Solutions Architect (Integrations)

The challenge

At WJEC, we contribute to our education communities by providing trusted qualifications and specialist support, to allow our learners the opportunity to reach their full potential. This is a fantastic chance to be part of an organisation that both encourages and enhances the minds of tomorrow.

The role:

As the Integrations Solutions Architect, you will oversee the design and governance of connecting applications, services and data sources across WJEC’s technology infrastructure. You will work closely with colleagues across the business to ensure that the integration architecture enables products, internal platforms, and third-party systems to interoperate through well-defined APIs, events, and data flows whilst reducing overall complexity, improving performance and accelerating delivery.

The person:

To thrive in this role, you’ll be a capable, conscientious and cooperative person who can handle a wideranging workload, coordinating and supporting colleagues across WJEC. You will be a strong communicator, able to deliver clear and concise information to stakeholders including business and technical colleagues within WJEC and external partners and collaborators. The person in this role will be results orientated, well organised, proactive and accurate; ensuring the correctness of all communications through an attention to detail.

Our benefits:

At WJEC, we pride ourselves in being an inclusive and supportive place to work. We offer a range of excellent benefits including: 25 days annual leave per year (in addition to 16 statutory / additional holidays) adjusted for part-time/compressed working patterns, free Welsh lessons, a generous pension scheme and numerous family friendly policies. A career with WJEC can be extremely rewarding and you will be encouraged and supported throughout with great opportunities to develop your professional and personal skills.

WJEC operates a hybrid working model, enabling the successful candidate to split their time between WJEC offices and working at home, subject to business need. As such, applications are invited from individuals across the UK but please note that regular working from our Cardiff offices will be required and whilst flexibility can be discussed, this team currently requires average office attendance of once per week. Welsh language skills are not essential but the willingness to learn is always valued.

To find out more about the role, or about working for us, please do not hesitate to contact Fliss (she/her) (Felicity.Spacie@wjec.co.uk) who would be more than happy to answer your questions.

Please visit our website to download a copy of the job description and application form.

Closing date: 23:59, Monday 07 September 2026

Interviews are anticipated to be held in person, on Tuesday 22 September 2026

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title:	Solutions Architect (Integrations)
Department:	Digital and Transformation
Section:	Technical Services
Responsible to:	Data Systems Technical & Architectural Lead
Grade:	13
Location:	Western Avenue / Treforest
Main purpose of Job:

As the Solutions Architect for Integrations, you will oversee the design and governance of connecting applications, services and data sources across WJEC’s technology infrastructure. You will work closely with teams across the business to ensure that integration architecture enables products, internal platforms, and third-party systems to interoperate through well-defined APIs, events, and data flows while reducing complexity and accelerating delivery.

You’ll line-manage a team of developers and form part of a management matrix within the Solutions Delivery team, working closely with the Project Management Office, Solutions Architects, Developers, UX experts and users across the business.

Principal nsibilities:

Integrations Architecture / Strategy

Develop and manage the governance of integration standards, patterns, and best practices to guide development.

• Define and maintain integration strategies aligned with the organisation’s target architecture.

• Serve as the primary technical expert for troubleshooting and resolving complex, multi-system integration failures, should they occur.

Establish and manage the full lifecycle of APIs and integration assets, from design and publication through to decommissioning.

• Analyse and model enterprise data flows to identify inefficiencies and opportunities for optimisation.

• Design and oversee robust, secure, and scalable integration architectures across platforms.

Technical Delivery

Create and maintain comprehensive technical documentation for integration solutions, including data mapping, system diagrams, and API contracts.

Evaluate, recommend, implement, and continuously evolve integration technologies (e.g., API gateways, messaging platforms, ETL tools) and manage the organisation’s integration technology stack.

Lead proof-of-concept (PoC) initiatives to validate new technologies, tools, and architectural approaches prior to adoption.

Ensure compliance with data exchange and security protocols in collaboration with the Head of Cyber Security.

Oversee key stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to ensure alignment with enterprise architecture and integration standards.

Provide expert guidance on integration architecture, data modelling, and best practices to support effective solution design.

Collaborate with business, technical, and testing stakeholders to gather requirements, assess feasibility, and embed appropriate validation and quality criteria.

Influence and guide stakeholders on integration design decisions, ensuring alignment with organisational standards and strategic goals.

• Support incident response, including root cause analysis and resolution of complex integration issues.

• Identify and resolve data conflicts, inconsistencies, and configuration overlaps to maintain data integrity.

• Ensure the stability, integrity, and continuous improvement of the organisation’s integration architecture.

Managerial & Leadership

• Encourage a common approach to development to improve productivity, maintainability, and scalability.

Mentor and coach team members and provide feedback and guidance both professionally and pastorally, identifying any training or development needs and providing appropriate support.

Oversee the team workload, delegating and planning work allocations; monitoring progress against team SLAs and projects throughout the year.

Undertake regular performance reviews and managing all people related matters for your team, supporting with underperformance or capability issues, as appropriate.

Drive continuous improvement through adoption of modern technologies, frameworks, and development practices

Other

To understand and comply with all WJEC policies and procedures detailed in the Staff Handbook; in particular, ensuring you understand your role and responsibilities in relation to Safeguarding, Information Security, GDPR, Confidentiality, Welsh language and Health, Safety and Environment.

Participate actively in supporting the principles and practice of equality of opportunity as laid down in WJEC’s Equality & Diversity Policy, embedding ED&I into all projects, policies and practices.

To be a pro-active team-member, contributing positively to meetings and projects in support of WJEC aims and objectives.

• To engage in personal and professional development activities relevant to the role.

• To undertake other duties, as required, which are commensurate with the grade of the post.

Person Specification

Job Title:	Solutions Architect (Integrations)
Department:	Digital and Transformation

Essential criteria have been identified as skills and experience that are required in order to fulfil this role. Highly Desirable criteria are the optimum skills and experience the applicant will ideally have. Desirable criteria are those which would add value to the job if present, and also include potential for growth and development into the role.

Skills and Abilities

Essential

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, enabling the identification of change needs and recommendation and/or implementation of innovative and effective solutions.

Highly desirable

Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills demonstrating the ability to convey complex messages clearly.

Operational management skills with the ability to design, oversee, and improve complex workflows and processes across multiple teams.

• Excellent organisational skills demonstrating the ability to produce work to high quality standards.

Project management, risk management, and multi-team coordination skills.

Desirable

The ability to communicate through the medium of Welsh

Knowledge

Highly desirable

Knowledge of SOA principles, data integration, APIs and microservices

Knowledge of REST fundamentals, resource modelling, versioning, idempotency, pagination, error semantics, and API lifecycle.

Excellent understanding of integration design patterns, data structures, and algorithms and their implementation using SQL, Python, R, JavaScript

• Good understanding of Business Process Mapping and its application.

Knowledge of Cloud Architecture patterns and services, e.g. AWS or Azure.

Desirable

Knowledge of key tools (Data Warehouse/Lake; AWS Athena & Glue; RDMBS including Oracle & Postgres; NO-SQL databases; Graph-DB; Data Modelling etc.)

• Knowledge of data analysis and presentation tools (Tableau, MS PowerBI, AWS Quick Suite etc.)

Experience

Highly desirable

Previous line-management or leadership, with experience leading implementation teams and aligning delivery across diverse functions.

Experience in designing and implementing integration solutions.

• Experience with technical specialists, co-creating deliverables that demonstrate best practice and are feasible to build.

Previous experience of working in a Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment environment and the associated tools, e.g. Bitbucket pipeline, Cloudformation templates, Terraform.

• An experienced decision-maker, able to accurately assess a situation and take independent decisions that have medium-far reaching impact.

Desirable

Experience working in the EdTech industry.

Essential

A degree or equivalent in Software Development or a Data Analysis/Engineering subject or demonstrable experience of data systems in a professional environment.

Highly desirable

• Recognised Project Management qualification (PRINCE2, Agile PM, PMP, or equivalent).

Evidence of continued professional development.

Desirable

• AWS Solutions Architect certification.

Other Requirements

Highly desirable

Empathy and professionalism when dealing with others

• An aspiring leader and professional role model who acts as an ambassador for their employer

Telerau ac Amodau Gwasanaeth / Terms and Conditions of Service

Teterau ac Amodau Gwasanaetn I Terms and Conditions of SerMice
Teitl y Swydd /Job Title:	Pensaer Datrysiadau (Integreiddio) /Solutions Architect (Integrations)
Cyflog/Salary:	£62,580 - £65,088 y flwyddyn (pro-rata lle y bo'n gymwys /£62,580 - £65, 088 per annum (pro-rata where relevant)		Gradd /Grade:	13
Gwyliau Blynyddol /Annual Leave:	25 diwrnod (182.5 awr) y flwyddyn. Mae CBAC hefyd yn darparu 16 diwrnod (116.8 awr) igyfrif am Wyliau Cyhoeddus a chyfnodau Cau CBAC (gwyliau ychwanegol). Mae'r lwfansau hyn yn cael eu haddasu ar gyfer staff sy'n gweithio'n rhan-amser neu batrymaugweithio cywasgedig.25 days (182.5 hours) per annum. WJEC also provides 16 days (116.8 hours) to account forBank Holidays and WjEC Closure periods (Additional leave). These allowances are adjusted for staff who work part-time or compressed working patterns.
Pensiwn /Pension:	Mae gofynion y Cynllun Pensiwn Llywodraeth Leol yn berthnasol.The provision of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) applies.
Math o Gytundeb / Contract Type:
Oriau Gwaith / Working Hours:		Hyd y Contract /Length of Contract:
Llawn-amser / Full-time		Parhaol / Permanent
Rhan-amser / Part-timeNifer yr oriau yr wythnos /36.5No. of hrs per week:		Tymor penodol / Fixed-termDyddiad gorffen arfaethedig /Planned end date:Rheswm dros y cyfnod penodol /Reason for fixed-term:
Arall/ Other:Cyfnodau prysur lwyth gwaith / Amh /Workload Peaks: N/A
Dull Ymgeisio / Method of Application:
Dylid anfon furflenni wedi'u lenwi ar e-bost at AD@cbac.co.uk erbyn 23:59, dydd Llun 07 Medi 2026. Rhagwelir cynnal cyfweliadau wyneb yn wyneb, ar dydd Mawrth 22 Medi 2026.Completed forms should be sent by email to hr@wjec.co.uk by 23:59, Monday 07 September 2026. Interviews are anticipated to be held in person, on Tuesday 22 September 2026.