Lead Solution Architect

Entity:

Technology

Job Family Group:

IT&S Group

Job Description:

At bp, we are reimagining how our trading organisation uses technology to unlock new value, strengthen decision-making, and support a rapidly evolving energy landscape. As our Lead Solution Architect for Gas and Power Trading, you will guide the next generation of our trading platform—one that is modern, scalable, and built to meet the real-time demands of global commodity markets. This is a high-impact role where deep domain expertise meets modern engineering, and where your architectural leadership will shape bp’s capability for years to come.

What you will do

In this role, you will lead the end-to-end architecture of our bespoke energy trading solutions. We work closely with traders, product owners, market experts, and engineering teams, and you will bring these viewpoints together to create solutions that are both technically robust and aligned with business ambition.

You will help us modernise our trading platform by applying contemporary design patterns, cloud-native engineering principles, and architectural thinking that supports performance, scalability, and future growth. Throughout the delivery lifecycle, you will provide guidance, ensure alignment across internal and external teams, and champion technical excellence.

You will also play a central part in re-designing trading capabilities across front-, middle-, and back-office workflows, ensuring that every component—from deal capture to optimisation and reporting—works seamlessly together.

Key areas of focus include:

Architecture & Design

You will lead architectural direction for our trading systems, documenting key decisions, making thoughtful trade-offs, and ensuring that every design reflects both functional needs and technical strategy. You will translate complex requirements into solutions that are scalable, maintainable, and ready for real-world trading conditions.

Domain Expertise & Advisory

We depend on your practical knowledge of physical Gas and/or Power trading. You will act as a trusted advisor throughout delivery, supporting design reviews, guiding change initiatives, and helping our business teams understand how architecture decisions support their goals.

Collaboration & Communication

You will work closely with product owners, developers, designers, data engineers, vendor partners, and consultants. Because our trading platform touches so many teams, clear communication and strong coordination will be essential to ensure smooth progress and shared understanding.

Lifecycle Leadership & Operational Excellence

You will apply strong knowledge of the energy trading lifecycle to ensure the solutions we build are robust, resilient, and ready for operational use. We follow Agile ways of working and promote DevOps and CI/CD practices—values that you will help reinforce across teams.

What you will need to be successful

Required

• A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field.

• Deep experience in physical Gas and/or Power trading, including contract optionality, optimisation, scheduling, and an understanding of full lifecycle trade processes.

• Strong knowledge of options modelling and dependency graph concepts.

• Hands-on experience designing modern trading systems using microservices, messaging, caching, and cloud-native patterns.

Architecture & Engineering Skills

Data Architecture:
You bring strong experience designing data models for both transactional and analytical systems, understand reconciliation processes, and are familiar with real-time reporting, distributed caching, and unstructured databases such as MongoDB.

Technical Architecture:
You are confident with modern design patterns, AWS cloud services, C# or Java, containerisation (Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift), and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform. Familiarity with React for UI development is highly valuable.

Integration Expertise:
You understand real-time messaging such as AMQ, API design using JSON and Swagger, and batch processing methods commonly used in trading systems.

Infrastructure & DevOps:
You understand CI/CD workflows, Git-based repositories, automation tools such as Ansible, cloud infrastructure management, and grid computing approaches that support scalability and cost efficiency.

Soft Skills & Delivery Experience

• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability.

• Ability to operate independently or within small agile teams.

• Excellent communication skills—written, verbal, and visual.

• Collaborative mindset and comfort working across multiple disciplines.

• Experience applying Agile frameworks to complex technology environments.

Technical Must-Haves

• Microservices architecture and containerisation

• Cloud hosting (AWS strongly preferred)

• Messaging and caching patterns

Functional Must-Haves

• Full lifecycle understanding of physical energy trading (Gas and/or Power)

Why join us?

This is an opportunity to influence one of bp’s most critical trading platforms and help shape how we build technology that supports real-time decision-making in fast-moving markets. You will work alongside talented engineers, market experts, and product teams who are passionate about solving complex problems in innovative ways. If you enjoy designing systems that push boundaries and want to make a meaningful impact—this role offers exactly that!

Inclusive Hiring Statement

We’re committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment where every individual feels valued and supported. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and will provide reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you need adjustments at any stage, please let us know—we’re happy to help.

Travel Requirement

No travel is expected with this role

Relocation Assistance:

This role is not eligible for relocation

Remote Type:

This position is not available for remote working

Skills:

Agility core practices, Business modelling, Creativity and Innovation, Data Analysis, Data design, Digital Analytics, Emerging technology monitoring, Information Assurance, Integration, IT Management, IT strategy and planning, Network Design, Requirements definition and management, Risk Management, Service operations and resiliency, Solution Architecture, Systems Development Management, Technical specialism, User Experience Analysis

Legal Disclaimer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity/neurocognitive functioning, veteran status or disability status. Individuals with an accessibility need may request an adjustment/accommodation related to bp’s recruiting process (e.g., accessing the job application, completing required assessments, participating in telephone screenings or interviews, etc.). If you would like to request an adjustment/accommodation related to the recruitment process, please contact us.

If you are selected for a position and depending upon your role, your employment may be contingent upon adherence to local policy. This may include pre-placement drug screening, medical review of physical fitness for the role, and background checks.