Head, Solution Architecture & Standards Office

About the Role The Head, Solution Architecture & Standards Office owns the technology architecture, standards, and governance framework that ensures every development initiative across Polaris Bank's digital and retail banking arms is scalable, secure, and well-integrated. This is a leadership and governance role: you will set direction, define standards, and provide architectural oversight across three specialist domains — Solution Architecture, Security Architecture, and Integration & API Architecture — working through and with specialist architects and leads in each area, rather than executing all specialist work personally. Key Responsibilities Governance & Standards Define and maintain the enterprise architecture framework, technology standards, and design principles applied across all development initiatives Chair architecture review boards; approve or escalate designs that deviate from standards Own the technical governance process, ensuring traceability between business requirements and architectural decisions Solution Architecture Oversee the design of end-to-end solutions for major business initiatives, ensuring architectural integrity, scalability, and alignment with enterprise standards Guide the application of microservices architecture, domain-driven design, and cloud architecture patterns across teams Ensure solution designs are maintainable and support long-term platform evolution Security Architecture Set secure-by-design standards and oversee their application across all solution designs Ensure threat modeling, identity & access management design, and cryptographic standards are consistently applied Partner with Information Security to ensure architecture decisions meet regulatory and compliance requirements Oversee remediation of architecture-level vulnerabilities identified through security assessments Integration & API Architecture Set standards for integration patterns, API design, API gateway usage, and middleware architecture Oversee API lifecycle governance to ensure consistency, reusability, and performance across the API portfolio Guide adoption of event-driven architecture patterns for high-throughput, real-time use cases Core Competencies Enterprise architecture leadership and technical governance Working knowledge across solution, security, and integration architecture disciplines (deep expertise in at least one is expected; working fluency across the others to lead specialist teams credibly) Stakeholder management across engineering, security, product, and compliance functions Ability to translate business requirements into architectural strategy Familiarity With Tools (used by the function, not a personal daily requirement) Enterprise architecture tools (BizzDesign, Sparx EA), Draw.io/Lucidchart, Confluence, JIRA; OWASP tools, Burp Suite, IAM platforms; API gateways, Swagger/OpenAPI, Postman, Mulesoft, Apache Camel, Kafka, RabbitMQ Requirements Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; relevant certifications (TOGAF, AWS/Azure Architect, CISSP, or equivalent) an advantage Demonstrated track record leading architecture functions in a regulated industry, ideally banking/financial services