Lead Solution Architect – Airports

Solution Design & Architecture 

• Lead the design of integrated airport technology solutions covering passenger processing (check-in, self-service kiosks, bag drop, boarding), baggage handling and reconciliation, common-use systems (CUPPS, CUSS, CUTE), and airport operational systems (AODB, RMS, FIDS, BHS interfaces). 

• Define target architectures and roadmaps spanning applications, data, integration, infrastructure, cloud, networks and security, ensuring alignment to enterprise and industry reference models. 

• Produce and own high-level and low-level design artefacts, solution blueprints, interface specifications and architecture decision records. 

• Make and justify build-vs-buy and platform selection decisions, balancing operational resilience, cost, vendor landscape and long-term maintainability. 

Integration & Operational Resilience 

• Design integration architectures (APIs, ESB/iPaaS, messaging, event-driven patterns) that connect airline, airport, ground-handler, government and retail systems. 

• Ensure solutions meet stringent availability, performance, failover and business-continuity requirements appropriate to a 24/7 safety- and security-critical operational environment. 

• Embed cyber security, data protection and regulatory compliance into the design from the outset (security-by-design). 

Engagement & Delivery Leadership 

• Act as the senior technical authority across the engagement lifecycle — bid/pursuit, mobilisation, design, build, test, transition and operations. 

• Lead and mentor a team of solution and domain architects, setting design standards and assuring the quality of their work. 

• Own technical risk identification, mitigation and escalation; chair design authority and architecture review boards. 

• Provide effort, cost and resource estimates to support commercial proposals and project planning. 

Stakeholder & Advisory 

• Build trusted-advisor relationships with airport executives, operational stakeholders, airlines, regulators and technology partners. 

• Translate complex technical concepts into clear business value and decision-ready options for non-technical audiences. 

• Contribute to pre-sales, proposals and innovation activities, shaping winning, deliverable solutions. 

Skills & Experience 

Essential 

• Experience: Significant experience as a solution or enterprise architect on large, complex technology programmes, with demonstrable delivery in the aviation, airport or wider transport / critical-infrastructure sector. 

• Domain knowledge: Strong understanding of airport operational systems and the IT/OT landscape — e.g. AODB, RMS, FIDS, BHS, CUPPS/CUSS/CUTE, BRS, A-CDM, and passenger flow / biometric processing. 

• Architecture breadth: Proven, hands-on architecture across applications, integration, data, cloud (Azure / AWS / GCP), infrastructure, networks and cyber security. 

• Integration: Deep experience designing integration and interoperability between heterogeneous systems and multiple stakeholders, including industry standards such as IATA messaging and relevant ACI/IATA guidance. 

• Resilience & security: Track record of designing for high availability, resilience and security in mission-critical, 24/7 operational environments. 

• Leadership: Ability to lead multi-disciplinary architecture teams and govern design quality through architecture review and design authority forums. 

• Communication: Excellent stakeholder management, facilitation and written/verbal communication skills, comfortable engaging at C-level. 

Desirable 

• Recognised architecture certification (e.g. TOGAF) and/or cloud architecture certifications. 

• Familiarity with airport-specific standards and frameworks (IATA, ACI, A-CDM, NDC, biometric / Digital Travel Credential initiatives). 

• Experience of large-scale terminal opening, expansion or greenfield airport technology programmes. 

• Exposure to managed-services / systems-integration (MSI) operating models and transition to operations. 

• Knowledge of OT, SCADA, IoT and building-management integration within an airport campus. 

Qualifications 

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems or a related discipline (or equivalent professional experience). 

• Relevant architecture, cloud and/or security certifications are strongly preferred.