Lead Solution Architect Airports

Job Description Roles & Responsibilities 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. Desired Candidate Profile 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. Key Competencies Strategic and systems thinking design leadership and technical rigour stakeholder influence commercial awareness risk management collaboration across multi-vendor teams resilience under operational pressure customer focus. Company Industry IT - Software Services Department / Functional Area Engineering Keywords Lead Solution Architect Airports Get real-time job updates only on our App