Solution Architect

**WPP** is the transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients, and communities.**

**Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 109,000 accomplished people in 110 countries. WPP has headquarters in New York, London and Singapore and a corporate presence in major markets worldwide.**

**We create transformative ideas and outcomes for our clients through an integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce, and technology.**

**WPP and our award-winning agencies work with most of the world's biggest companies and organisations - from Ford, Unilever and P&G to Google, HSBC, and the UN. Our clients include 61 of the FTSE 100, 317 of the Fortune Global 500, all 30 of the Dow Jones 30 and 62 of the NASDAQ 100. WPP are the leader in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and 8th in the FTSE 100 rankings for Women on Boards.**

**WPP IT provides IT services for WPP, the world's largest communications services group. As a creative transformation company, WPP is helping its clients transform the future through extraordinary work. WPP IT is an integral part of that journey and we are proud to provide technology for some of the world's most creative brands.**

**Why we're hiring**:
At WPP, technology is at the heart of everything we do, and it is WPP IT's mission to enable everyone to collaborate, create and thrive. WPP IT is undergoing a significant transformation to modernise ways of working, shift to cloud and micro-service-based architectures, drive automation, digitise colleague and client experiences and deliver insight from WPP's petabytes of data.

As we continue on this journey, an important element of this transformation is the creation and building of our Global Technology Services (GTS) function within WPP IT which is responsible for our IT Infrastructure & Operations across the Group. This includes the management and transformation of our Hosting & Distributed environment (Servers, Storage etc.), Connectivity (Network) and Cloud Services (Azure, GCP, AWS)

The role holder will report into the GTS Hogarth Specialist Agencies & Corp Archetype Solution Architect Lead.

This position plays a pivotal role in ensuring global technology services that are delivered to the business, are fit for purpose for the Archetype business operations. You will be responsible for the design, build and reviewing of solutions and services that are consumed by the Archetype and ensure alignment to strategy with the wider WPP IT technology roadmap. The role holder will also help identify opportunities for consolidation of common IT Infrastructure Services in OpCos and provide SME support for WPP Archetype & WPP IT Transformation Programmes/Projects.

The role holder will need to engage across multiple teams and stakeholders both within GTS, with other WPP IT Teams, our OpCos and external Partners.

You will be joining the world's largest marketing services group and have significant autonomy and responsibility in making the role a success.

**What you'll be doing**:
- Deliver Archetype specific Solution Architecture to meet Archetype specific business demand working in alignment with GTS Hosting, Connectivity & Cloud Teams and with WPP IT Strategy & Architecture
- Assess architecture currently in place and work with GTS/WPP IT S&A peers to recommend solutions for improvement
- Look for opportunities to reduce complexity in our environment and identify opportunities for consolidation of common IT Infrastructure Services in OpCos, and then the migration of such services and resources to the other GTS Functions for ongoing enterprise management (e.g. into Cloud, Distributed & Connectivity Teams)
- In conjunction with their GTS Solution Architecture peers (Hosting, Connectivity, Cloud Hub and other Archetypes), establish Solution Architecture best practice, planning, and required documentation. Liaise with other GTS Archetype Solution Architects to understand common themes
- Provide SME Support to Archetype, Transformation and other Major WPP IT Programmes/Projects including Mergers/Acquisitions/Divestment
- Continually researching current and emerging technologies and proposing changes, where needed
- Informing various stakeholders about any problems with the current technical solutions being implemented and assess the business impact that certain technical choices have
- Works in alignment with other WPP IT Teams including WPP IT Archetype CIO Teams to understand business requirements.
- Provide 3rd line Business Technical Support

**What you'll need**:

- Knowledge of Infrastructure Solutions (Cloud, Hosting, Server & Storage & Connectivity/Networks) Architecture with ability to translate Business Requirements into Technology Architecture
- Experience of working with global teams with excellent people and team management skills in large scale, high complexity environments. Able to manage upwards and influence accordingly
- Independent thinker,