Solution Architect
- Team
- Digital & Tech
- Store
- Salford Quays
- Location
- Salford, Greater Manchester
- Contract type
- Permanent
- Position type
- Full Time
- Salary
- Competitive + Benefits
- Closing date: 1st October 2025
How We Hire
Everyone is welcome at M&S. No exceptions. It’s your background, abilities and differences that make you, uniquely you. And when you’re part of M&S, that individuality has the potential to make waves.
About the role
This section tells you all you need to know about the position and its responsibilities, outlining everything we hope to see in a successful candidate.
To stay close to our customers and colleagues, our support teams are in the office for at least three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.
All the details
Summary
As an integral member of the M&S Architecture team, you’ll be joining a well-loved, historic brand with technology solutions that serve millions of customers and empower thousands of colleagues every year. At M&S, we’re transforming and modernising our approach to technology, ensuring the business continues to differentiate through strategic technology investments and growing our architecture capability as a key enabler.
As an Architect at M&S you will provide technical expertise within a retail environment. Being creative and curious, you will be an integral part our of empowered, self-managing technology teams– scoping, designing and supporting Products and Platforms in collaboration with others across architecture, platform and engineering teams. You will lead on design of elegant and robust solutions that solve complex problems for our customers and colleagues.
What you'll do
- Shape end-to-end solution architecture – develop roadmaps, target states, and transition plans that balance business goals, technology, and cost effectiveness.
- Own design and delivery – ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture, technical strategy, and standards, securing approvals where needed.
- Drive architectural guardrails – promote policy-as-code, continuous improvement, and alignment across squads, tribes, and the wider engineering community.
- Provide leadership and mentorship – guide teams, simplify complex ideas for diverse stakeholders, and coach engineers to achieve high performance.
- Champion innovation and alignment – evaluate emerging tech, define patterns and standards, and represent the Architecture Community in shaping partner and enterprise decisions.
Who you are
- Proven solution architecture expertise – 5+ years in large-scale digital transformation, with recent experience applying emerging technologies and Agile ways of working.
- End-to-end design skills – ability to translate complex technical, people, and process landscapes into clear, outcome-driven architectures.
- Strong engineering and technology knowledge – deep understanding of current and emerging platforms, with retail or enterprise-scale experience a plus.
- Leadership and influence – skilled at coaching teams, guiding change, and engaging senior stakeholders through clear, customer-focused communication.
- Commercial and strategic acumen – experienced in balancing risk, compliance, cost, and benefit to drive innovation and sustainable business outcomes.
What’s in it for you?
Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.
Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:
- 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation
- Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
- Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours
- Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future
- Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one
- Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal
- Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave
- 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services
- One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you
Everyone’s welcome
We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.
We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.
If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.
#hybridrole #LI-hybrid
Meet the Team
Being an in-person business
We're at our best when we're close to customers, and for many of us at M&S, that means working in store every day.
To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected. It also means we can solve problems as soon as they arise, learn and grow as a team, build trust, and get closer to our colleagues.
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Make Your Mark
Upcoming projects
Take part in our M&S Digital & Tech team days. Grow your digital and data skills through our BEAM Academy. Or challenge yourself at one of our business-wide hackathons. We also partner with Women in Data, Databricks and Cajigo to increase opportunities for women in digital and data.
Opportunities to be heard
Your voice and your ideas matter here. Our 8 colleague networks are places to find support, listen to each other and encourage debate. You can pitch ideas ‘Straight to Stuart’, our CEO, or get involved in our BIG (Business involvement Group).
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Benefits
How to Apply
Here’s what to expect at each stage of the application process. This can change depending on the role you’ve applied to. If you need any reasonable adjustments made at any stage, let us know and we can help.
Send us your application
Fill in our short application form and hit submit.
Online assessment
Depending on the role you are applying for, you may be invited to do an assessment. Your Talent Acquisition Partner will guide and inform you along the way.
Interview
We'll invite you to join us for an interview. This could be remote or in person. Here, we'll ask you some role based technical questions and examine the behaviours we're looking for.
Decision
After we’ve made our decision, we’ll be in touch. If you’ve been successful, we’ll officially invite you to join the team and let you know the next steps.
Solution Architect
- Team
- Digital & Tech
- Store
- Salford Quays
- Location
- Salford, Greater Manchester
- Contract type
- Permanent
- Position type
- Full Time
- Salary
- Competitive + Benefits
- Closing date: 1st October 2025
- Reference: 101960