Banking & Payments Solution Architect

We are a UK-licensed fintech company building modern financial infrastructure across accounts, payments, cards, FX, and analytics. We are looking for an experienced Banking / Payments Solution Architect to design the core architecture of our financial platform and ensure that all banking, payment, card, and account components work together as one scalable and reliable system. This is a critical architecture role — we need someone who has hands-on experience designing financial infrastructure, not just integrating third-party APIs. You will be responsible for defining how our financial platform operates at its core: how accounts and balances are structured, how money moves, how transactions are recorded, how payment and card flows are processed, and how different financial providers and systems interact. We are looking for someone with deep technical and financial domain expertise who understands how modern banking and payment platforms are designed, built, and scaled. What You’ll Do Design Core Financial Architecture
• Define the end-to-end architecture of our banking and payments platform
• Design account, wallet, balance, and transaction models
• Define ledger architecture, posting rules, and transaction lifecycle management
• Design money movement flows across accounts, currencies, and financial providers
• Establish clear system boundaries, data ownership, and sources of truth
• Ensure consistency and reliability across financial modules Payments & Transaction Processing
• Design payment processing architecture for domestic and international transfers
• Define payment initiation, processing, settlement, and reconciliation flows
• Design transaction states, exception handling, reversals, refunds, and failed payment scenarios
• Define payment routing, orchestration, and provider selection logic
• Design systems for transaction monitoring, tracking, and operational visibility
• Ensure accurate financial records throughout the transaction lifecycle Card Issuing & Processing Architecture
• Design architecture supporting card issuing and card lifecycle management
• Define card authorisation, clearing, and settlement flows
• Design card transaction processing, limits, fees, and balance interactions
• Define integration architecture for card processors and issuing partners
• Address card transaction exceptions, reversals, and reconciliation requirements Banking & Provider Integrations
• Design integration architecture for banks, PSPs, EMIs, BaaS providers, and card processors
• Define API contracts, data models, integration patterns, and system interfaces
• Build scalable provider abstraction models to support multiple financial partners
• Design reliable asynchronous processing, event handling, and integration workflows
• Define error handling, retry mechanisms, idempotency, and failure recovery
• Ensure new financial providers can be integrated without compromising core platform architecture Financial Controls & Reconciliation
• Design reconciliation architecture across internal ledgers, banks, and payment providers
• Define fee calculation, billing, limits, and transaction control mechanisms
• Ensure traceability and auditability of financial transactions
• Design controls for transaction consistency and financial data integrity
• Work with Compliance, Finance, and Operations teams to incorporate regulatory and operational requirements Architecture Leadership & Technical Collaboration
• Translate business and product requirements into clear architecture solutions
• Work closely with the CTO, engineering teams, and Product Management
• Create architecture diagrams, domain models, technical specifications, and integration documentation
• Review proposed technical solutions and identify architectural risks
• Support engineering teams during implementation of complex financial modules
• Ensure the platform is designed for scalability, resilience, maintainability, and future product expansion What We’re Looking For
• 5+ years of experience in Solution Architecture, Software Architecture, or Backend Engineering, including substantial experience in financial systems
• Proven hands-on experience designing banking, payment, or financial infrastructure
• Strong understanding of ledger systems, account and balance architecture, and financial transaction models
• Practical knowledge of payment processing, settlement, reconciliation, and money movement
• Experience designing integrations with banks, PSPs, payment processors, or BaaS providers
• Strong understanding of API architecture, distributed systems, event-driven architecture, and asynchronous processing
• Experience designing reliable financial systems with strong data consistency and transaction integrity
• Understanding of idempotency, fault tolerance, failure recovery, and exception handling
• Ability to translate complex financial business requirements into scalable technical architecture
• Experience collaborating directly with engineering teams and technical leadership
• Strong analytical, documentation, and problem-solving skills
• Professional English proficiency Nice to Have
• Experience building core banking, payment orchestration, or BaaS platforms
• Experience with double-entry ledger architecture
• Experience with card issuing, acquiring, and card processing systems
• Knowledge of card authorisation, clearing, settlement, and dispute flows
• Understanding of IBAN, SEPA, SWIFT, and cross-border payment infrastructure
• Experience with multi-currency accounts, FX, wallets, and balance management
• Experience with fee engines, transaction limits, and financial reconciliation systems
• Knowledge of EMI, PI, Open Banking, and Embedded Finance environments
• Familiarity with KYC, KYB, AML, and financial regulatory requirements
• Experience designing API-first platforms and multi-provider financial ecosystems
• Experience with international financial infrastructure across Europe, the UK, or the US Who Will Succeed in This Role
• Someone who has designed real financial systems, not only worked with payment APIs
• Someone who understands how money moves through a financial platform from initiation to settlement
• Someone who can design the relationships between accounts, balances, transactions, cards, and external providers
• Someone who can anticipate financial edge cases, operational failures, and reconciliation challenges
• Someone capable of creating a clear architecture that engineering teams can implement and scale

What We Offer
• Opportunity to design the core architecture of an international financial platform
• High ownership and direct influence on fundamental technical decisions
• Close collaboration with the CTO, Product team, and company leadership
• Opportunity to work with banking, payment, and card infrastructure across multiple markets
• Competitive compensation based on experience
• Flexible working arrangements
• Modern technical environment and challenging architecture problems
• Professional development and long-term growth opportunities
• Collaborative team culture with a focus on building scalable financial technology