) to ensure alignment to enterprise platform and integration strategies, standards and patterns. The primary focus for this role will be our Market Monitoring & Reporting (MMR) platform and the Market Data Processor (MDP) product which is being redeveloped onto the MMR platform in 2026. This is a hands-on role where a technical / engineering background will be highly beneficial.

What will you be doing?

• Shaping the relevant product roadmaps which identifies the scope, prioritisation and timeframes for delivery of capability including integration and specification of the products' solution design as well as addressing technical debt
• Producing architectural solutions including technology and service artefacts, ensuring solutions consider capacity management, ITSCM, security and software licensing requirements. High level outlined architecture to detailed architecture, and where required, high and low level technical designs that are aligned to enterprise architecture standards
• Review and quality assure artefacts created by external suppliers and internal teams ensuring the quality of the delivered solution to fulfil business and non-functional requirements and adhere to strategic vision for the product group, Technology and FCA
• Identifying opportunities for product innovation and shape design proposals for taking this forward; driving innovation at a product level where this delivers quick wins and business benefit and is in the boundary of the product roadmap
• Supporting Integration and functional testing to ensure conformance to business acceptance and readiness criteria, identifying and responding to capacity, licensing and security risks, and determining service design outcomes are aligned to the FCA risk appetite. Active involvement in Change Impact Assessments and Production Incident investigations
• Leading and represent MIE Product Group design and technology change approvals at various FCA Design Authority groups and forums. Support the management of internal and external stakeholders, providing SME assurance at various levels

What will you get from the role?

• We work in cross functional, self-organising and autonomous teams, passionate about delivering value for our stakeholders
• We like to work smart, not long hours and we offer a good work / life balance
• We enjoy having a sense of purpose in our job, protecting consumers from financial harm
• We admire and look out for team players and leaders who have great communication and interpersonal skills
• We believe in innovation, openness, and collaboration across our teams where everyone gets stuck in, is valued and has an opportunity to make a difference

Which skills are required?

We are a Disability Confident Employer; therefore, disabled people or individuals with long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. (To learn more about the Disability Confident Scheme Click Here)

Minimum

• Significant experience as a technical architect working in financial services or government / regulatory bodies, with experience of creating strategies, Solution Architecture Documents, roadmaps and architectural delivery plans, enabling innovation for the relevant products, platforms, systems or components
• Significant experience working with formal architectural methodologies and frameworks, including AWS, TOGAF, and architecture modelling tools (e.g. Erwin, Visio etc.)
• Significant experience of working through the end-to-end project and/or product delivery lifecycle with employees, 3rd party or offshore suppliers following development methodologies (e.g. Scrum, Agile, DevOps)

Essential

• AWS Solution Architecture certified
• Relevant solution architecture skills and experience (i.e. Data, Application, ETL, Security and AWS Infrastructure)
• Data Warehouse / Big Data experience using cloud native technologies
• Proven ability to innovate within a product stack whilst ensuring Enterprise Architecture governance adherence
• Good overall knowledge of a broad range of technology trends and industry standards in providing IT products as services and best practice application / solution / platform / SaaS architectures
• Experience of managing architectural risk through the project lifecycle and during “BAU”

Our Values & Diversity

We are proud to be an inclusive employer and our ambition is to cultivate a culture for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

Within the workplace you will have access to various employee resource groups which aim to promote and achieve a healthy work / life balance and support our diversity ambitions.

Did you know? 50% of our Executive Committee are women.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisation. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, minority ethnic, disabled, and neurodivergent candidates for our role.

Benefits of working at the FCA

• 28 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Hybrid working (work from home up to 60% of your time)
• Private healthcare with Bupa
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8%
• Life assurance
• Income protection

We also have a competitive flexible benefits scheme which gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle.

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we can explore what might work best for both sides.

Follow this link to see what life is like at the FCA - Life at the FCA

Application Support

We are dedicated to removing barriers and ensuring our application process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible.

If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition requiring changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter using the details below and they will be happy to discuss this further with you.

Useful Information and Timeline

This role is graded as Technical Specialist – Regulatory

SC Clearance is required for this role – SC Guidance

• Advert closing date: 7th March
• CV review/shortlist: W/C 10th March
• Technical competence interview: W/C 17th March

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role, therefore, please make them aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.

Got a question?

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:

• For internal applicants, please contact Melanie Dubock at Melanie.Dubock@fca.org.uk
• For external applicants, please contact Asha Gladis at Asha.Gladis@fca.org.uk

Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted.