Solution Architect

Pet Drugs Online is one of the UK’s largest online pet pharmacies. We started in 2005 in a small Bath vet surgery with a simple aim: to make pet healthcare more affordable. Today we supply veterinary medicines, prescriptions, pet food and everyday essentials to owners across the country. We’re part of IVC Evidensia, which gives us the backing of a major veterinary group while we keep the pace of an ecommerce business that trades every day.

IVC Evidensia is the UK and Europe’s leading veterinary care group, made up of over 900 practices and referral hospitals, united by a shared purpose of happier animals, happier owners.

At IVC Evidensia, we believe careers should be built without limits. Our people are supported to make more impact, access more career opportunities, and play an active role in their local and professional communities. Through investment in learning, innovation, and wellbeing, we create environments where our teams can grow in confidence, capability, and fulfilment, at every stage of their career.

How You’ll Make a Difference

We’ve grown quickly on a mix of core platforms, third party applications and integrations. They all work, but growth has added complexity and customisation, and technology is starting to slow the business down. Our Head of Technology has a clear view of where it needs to go. We now need someone to own the architecture and turn that view into a plan our teams can build.

In this newly created role you’ll report to the Head of Technology and work across his team of around 20 people in PMO, back office systems and web technology. You’ll have regular time with the senior leadership team and a real say in our technical direction.

Your first priorities:

* Order management: plan how we modernise our Khaos order management system step by step, without disrupting daily trading

* Ecommerce: support our Adobe Commerce platform while making it simpler to change and better for customers

* Integrations: design patterns that scale across our mix of cloud (PaaS) and on premises systems, covering APIs, events, batch jobs and middleware, with proper monitoring and recovery

* Design governance: introduce proportionate design reviews, standards and decision records that teams actually use

Alongside that, you’ll:

* Turn technology strategy into a phased roadmap tied to commercial priorities

* Review solution proposals from internal teams and suppliers, and challenge them where they fall short

* Weigh up build, buy and hybrid options on cost, supplier risk and time to value, then give senior leaders a clear recommendation

* Support the PMO on feasibility, sizing complexity, risk and sequencing for new work

* Agree with our Data Lead which system owns pet, prescription, customer, product, order and stock data

You Might Be a Great Fit If...

The focus is designing solutions and seeing them built, not setting strategy from a distance. You’ll need to be hands on enough to get into the detail with engineers and suppliers, and confident enough to hold your ground with leadership. It won’t always be comfortable, and we don’t want someone who says yes to everything.

We’re looking for a driven, capable professional who brings:

* Solutions architecture experience in ecommerce, ideally in retail or logistics, in a business that trades every day

* Experience with Adobe Commerce, Magento, SAP Hybris or a similar ecommerce platform

* Strong integration and middleware experience, including how systems share data and what happens when it fails

* Experience with ERP or order management systems, and with modernising legacy platforms gradually rather than replacing them in one go

* The commercial sense to balance cost, speed and risk, and prioritise accordingly

* A clear way of explaining technical choices to people who aren’t technical

* Desirable: TOGAF or a similar architecture certification

* A commitment to supporting our purpose and values

How We’ll Support You

At Pet Drugs Online, we’re committed to supporting your development and wellbeing. When you join us, you’ll benefit from:

* A role with real business impact supporting teams across the organisation

* Clear career pathways with progression opportunities within Central Functions and beyond

* Ongoing learning and development supported by tailored programmes and resources

* A collaborative, values-led culture focused on care, innovation, and continuous improvement

* A newly created role with genuine autonomy and influence over how architecture works at Pet Drugs Online

* Hybrid working, with three days a week at our Keynsham office

What We Offer Our Team

* Annual bonus scheme

* Healthcare Cash Plan

* Cycle to Work scheme

* Green Cars salary sacrifice scheme

* Voluntary benefits: choose from a range of benefits to suit you

* Discounted staff pet care

* Access to discounts/cashback with hundreds of participating retailers

Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging

At I we are committed to Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging, we are keen to hear from candidates from all minority and diverse groups. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are keen to hear from candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions and would be happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments needed during the recruitment process.