The Senior Architect: Wallet & Core Banking Strategy is responsible for defining, governing, and driving the strategic evolution of the organization’s Wallet and Core Banking architecture.

The role provides architectural leadership to ensure wallet and core banking platforms are scalable, secure, resilient, and aligned with business strategy, customer experience objectives, regulatory requirements, and enterprise technology roadmaps.

The position is responsible for developing target-state architectures, standardizing platform implementations, enabling multi-market deployments, and ensuring seamless integration between wallet platforms, core banking systems, payment ecosystems, and enterprise applications. The role also establishes governance frameworks, architectural standards, and best practices that support platform consistency while accommodating local business and regulatory requirements.

Working closely with business leaders, product owners, enterprise architects, engineering teams, technology partners, and vendors, the role ensures the Wallet and Core Banking platforms continue to evolve as secure, high-performing, and future-ready enterprise solutions.

Key Performance Areas (KPAs)

1. Wallet & Core Banking Architecture Strategy

• Define and implement architecture strategies for Wallet and Core Banking platforms.
• Develop target-state architectures and technology roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
• Ensure platform architectures support scalability, resilience, security, high availability, and operational efficiency.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend improvements that enhance platform capabilities.

2. Multi-Market Platform Enablement

• Design and implement a platform adaptation framework to support multi-market or multi-region deployments.
• Drive localization of wallet capabilities, including payments, transfers, merchant services, and digital financial services, while maintaining core platform integrity.
• Enable rapid deployment of standardized wallet capabilities across business units or markets.
• Balance enterprise-wide platform consistency with local commercial, operational, and regulatory requirements.

3. Platform Governance & Standardization

• Establish and enforce governance frameworks for Wallet and Core Banking platform implementations.
• Define architecture standards, technical policies, design principles, and integration guardrails.
• Lead architecture review boards and governance forums for wallet and core banking initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with enterprise architecture, security, operational resilience, and regulatory standards.
• Review, approve, and provide formal sign-off for architecture designs and platform changes.

4. Solution Architecture & Integration

• Collaborate with business and technology stakeholders to design scalable and secure solutions aligned with strategic roadmaps.
• Promote reuse of platform services, APIs, and architecture components across business units.
• Define enterprise integration standards using:
  • API-first architecture
  • Event-driven architecture
  • Service-oriented integration
  • Open integration standards
• Ensure seamless interoperability between Wallet platforms, Core Banking systems, payment services, and enterprise applications.

5. Platform Evolution & Continuous Improvement

• Conduct regular capability assessments and architecture gap analyses.
• Identify opportunities to modernize platforms, reduce technical debt, and improve operational efficiency.
• Drive continuous improvement through reusable architecture patterns and standardized implementation approaches.
• Support long-term platform modernization initiatives aligned with enterprise technology strategies.

Governance

Architecture Governance

• Lead or participate in architecture governance forums.
• Monitor platform performance using key indicators, including:
  • Adherence to platform architecture standards
  • Percentage of solution components aligned to target architecture
  • Platform availability and transaction success rates
  • Reuse of core platform services and APIs
  • Reduction in architecture-related production incidents
• Approve architectural changes affecting Wallet and Core Banking environments.

Escalation Management

• Manage and resolve escalations relating to:
  • Wallet platform architecture
  • Core Banking systems
  • Platform governance
  • Cross-platform dependencies
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Enterprise integration
  • Solution delivery

Reporting

• Prepare periodic reports covering:
  • Platform architecture initiatives
  • Technology roadmap progress
  • Governance outcomes
  • Platform modernization activities
  • Architecture compliance
  • Strategic technology risks
• Produce ad hoc reports for executive leadership and strategic programs as required.

Budget Responsibilities

• Support planning and management of operational and capital expenditure related to Wallet and Core Banking platforms, technology initiatives, and supporting infrastructure.

Job Requirements

Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in:
  • Computer Science
  • Information Systems
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Technology
  • Engineering
  • Or a related discipline

Professional Certifications (Preferred)

• TOGAF or equivalent Enterprise Architecture certification
• Cloud Architecture certifications (Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud)
• SAFe Architect certification
• Banking platform certifications (e.g., Temenos, Finacle, or equivalent)
• PCI DSS knowledge or certification
• API Management certifications (Apigee, Kong, MuleSoft, AWS API Gateway, or equivalent)

Experience

• Minimum 10 years’ experience in enterprise architecture or solution architecture roles.
• At least 5 years’ experience designing and governing Wallet, Core Banking, digital payments, or financial platform architectures.
• Demonstrated experience developing:
  • Platform roadmaps
  • Reference architectures
  • Business capability models
  • Enterprise technology strategies
• Experience implementing Enterprise Architecture frameworks such as TOGAF.
• Experience leading:
  • Architecture governance
  • Platform standardization
  • Capability maturity assessments
  • Operating model design
• Experience designing and supporting:
  • Digital wallet ecosystems
  • Payment platforms
  • Merchant payment solutions
  • Peer-to-peer and account-based payment services
• Experience leading cross-functional architecture initiatives involving business, product, engineering, and operations teams.
• Proven experience delivering large-scale, multi-region or multi-country platform implementations.

Technical Competencies

Wallet & Core Banking Platforms

• Digital wallet platforms
• Core Banking systems
• Payment processing platforms
• Payment ecosystem architecture
• Merchant payment services
• Transaction processing systems

Enterprise Architecture

• Enterprise architecture frameworks
• Business capability modelling
• Solution architecture
• Reference architecture
• Platform governance

Integration Architecture

• API-first architecture
• Open APIs
• Event-driven architecture
• Enterprise integration
• Service orchestration
• Microservices architecture

Security & Compliance

• Secure transaction systems
• Identity and access management
• Business continuity planning
• Regulatory compliance
• PCI DSS
• Open Banking standards
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) management

Software Delivery

• Agile methodologies
• Scrum
• Kanban
• DevOps
• Enterprise software delivery practices

Skills

• Strategic thinking
• Business acumen
• Enterprise architecture planning
• Analytical and critical thinking
• Organizational agility
• Digital transformation leadership
• Managing ambiguity and complexity
• Decision making
• Financial and commercial awareness
• Project and program management
• Stakeholder engagement
• Negotiation and conflict resolution
• Executive communication and presentation
• Leadership and mentoring