AWS
Solutions Architect · Madrid, Spain
Hello, I'm Francisco Cobo.
I design secure, compliant, cloud-native architectures for regulated industries — from financial services to life sciences. Currently leading Digital Trust architecture at Novartis.
01 — About
A structured approach to digital trust
I'm Associate Director of Solution Architecture at Novartis, where I lead the design and governance of Digital Trust architectures — the privacy, identity, consent, and integration layers behind compliant customer-facing platforms.
Before Novartis, I spent seven years in financial services and technology consulting (BBVA, IBM), leading enterprise architecture, cloud transformation, and security & privacy governance across large-scale ecosystems.
My approach is methodical and governance-driven, paired with a relationship-focused style that translates between business, legal, security, data, and engineering.
02 — What I do
Where I focus
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Solution & enterprise architecture
End-to-end design of large-scale systems: patterns, standards, integration models, and architecture governance across vendor and internal teams.
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Digital trust & security
CIAM, consent & preference management, API security, and privacy-by-design aligned with GDPR, CCPA, and internal control frameworks.
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Cloud & modernization
AWS and Azure architectures. Migration from on-prem and legacy stacks toward cloud-native, event-driven, and AI-ready platforms.
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AI & data
MEng in Artificial Intelligence. Hands-on experience with NLP and cloud-based ML pipelines for production use cases.
03 — Experience
Where I've worked
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Associate Director of Solution Architecture
Designing and governing Digital Trust architectures across Novartis' commercial and digital platforms.
- Lead architecture and design of Digital Trust solutions covering privacy, security, identity, consent, and data protection across customer-facing ecosystems.
- Define and evolve solution patterns, principles, and standards that allow compliant execution of sales and marketing strategies in regulated environments.
- Architect and govern platforms for Consent & Preference Management, Customer Identity & Access Management (CIAM), API security, and secure integrations.
- Partner with commercial, legal, privacy, security, data, and IT teams to translate regulatory and business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
- Ensure alignment with global privacy and security regulations (GDPR, CCPA) and internal governance frameworks.
- Provide architecture governance and oversight across internal and vendor-led initiatives.
- Support Agile product teams, balancing innovation, risk mitigation, and compliance.
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Solutions Architect
Designed and led enterprise-scale software ecosystems across one of Europe's largest banks.
- Designed and developed enterprise large-scale software ecosystems.
- Architected cloud-ready solutions and led migrations from on-prem and legacy systems to cloud and next-generation technologies.
- Collaborated hands-on across internal and external development teams, integration partners, and business stakeholders.
- Applied software development lifecycle and engineering practices including QA, DevOps, and architecture reviews.
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Artificial Intelligence Engineer
Internship as part of my MEng in Artificial Intelligence, in parallel with my full-time role at BBVA.
- Delivered a customer-call sentiment analysis solution on AWS using NLP — Amazon Comprehend, S3, Lambda, and Python.
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Information Security Advisor
Customer-facing focal point for IT security and technology compliance.
- Advised clients on IT security and compliance frameworks (ISO 2700x, GDPR).
- Identified and managed technological risks and led communication with clients to resolution.
- Participated in the Internal Audit Project Office.
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Student Research Assistant
Research on formal modeling of modern processor architectures.
- Built and simulated formal models of modern processors, including RISC-V based architectures.
- Created and debugged Instruction Set Architecture definitions in an internal programming language.
04 — Education
Where I studied
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Management Program — Digital Banking & Innovation
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MEng, Artificial Intelligence
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BEng, Telecommunication Technologies Engineering
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Erasmus — Electrical & Computer Engineering
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FinTech — Finance & Financial Management Services
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Exchange Student
05 — Credentials
Certifications & languages
Microsoft
Certified Azure AI Engineer Associate
ISACA
Cybersecurity Audit Certificate
EFPA
European Financial Advisor
European ESG Advisor
Cambridge
Certificate in Advanced English (CAE)
Languages
Spanish (native) · English (advanced)
06 — Beyond work
Projects, teaching & volunteering
- Founding member of intor.ai, a startup in the AI ecosystem.
- Team member of desrumbados.com, a travel blog for custom itineraries.
- Professor in an AI Master's program — module on Cloud Computing.
- Founder of finanzasgraficas.com, a financial education community.
- Ongoing volunteering with Cibervoluntarios and Junior Achievement.
- Participated in a hackathon to help combat COVID-19.
07 — Get in touch
Have a project, role, or idea in mind?
I'm always open to a conversation about architecture, cloud, AI, or digital trust. The fastest way to reach me is email.