The posting
We're building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.
We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.
Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 200 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe's fastest-growing engineering businesses.
About the role
As Rowden continues to grow, we are looking to bring on multiple Solution Architects at all levels to contribute across a range of projects at Rowden. You will be providing technical leadership, architectural direction, and engineering credibility across a range of complex programme and pre-sales environments.
Depending on where the business need is greatest, this role may involve shaping technical solutions for major bids and pre-sales engagements - translating ambiguous customer problems into technically credible, commercially viable and deliverable engineering approaches, or providing client-side architectural oversight and assurance on supplier-led programme delivery. In practice, the role may span both.
You will operate at an enterprise level, engaging confidently with customers, partners, and internal teams. Whether leading solution development in pre-sales or assuring early technical delivery, you will bring authoritative technical judgement, structured thinking, and the ability to own coherent solutions end-to-end.
Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance. Due to the nature of this role and the sensitivity of the work involved, applications are restricted to sole UK nationals.
More information about security clearance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels
Salary ranges
For transparency and to help candidates make informed decisions, these are the salary ranges for the different levels we are hiring across Solutions Architecture (DOE):
- Mid-Level: £65,000 - £75,000
- Senior: For Senior roles, compensation is tailored to the scope of the role and the specific experience a candidate brings. We will discuss compensation openly at the first stage of the process and can share an indicative range before either side invests significant time.
Key areas of responsibility
- Shape credible technical and delivery solutions for major bids and pre-sales opportunities, translating complex and often ambiguous customer problems into coherent engineering approaches that can be costed, planned and delivered.
- Provide senior architectural oversight and assurance of solution designs, holding delivery partners to account for technical decisions and ensuring alignment with agreed architectural principles and integration requirements.
- Engage confidently with customers, partners, and senior stakeholders - providing clear technical direction, resolving complex architectural challenges, and representing Rowden's technical authority in external conversations.
- Produce high-quality technical content for bids, proposals, white papers, and presentations.
- Interpret user requirements and translate them into architectural solutions that balance performance, risk, and delivery constraints.
- Investigate and assess hosting, integration, and platform options, understanding constraints, capabilities and trade-offs across complex environments.
- Identify, assess, and manage technical risks, ensuring they are clearly understood, communicated, and mitigated.
- Work with technical SMEs and principal engineers to draw in specialist input while maintaining overall ownership of solution coherence and delivery approach.
- Support early contract mobilisation, helping delivery teams translate bid-stage solution intent into executable engineering plans.
- Support the development of governance frameworks, standards, and assurance artefacts to enable consistent and repeatable delivery.
Key skills, experience and behaviours
We are looking for a senior architect who can set direction, provide authoritative technical leadership, and operate confidently at enterprise level across complex and evolving environments.
Essential
- Demonstrable experience operating as a Senior Solution Architect, Chief Engineer, or equivalent in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
- Broad technical understanding across systems architecture, hosting, integration, networking, and service design, with the ability to integrate specialist input without losing ownership of the overall solution. However, we’d welcome applications from those with more specialised depth in AI, Data Science or Machine Learning.
- Proven ability to engage externally with customers, partners, or programme stakeholders with clarity and confidence.
- Experience shaping viable technical and delivery approaches - not just describing technical concepts, but defining solutions that can be costed, planned, and delivered.
- Experience identifying and managing technical risks across the solution and programme lifecycle.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical ideas, risks, and trade-offs to mixed audiences including engineers, commercial teams, and senior stakeholders.
- Eligibility for SC clearance.
Desirable (not essential)
- Experience in pre-sales, bid environments, or capture activity.
- Experience operating in a client-side assurance or governance role.
- Experience working in secure, regulated, or government environments.
- Familiarity with service governance and live service assurance models.
- Experience working alongside data, security, or platform architects, AI engineers or Machine Learning Engineers
- Knowledge of common architecture frameworks and patterns used in large-scale systems.
About you
- You are confident setting technical direction and making decisions that shape long-term outcomes.
- You bring clarity and structure to complex problems, helping teams move forward with confidence.
- You are technically credible with engineers, customers, and partners without being arrogant.
- You are opinionated but adapt when better evidence emerges.
- You understand how systems operate end-to-end, and consider integration, failure modes, and operational impact in your decisions.
- You are comfortable with ambiguity, able to shape a credible first position and bring in the right specialists as understanding develops.
- You balance rigour with pragmatism - upholding standards without slowing progress unnecessarily.
- You build trust quickly with engineers, commercial colleagues, customers, and partners.
Working at Rowden
We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!
We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.
Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.
Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!
