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Senior Solution Architect

Job Title: Senior Solution Architect

Department: Solution Engineering Tribe

Reports to: Head of Solution Engineering

Role Overview:

We are seeking an experienced Senior Solution Architect with a deep understanding of overall business needs and strategic objectives of the organisation. The ideal candidate will be responsible for designing and defining the architecture of Simpaisa Holdings' payment platform, including API design, corridor integration architecture, FX engine design, and merchant integration patterns. This encompasses application, data, and infrastructure architecture for cross-border payment processing, remittance corridors, Pay-In/Pay-Out flows, and settlement systems. Strong expertise in solution design principles and methodologies within the payments and fintech domain, ensuring the creation of robust, scalable, secure, and regulatory-compliant solutions, is essential. Expertise in agile methodologies and working collaboratively with development teams is also preferable.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Understand business requirements for cross-border payments, remittances, and merchant services, and translate them into comprehensive and well-documented technical solutions.
  • Design the high-level architecture of payment platform solutions, including application, data, and infrastructure components, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards and regulatory requirements (DFSA, SBP, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001).
  • Architect corridor integration patterns for remittance flows across MENA, South Asia, and Central Asia, including banking partner APIs, mobile money integrations, and FX rate management.
  • Select appropriate technologies, platforms, and frameworks for payment solutions based on requirements, security constraints, and compliance obligations.
  • Ensure solutions are scalable, reliable, secure, performant, and cost-effective, with particular attention to transaction throughput, latency, and data integrity.
  • Design API architectures for merchant integrations, partner connectivity, and internal service communication, following RESTful and event-driven patterns.
  • Document solution architectures, including diagrams, specifications, and rationale behind design decisions, maintained in Bitbucket repositories.
  • Communicate solution architectures effectively to stakeholders, including business analysts, developers, infrastructure teams, and regulatory/compliance functions.
  • Provide technical guidance and support to development teams during the implementation phase, ensuring adherence to the defined architecture and compliance standards.
  • Evaluate and recommend new technologies and architectural patterns to improve payment processing capabilities, corridor efficiency, and platform resilience.
  • Participate in the review of solution designs and implementations to ensure quality, security, and alignment with standards.
  • Identify and mitigate technical risks associated with payment solution design and implementation, including fraud vectors, settlement risk, and data sovereignty concerns.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Agile: Understanding of agile methodologies and experience working in agile environments, including Kanban-based delivery.
  • Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical solutions clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, including regulators and banking partners.
  • Strategy and Planning: Ability to develop solution architectures that align with business strategies, corridor expansion plans, and long-term technology roadmaps. Strong planning and organisational skills to manage architectural deliverables effectively.
  • Leadership & Influence Skills: Ability to influence technical decisions and guide development teams towards the intended architecture across distributed teams.
  • Problem-solving and Analytical Skills: Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills to identify and address architectural challenges in payment processing, corridor routing, and partner integration.
  • Solution Architecture Expertise: Deep understanding of various architectural patterns, design principles, and integration methods. Experience with cloud-native architecture, microservices, event-driven systems, API gateways, and data architecture. Familiarity with payment protocols (ISO 8583, ISO 20022), banking APIs, and financial messaging standards.
  • Payments Domain Knowledge: Strong understanding of cross-border payments, remittance flows, FX management, Pay-In/Pay-Out architectures, merchant acquiring, settlement and reconciliation systems, and AML/CTF screening integration.
  • Regulatory and Compliance Architecture: Experience designing systems that meet PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, DFSA, and SBP regulatory requirements, including audit trails, data residency, and encryption standards.
  • Stakeholder Management: Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with diverse stakeholders, including engineering teams, product managers, compliance officers, and external banking partners, ensuring alignment on solution design and approach.

General Requirements for the Role:

  • Bachelor's Degree in related field: A bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Business Administration, Computer Science, Engineering, or a closely related STEM field is required.
  • 8+ years of experience in software development or architecture: Minimum of 8 years of progressive experience in software development with a focus on architecture and design, with at least 3 years in payments, fintech, or financial services.
  • Experience designing complex payment systems: Demonstrated experience in designing and architecting complex payment platforms, corridor integrations, and enterprise-level financial solutions.
  • Proven track record of successful solution delivery: A verifiable history of contributing to the successful delivery of payment or fintech projects through effective solution architecture.

Benefits and Perks:

  • Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package.
  • Opportunity to shape the architecture of a rapidly growing cross-border payments platform, collaborating with skilled professionals across multiple markets.
  • Professional development and training opportunities, including industry certifications.
  • Inclusive company culture that values diversity and innovation.