Solution Architect - Board Assortment Planning at Primark, Reading/Remote, 6 Months initial, £Day Rate

Solution Architect - Board Assortment Planning

Duration: Initial 6 Months

Location: Reading (Hybrid basis)

Job Type: Inside IR35 Day Rate

We're looking for an experienced Solution Architect to support Primark's Board Assortment Planning (AP) transformation programme, a strategic initiative delivering a modern assortment planning capability that enables teams to plan the right products, for the right stores, at the right time.

Board Assortment Planning plays a critical role in improving the accuracy of assortment and range decisions, supporting data-driven planning, and integrating product, financial and operational planning processes across Buying, Merchandising, Sourcing and Supply Chain functions.

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape the architecture and future direction of a key enterprise planning platform, ensuring solutions are scalable, integrated, secure and aligned to Primark's wider technology strategy.

What you'll be doing

• Owning the end-to-end solution architecture for the Board Assortment Planning platform across Application, Information, Integration, Infrastructure and Security domains
• Defining and maintaining the target-state architecture and roadmap for Assortment Planning within Primark's wider Planning and Product Model landscape
• Leading architecture governance activities, including Solution Blueprints, Key Design Decisions (KDDs), Design Authority submissions and architecture reviews
• Defining strategic integration patterns between Board AP, PLM, Oracle Retail, Ordering platforms and other connected planning applications
• Governing the architecture and roadmap for PLM-to-Board AP integrations, including future migration approaches and monitoring strategies
• Defining integration contracts, interface designs and enterprise data exchange patterns across the planning ecosystem
• Acting as the architecture authority for Board AP master data, reconciliation processes and automated synchronisation capabilities
• Ensuring alignment of data models, integrations and service dependencies across Planning & Ranging, Product Lifecycle Management and Smart Retail Ordering programmes
• Providing technical governance and architectural challenge to Board vendor solution designs, platform enhancements and remediation initiatives
• Leading architecture reviews with Board specialists to validate solution capabilities, scalability, operational readiness and non-functional requirements
• Establishing Board AP design principles, configuration standards and architectural guardrails to support consistency across future releases
• Ensuring solutions meet performance, resilience, scalability, monitoring, disaster recovery and service transition requirements
• Defining operational monitoring, alerting and support requirements across Board AP and associated integrations
• Supporting alignment between Board AP and wider Product Model, Planning & Ranging, PLM and Order Management transformation initiatives

What we're looking for

• Proven experience as a Solution Architect delivering enterprise-scale technology solutions and transformation programmes
• Deep understanding of solution architecture principles, frameworks and best practices, including TOGAF or equivalent methodologies
• Strong experience defining enterprise architecture roadmaps, target-state architectures, solution blueprints and governance artefacts
• Extensive experience designing and governing complex integration architectures across enterprise platforms
• Strong understanding of data architecture, master data management and data synchronisation strategies
• Experience working with planning, merchandising, retail, product or supply chain technology platforms
• Strong knowledge of API, event-driven and enterprise integration patterns
• Experience leading architecture governance processes and driving key technical decision-making
• Ability to challenge vendor solution designs and provide technical leadership across large-scale programmes
• Strong understanding of non-functional requirements including performance, resilience, security, scalability and operational readiness
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence both technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience managing technical risk, technical debt and architecture remediation roadmaps
• Previous experience within retail, fashion, merchandising or supply chain environments would be highly advantageous

Must have:

• Familiarity with Board Assortment Planning, Oracle Retail, PLM platforms or retail planning technologies

Interested? Apply now or get in touch to learn more about this exciting architecture opportunity supporting one of Primark's most strategic transformation programmes.