Solutions Architect
Littlefish
IT
Highbridge, UK · Remote
Posted on Mar 27, 2026
About littlefish
We are a fast-growing fintech startup powering financial institutions across the African continent through our full stack enterprise platform. Proudly rooted in South African values but with a vision that transcends borders, we provide a single stack that powers merchant acquiring across payments, onboarding, engagement, commerce and operations.
Help us enable every enterprise, connect every merchant, and make every transaction intelligent. Your work will create lasting change in how financial services are delivered
Role Summary
The Solutions Architect acts as the strategic technical bridge between littlefish’s client‑facing teams and the product/ engineering and growth teams. They ensure clients understand the value, complexity, modularity, and configurability of the littlefish platform while translating business requirements into scalable, secure, enterprise‑grade technical designs. This role will also ensure new client requirements are properly explored, mapped, and architected before they reach development thus reducing technical mistakes and downstream rework by providing architectural oversight early. Translating complex business needs into scalable technical architectures, protecting capacity (and saying “no” tactfully when required), and ensuring integrations are secure, cost‑aware, and compliant.
Key Responsibilities
Pre‑Sales Architecture & Deal Acceleration
Act as the technical voice in the sales cycle, working closely with Growth, Product and Engineering.
Lead solution and technical discovery with enterprise clients; elicit requirements, challenge assumptions, and translate business strategy into technical blueprints and API‑level specs. Removing uncertainty by defining APIs, data flows, auth models, and sequencing with precision.
Facilitate executive‑level conversations - understanding client business needs, managing expectations with tact, framing trade‑offs with clear value, risk, and cost narratives.
Remove security hesitation by answering InfoSec/CTO questions clearly and confidently (identity, access, data protection, encryption, threat models, operational controls).
Shape proposals, elevate solution confidence, and drive quicker technical sign‑off with bank architecture, risk, payments and procurement teams.
Design & Documentation
Translate bank requirements into architecture plans, API specs, integration maps, risk considerations, and delivery prerequisites.
Produce end‑to‑end architectures grounded in cloud best practices on GCP (e.g.: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, sustainability).
Drive API‑first integration using OpenAPI/Swagger standards; publish consumable specs and sequence diagrams that remove ambiguity for internal and client teams.
Test APIs, validate integration flows, read logs, explore payloads, and replicate bank scenarios.
Produce quick proof points (small demos, API calls, technical notes) when a deal requires evidence.
Turn findings into crisp, simple explanations for executives and detailed artefacts for engineering.
Post‑Sales Solution Ownership
This role includes ongoing responsibility after the deal is signed, including:
Designing and delivering the full client solution, ensuring the littlefish platform is implemented to meet each client’s operational, technical, and security needs. Mapping out product roadmap, management of technical integration requirements and implementation.
Lead structured post-implementation reviews with internal teams and the client, turning learnings into platform improvements and reusable patterns, and they maintain and improve the “bank-ready” assets based on live feedback, including integration templates, standard responses, and implementation checklists.
Managing all technical integration requirements end‑to‑end - including API flows, configuration, data mapping, and validation throughout implementation.
Driving successful onboarding and go‑live, working closely with Engineering, Product, and Delivery teams to ensure a smooth, predictable launch.
Identifying product gaps and opportunities, providing structured insights into the product roadmap based on real client needs and implementation learnings.
Skills and Qualifications
Experience
7 - 10+ years in solution architecture, integration architecture, or platform engineering.
Experience in enterprise and/or banking environments, including:
InfoSec reviews
Technical due diligence
Multi‑stakeholder buying groups
Procurement and risk processes
Deep experience with API platforms, integration patterns, and cloud‑based architectures.
Proven track record in technical pre‑sales or roles with strong customer‑facing solution ownership.
Technical Skills
Expert in REST APIs, OpenAPI/Swagger, OAuth2/OIDC, JWT, service‑to‑service auth.
Strong ability to read/test APIs, inspect logs, validate flows, and produce repeatable proof points.
Skilled in systems design, scalable architecture, data flow mapping, and dependency analysis.
Strong grasp of security architecture fundamentals (identity, encryption, threat modelling, least privilege, secrets management).
Hands‑on familiarity with cloud ecosystems (AWS/Azure/GCP) and modern integration practices.
Soft Skills & Leadership
Can simplify complexity for executives while satisfying deep scrutiny from:
CTOs
Security teams
Payments/Operations leaders
Procurement & risk committees
Expert communicator who confidently leads technical conversations.
Able to tactfully challenge, say no with reasoning, and defend architectural integrity.
Bias for clarity, speed, accuracy, and alignment in pre‑sales cycles.
To apply, please send your resume and a short cover letter to talent@littlefishapp.com
