Principal Solution Architect (Digital Identity)

Job description

We are looking for a Principal Solution Architect (Digital Identity) to act as Payforge's senior architecture advisor on a large-scale Digital Identity program. You will provide architectural leadership across digital identity, authentication, trust services, and secure integration, working alongside public-sector institutions, financial institutions, technology partners, and other ecosystem stakeholders to shape architecture decisions, technical standards, and implementation approaches. The role requires independent technical judgement and equal comfort presenting to senior government and executive audiences and working through integration designs with architects and delivery teams. Key Responsibilities: Act as the lead architecture advisor on the Digital Identity program, covering identity, authentication, credential management, trust services, enterprise integration, security, and digital payment enablement. Review and assess architecture designs, implementation approaches, technology roadmaps, and technical standards, ensuring alignment with eIDAS 2.0 and applicable national and regulatory requirements. Support architecture governance, design authorities, program reviews, and technical decision-making forums, identifying risks, dependencies, and implementation considerations. Define and assess integration approaches connecting government systems, wallet providers, financial institutions, trust service providers, and other ecosystem participants. Review API frameworks, identity federation models, secure data exchange mechanisms, and integration standards. Assess authentication models, credential issuance and verification services, consent management frameworks, and identity lifecycle processes. Contribute to reference architectures, architectural principles, technical standards, and implementation guidance, evaluating solutions for scalability, resilience, security, performance, and operational readiness. Advise stakeholders on privacy, identity assurance, trust frameworks, security controls, and regulatory alignment, and assess emerging technologies and standards in digital identity and digital public infrastructure. Build effective working relationships with government institutions, regulators, technology providers, and financial sector stakeholders, and represent Payforge in architecture forums, working groups, and governance boards. Facilitate discussions across business, policy, operational, and technical stakeholders, supporting consensus-building and presenting recommendations to executive and technical audiences. Produce architecture assessments, design reviews, briefing materials, and executive presentations, and contribute to Payforge's internal knowledge base and best practice. Skills & Experience: Experience: 12+ years in Solution Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, Systems Integration, Digital Transformation, or Technology Consulting. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline. Demonstrated experience as a lead architect, technical advisor, or architecture authority on large-scale government, national infrastructure, or highly regulated programs. Strong expertise in digital identity ecosystems, electronic identity solutions, authentication technologies, trusted credentials, identity verification, and trust services. Experience with eIDAS 2.0 or comparable national and international digital identity frameworks. Deep knowledge of enterprise architecture, distributed systems, cloud-native and hybrid architectures, API-led integration, and digital service platforms, including sovereign and government cloud environments. Strong understanding of OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), SAML, PKI, digital signatures, encryption, and Identity & Access Management (IAM) solutions. Experience designing secure authentication services, credential lifecycle management, identity assurance frameworks, and privacy-by-design security architectures. Experience developing target-state and reference architectures, technology roadmaps, and architecture governance models. Understanding of payment ecosystems, digital wallets, tokenization, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), account-to-account payments, and identity-enabled financial services. Experience conducting architecture assessments, technical design reviews, technical due diligence, and implementation readiness reviews. Proven ability to engage credibly with senior government officials, regulators, program leadership, and multi-stakeholder governance bodies. Strong communication, stakeholder management, workshop facilitation, and presentation skills. Certifications such as TOGAF, CISSP, AWS or Azure Solutions Architect, or equivalent are advantageous. What we value? Architectural leadership – setting technical direction and guiding decisions across complex, multi-organisation programs. Independent judgement – giving objective, well-reasoned advice, even when it challenges prevailing assumptions. Ecosystem thinking – understanding how identity, payments, and public services connect, and designing for long-term interoperability and adoption. Collaboration – working seamlessly with clients, public-sector stakeholders, engineers, and partners to drive outcomes. Integrity & accountability – upholding high standards of governance, security, and compliance from design through delivery. About Payforge Payforge is a specialist professional-services company focused exclusively on payments and fintech. We help clients deliver high-quality, scalable technology solutions in an evolving global financial landscape. Equal Opportunity Statement Payforge is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds.