Senior Architect – Wallet Evolution (D)

This is a 6 – month contract with our client in the Fintech role.

Our client, a leading Fintech innovator, is seeking a Senior Architect: Wallet Evolution to drive the architectural strategy, solution design, and regional expansion of its core Wallet Platform.

In this pan-African/multi-market role, you will hold ultimate accountability for shaping a secure, scalable, and cost-effective wallet ecosystem fit for advanced fintech use cases.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Wallet Roadmap: Translate Group business strategies and product roadmaps into fit-for-purpose target-state designs, core wallet principles, and execution roadmaps.
• Multi-Market Adaptation Framework: Define and implement a standardized wallet adaptation framework that enables rapid feature rollout (payments, transfers, cash-out, merchant services) while protecting core system stability.
• Architecture Governance & Design Authority: Lead design authority forums across operating companies (OpCos). Review, guide, and sign off on all platform changes, vendor integrations, and technical customisations.
• Integration & Interoperability: Enforce standardized integration blueprints, API-first patterns, and architectural guardrails to ensure seamless connectivity between the wallet application, core banking modules, and external financial networks.
• Cross-Functional Technical Advisory: Act as the primary technical Subject Matter Expert (SME) on wallet transaction flows, advising internal development, product, and partner operational teams.
• Platform Optimization: Maximize the re-use of core wallet APIs and services across operating markets while keeping structural technical debt and architectural incidents to a minimum.

Requirements

• Experience: 5–7 years of technical architecture experience with a heavy focus on payment systems, core banking platforms, digital wallets, or Mobile Money (MoMo) environments.
• Domain Expertise: Deep understanding of high-volume transaction processing, payment gateways, mobile money ecosystem orchestration, and secure financial data streaming.
• Framework Mastery: Strong working knowledge of TOGAF or similar Enterprise Architecture frameworks, capability maturity assessments, and formalized governance workflows.
• Compliance & Technical Literacy: Solid understanding of financial regulations, including KYC/AML frameworks, PCI DSS, Open API standards, and secure transaction architectures.
• Delivery Environments: Comfort navigating multi-market deployments within Agile (Scrum/Kanban) and hybrid Waterfall SDLC frameworks.
• Education & Certifications:
• Minimum 4-year Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, IT, or a related field (Master's degree is highly desirable).
• Preferred Credentials: TOGAF, SAFe Architect, Cloud Architecture (AWS/Azure/GCP), or API Gateway management (Apigee, MuleSoft, Kong).