Solution Architect

As part of the M&S Engineering team, you'll be joining a well-loved historic brand, shaping technology solutions that serve millions of loyal customers and thousands of colleagues. Technology is central to how M&S continues to modernise, differentiate and grow, and architecture is a key enabler of that transformation. As a Solution Architect within our International Fashion, Home & Beauty (FH&B) domain, you'll design the B2B and/or B2C systems that power M&S's international growth.

Your focus will span direct-to-customer digital commerce, market-specific customer experiences, partner and franchise integrations, wholesale propositions, and the integration patterns that connect our platforms, partners and legacy estate. Working closely with Engineering, Product, Architecture, Delivery and partner teams, you'll connect business ambition with pragmatic architecture choices. You'll guide decisions across APIs, events, data movement, security, resilience and operational supportability, balancing strategic direction with the realities of delivery.

This is a high-impact role for someone who enjoys working across business models, markets and integration landscapes. You'll own and influence solution direction, define reusable patterns, provide architecture assurance through delivery and help build the foundations for reliable international growth.

• Define end-to-end solution architectures for M&S International B2C and/or B2B systems, covering technology, data, integration, security, resilience, service boundaries, interface contracts and operational supportability.
• Design secure and scalable integration architectures across cloud-native, on-premises, partner and legacy systems, selecting the most appropriate patterns across APIs, event-driven architecture, synchronous integrations, file transfer and messaging.
• Evaluate integration options through Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), balancing risks, costs, Fin Ops considerations, business value and long-term maintainability.
• Produce High-Level Designs (HLDs) and reusable reference patterns that provide engineering teams with clear guidance and accelerate delivery.
• Provide architecture assurance throughout the delivery lifecycle through design reviews, technical governance, prototype validation and operational feedback.
• Collaborate across product teams, platforms, engineering functions and external partners to align dependencies, architectural decisions, risks and delivery plans.
• Assess emerging technologies, modernisation opportunities and architectural improvements that strengthen resilience, delivery pace, operational effectiveness and customer outcomes, experience designing transition-state architectures that allow legacy and modern platforms to coexist safely while reducing long-term complexity.
• Experience with in retail, international commerce, marketplace, wholesale, franchise or partner integration environments.
• A passion for innovation, continuous improvement and customer-centric technology decisions, combined with a pragmatic approach to delivery.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to bring senior stakeholders, engineers, product teams and partners on the journey through clear, outcome-focused communication.
• Working at M&S means being part of something bigger – helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We're inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

You will work across a broad and evolving FH&B International technology landscape, including:

• Architecture Domains:
  Solution Architecture, Integration Architecture, Data-Driven Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Security, Resilience and Operational Architecture.
• Cloud & Infrastructure:
  Azure services, container platforms, Infrastructure as Code and secure platform patterns.
• Integration & Messaging: APIs, event streaming, managed file transfer, enterprise messaging and batch integrations.
• Data & Analytics:
  Operational data flows, reporting, data quality, Power BI and architecture models supporting data-driven decision making.
• Engineering Enablement: CI/CD, automated quality gates, secure engineering practices, observability and continuous incident learning.

• Proven experience as a Solution Architect or senior technology leader designing complex, enterprise-scale integration solutions.
• Experience designing B2C and/or B2B solutions including direct-to-consumer commerce, franchise, wholesale, partner or marketplace integrations.
• Experience producing High-Level Designs, Architecture Decision Records and architecture patterns that can be applied consistently across engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of integration architecture, distributed systems, cloud platforms, data movement, security, resilience and operational architecture, including APIs, event streaming, messaging and file-based integration patterns.
• Experience designing for…