Senior Manager, Solution & Data Architecture

Role summary

Senior Manager, Solution & Data Architecture is a full-time role at Pandora in London, England, United Kingdom (hybrid). Posted 2026-09-07. Experience level: 5-10.

Job title

Senior Manager, Solution & Data Architecture

Company

Pandora

Location

London, England, United Kingdom

Work arrangement

hybrid

Employment type

full-time

Category

Logistics & Warehousing

Experience level

5-10

Date posted

2026-09-07

Job description

Contract: Permanent/fixed-term

Location: Flexible hybrid working style with three days in the London office

The role

We are looking for a senior Solution & Data Architecture Manager who will be responsible for leading a team of solution architects while contributing hands-on to the design and delivery of end-to-end data platform solutions across Pandora’s Azure Synapse and Databricks environments.

This is a dual role combining architectural leadership with people management. You will lead a small, experienced team of solution and data architects, setting direction for how the team operates, develops, and delivers. At the same time, you will remain close to the technical work -reviewing designs, guiding architectural decisions, and ensuring consistency across key transformation projects. Working across supply chain, commerce, manufacturing, corporate tech, and omni-channel, you will ensure your team delivers solutions that are scalable, maintainable, and aligned with data solution architecture principles, enabling Pandora’s journey to becoming the world’s leading jewellery company.

What to expect from the role

Management accountabilities

Leading and developing a team of solution and data architects, including coaching, performance management, career development conversations, and hiring.

Defining and maintaining team OKRs that align architecture delivery with broader Data & Analytics and business objectives.

Owning the architecture team’s roadmap, prioritising work across transformation projects and ensuring capacity is allocated effectively across workstreams.

Managing the team’s budget and resource planning, including engagement with external consulting resources where needed.

Establishing team ways of working, including architecture review processes, documentation standards, and quality gates.

Representing the architecture team in leadership forums, steering committees, and cross-functional planning processes.

Building a collaborative team culture that balances architectural rigour with pragmatic delivery, ensuring architects remain hands-on and close to engineering teams.

Architecture accountabilities

Setting architectural direction across the data platform, ensuring consistency and coherence of solution designs across both Azure Synapse and Databricks environments.

Reviewing and providing feedback on technical designs from solution architects and lead engineers, ensuring adherence to data platform standards and best practices.

Ensuring solutions balance centralised approaches (Synapse with CDM/RDM models, tabular models in Analysis Services) and lakehouse patterns (Databricks with decentralised principles) appropriately.

Defining and evolving solution patterns, reference architectures, and best practices that build quality across data products.

Leading technical design sessions with the architect team, engineering teams, and stakeholders to solve complex data platform challenges collaboratively.

Supporting modernisation and migration from legacy to cloud-native solutions, overseeing transitional architectures that maintain business continuity.

The successful candidate

Proven hands-on experience designing and implementing data platform solutions with proven delivery of production-grade systems at scale, with at least 2–3 years in a team lead, manager, or senior architect role with people management responsibilities.

Demonstrated experience leading and developing technical teams, including performance management, career development, and building team culture.

Experience owning delivery roadmaps, OKRs, and budgets for an architecture or engineering function.

Strong technical foundation across the data platform stack: Databricks lakehouse architecture (Delta Lake, medallion patterns), Azure Synapse (star schemas, dedicated pools), and data pipeline orchestration (ADF or Databricks Workflows).

Experience with data quality frameworks, data contracts, and computational governance approaches.

Understanding of retail, manufacturing, finance, or supply chain business processes and how data flows through a business.

Strong collaboration skills working alongside domain architects, lead engineers, and development teams in a peer-based environment.

Excellent communication skills translating technical architecture into understandable concepts for both technical and business stakeholders, including creating solution designs, architecture decision records, and data flow diagrams.

Ability to balance strategic perspective with pragmatic delivery - comfortable stepping into technical detail when needed while maintaining focus on team effectiveness and architectural coherence.

Craft Your Future with Pandora: A Career Built Around You

At Pandora, your career is a journey of growth, development, and limitless potential. We believe in empowering you to shape your own path and craft your own incredible.

What We Offer

Our focus is on offering you a career that’s as unique as you are. We provide the tools, opportunities, and support you need to thrive:

Career Development & Growth: Be at the forefront of an inspiring journey with tailored development plans, mentorship, and regular reviews to ensure you’re on track to achieving your goals.

Competitive Salary & Regular Reviews: We make sure your efforts are rewarded fairly, with regular opportunities to review your progress and success.

Generous Bonus Scheme: Your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed, with opportunities to earn performance-related bonuses.

Hybrid Working Flexibility : Strike the perfect balance between collaboration and focus, with three office days and two work-from-home days between Monday and Thursday.

Early Finish Fridays: Start your weekends early