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IT & Solutions Architect Lead

Full Time Information Technology

Job Description

Role Purpose

We have a great opportunity for an experienced architect to lead on the management of the IT and Solution architecture capability at PIC. This will involve collaborating with business stakeholders to ensure the capability effectively supports them as we continue to grow and scale, implementing improvements across applications, technology and processes.

Key Responsibilities

  • The management and development of IT and Solution architects and their resource allocation on projects within IT and Change.
  • Ensure the team delivers and maintains relevant architecture views, artefacts and deliverables for current and future state.
  • The effective running of the IT Design Authority governance forum, in conjunction with the IT function.
  • Deliver and maintain IT architecture principles, standards and decision frameworks, to enable effective support and adaptive governance.
  • Coordinates with IT on the management of the technical debt process.
  • Ensures effective collaboration between the pool of architects and IT management, senior engineers and other stakeholders.
  • Effectively collaborates with Change and IT to ensure architects support the outcomes of projects, within architectural guardrails.

Requirements

Technical

  • Experience in developing small teams of architects into high performing teams, supporting architecture and project deliverables.
  • Experience of working with senior stakeholders, including CxO to align on future state architectures, roadmaps and to produce appropriate policies and standards
  • Good technical knowledge of cloud technologies, specifically the Microsoft Azure platform of services
  • TOGAF certification or exposure.
  • Information Security architecture and frameworks (ISO27001), ISF Standard of Good Practice
  • Established knowledge of ITIL4
  • Ideally with experience of working in a corporate or consulting environment in Insurance, Defined Benefit Pensions and Investments

Personal

  • Ability to manage people and other resources effectively
  • Ability to persuade and influence both directly and indirectly
  • Effective meeting facilitator and chair
  • Ability to organise work to meet deadlines
  • Ability to work within defined procedures as recommended by functional teams
  • Commercial judgement

Benefits

  • Bonus
  • 28 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
  • Pension
  • Insurance for Travel, Private Medical, Critical Illness, Life Assurance and Income Protection
  • Save As You Earn (SAYE)
  • Flexible Working
  • Dress for your Day
  • Cycle to Work
  • Fruit and snacks
  • Company eventsAnd more
Pension Insurance Corporation
About Pension Insurance Corporation


About PIC:

The purpose of PIC is to pay the pensions of its current and future policyholders.

PIC provides secure and stable retirement incomes through leading customer service, comprehensive risk management and excellence in asset and liability management. At 30 June 2022, PIC had insured 293,400 pension scheme members and had £44.1 billion in financial investments, accumulated through the provision of tailored pension insurance buyouts and buy-ins to the trustees and sponsors of U.K. defined benefit pension schemes. Clients include FTSE 100 companies, multinationals, and the public sector.

PIC is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority (FRN 454345). For further information please visit www.pensioncorporation.com

In essence, we are a simple business: we take on assets transferred from defined benefit pension schemes through buy-ins and buyouts invest them, and use the cashflows generated from these investments to pay our policyholders’ pensions. PIC operates in the Pension Risk Transfer Market.

Our Culture:

PIC employs highly skilled individuals who all work to deliver a common purpose, supported by a culture of innovation and a strong set of values. Our success in hiring new people is due to our focus on creating a purposeful and stimulating working environment, where individual contributions are recognised within a collaborative, team-based effort.

Work Benefits:

We want our employees to be appropriately rewarded for their outstanding work, and PIC offers competitive remuneration packages and a generous range of benefits.

These include:

  • hybrid working model
  • competitive pension contributions
  • private medical cover
  • travel insurance
  • season ticket loans
  • access to 24/7 mental health support through an employee assistance programme
  • a Cycle to Work scheme and a dedicated secure cycle space at our London office
  • death in service benefit
  • save as You Earn (“SAYE”) scheme. Allows employees to build up blocks of shares in the Company. The scheme is open to all employees on an annual basis
  • discretionary family leave enhancements including up to 26 weeks maternity and 4 weeks paternity

Diversity and Inclusion:

Diversity of thought is critical to PIC’s success, helping us to deliver our purpose in an innovative way. PIC demonstrably values individuals regardless of background or experience. It is important for us that our people can discuss cultural and other issues that are important to them in a respectful and engaging way.

PIC has been the lead sponsor for the Actuarial Mentoring Programme for the past five years. The initial aim was to retain female actuaries in the profession, and it now has a wider D&I remit. We also have our own mentoring programme, offering opportunities to people across all professions. Our Aspiring Managers Programme has a target of 50% female participants.

In 2021 we created our own Early Careers Academy, which encompasses the 10,000 Black Interns Programme and our own Apprenticeship Programme. Both these programmes focus on attracting diverse talent.

PIC also partners with LGBT Great, Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity (GAIN) and RedStart, which is a charity providing financial education to children from disadvantaged areas.

We joined Women in Banking and Finance to provide our female talent with access to learning, networks, and development opportunities, as well as enabling us to learn from other member organisations on how we can continue to keep improving as an inclusive employer.

Workplace Initiatives

Program for parents returning to work after Parental Leave?

Yes

Leadership development programs?

Yes

Mentoring programs?

Yes

Coaching programs?

Yes

Employee-led diversity networks?

Yes

Internal women’s networking groups?

Yes

Open to discussing flexible work arrangements at interview stage?

Yes

No. of weeks paid maternity leave at full salary:

Minimum weeks tenure required to be eligible for paid maternity leave:

No. of weeks paid paternity leave at full salary:

Minimum tenure required to be eligible for paid paternity leave:

Gender pay gap reporting information (2021) (UK):

Average pay gap:

18.4%

Median pay gap:

6.8%

Average bonus gap:

1.1%

Median bonus gap:

23.4%

Signatory of the UK Women in Finance Charter?

N/A

Targets to raise the number of women in leadership?

Yes

Targets to raise the number of BAME individuals in leadership?

N/A

Listed in the Bloomberg Diversity & Inclusion Index?

N/A


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