Description
Owns the architecture function for the Technology Division. Sets the division-wide technical direction the target architecture, the technology radar, the non-functional envelopes (performance, cost, security, reliability) that every system must live inside and holds the Software Architects accountable to it. Where the Software Architect governs how code is written, the Lead Software Architect governs what gets built, how systems fit together, and which architectural bets the division makes.
Does not write code. Owns the Architect agent and is accountable for the quality of every architecture artefact the agent produces across all domain teams — system designs, integration contracts, data models, migration plans. Chairs the Architecture Review Board, is the final decision-maker on cross-domain design disputes and build-versus-buy calls, and is the escalation point when the Software Architect cannot resolve a question inside their own scope.
Acts as the technical counterpart to the Head of Engineering on planning and risk: translates product strategy into an architecture roadmap, surfaces the architectural cost of proposed work before it is committed, and owns the division technical debt position.
Key Responsibilities
Architecture Strategy and Ownership
- Define and maintain the division target architecture and the architecture roadmap that gets us there
- Own the technology radar: which languages, frameworks, datastores, and platforms are adopt, trial, assess, or hold
- Set non-functional requirement envelopes — latency, throughput, availability, unit cost, data residency — and enforce them at design time
- Own build-versus-buy-versus-agent decisions for platform-level capabilities
- Maintain the Architecture Decision Record corpus as the division source of truth for why things are the way they are
Cross-Domain System Design
- Own the system-of-systems view: service boundaries, integration contracts, event flows, and shared data models across all domain teams
- Arbitrate cross-domain design disputes and boundary ownership questions
- Review and approve designs for anything that crosses a domain boundary, touches shared infrastructure, or introduces a new external dependency
- Own architecture-level migration and decommissioning plans for legacy systems
Architect Agent Ownership
- Own the Architect agent — define, train, and continuously improve its skills so it produces designs that conform to the target architecture and NFR envelopes
- Encode architectural guardrails, decision heuristics, and rejection criteria into the agent so non-compliant designs are caught before human review
- Audit Architect agent output through structured spot checks; feed findings back into agent skills
- Set the standard for how the Software Architects operate their agents, and review their agent skill definitions
Leading the Architecture Function
- Line-manage, coach, and develop the Software Architects
- Chair the Architecture Review Board; set its cadence, entry criteria, and decision rights
- Ensure the Software Architect coding standards stay coherent with the target architecture
- Own architecture onboarding and levelling for the function; grow the bench
Risk, Debt, and Governance
- Own the division technical debt register: quantify it, prioritise it, and negotiate paydown into the roadmap
- Partner with the Information Security and GRC Lead on security-by-design and threat modelling at the architecture layer
- Partner with the Infrastructure Manager and Platform Lead on capacity, cost, and reliability architecture
- Partner with the QA Lead on testability as an architectural property
- Report architecture health, risk, and debt position to the Head of Engineering and the Technology Division Manager
Must Have:
- 18+ years of experience
- Expert in software architecture, design patterns, and SaaS application design
- Expert in API and integration contract design (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, event-driven) and data architecture and modelling
- Expert in non-functional requirements engineering — performance, reliability, and cost
- Advanced cloud, platform, and security architecture, including threat modelling — AWS required, OCI a strong plus
- Expert in architecting agent configuration and training, with advanced agent skill design, guardrail engineering, and prompt engineering for system design
- Expert in technical decision-making and arbitration, with advanced experience leading senior technical individuals and negotiating roadmap with stakeholders
- Expert in architecture documentation and ADRs, with advanced executive communication of technical risk
Similar jobs
Est. 60,000 USD
About the job The job in short As a Solution Architect, it’s your job to ascertain that envisaged solutions become reality. Taking this client-facing role, you are equally comfortable in deep-dive technical workshops, pr…
Role Overview We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Solution Architect to lead enterprise transformation initiatives and serve as a trusted advisor to clients. This role combines architecture leadership, delivery…
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 90,000 EUR
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 120,000 EUR
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 80,000 EUR
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 120,000 EUR
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 205,500 USD
Principal AI Engineering Architect We're looking for a Principal AI Engineering Architect to lead the design and delivery of complex, multi-domain systems spanning cloud, data, and AI — with deep, hands-on mastery of mul…
Est. 120,000 EUR
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 150,000 GBP
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 80,000 EUR
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 120,000 EUR
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
At NiCE, we don’t limit our challenges. We challenge our limits. Always. We’re ambitious. We’re game changers. And we play to win. We set the highest standards and execute beyond them. And if you’re like us, we can offer…
At NiCE, we don’t limit our challenges. We challenge our limits. Always. We’re ambitious. We’re game changers. And we play to win. We set the highest standards and execute beyond them. And if you’re like us, we can offer…
At NiCE, we don’t limit our challenges. We challenge our limits. Always. We’re ambitious. We’re game changers. And we play to win. We set the highest standards and execute beyond them. And if you’re like us, we can offer…
Est. 150,000 GBP
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 150,000 GBP
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
At NiCE, we don’t limit our challenges. We challenge our limits. Always. We’re ambitious. We’re game changers. And we play to win. We set the highest standards and execute beyond them. And if you’re like us, we can offer…
About Vista Equity Partners Vista Equity Partners is a leading global investment firm focused exclusively on enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled businesses. With over $100B in assets under management and a…
Est. 250,000 USD
Role: Principal Architect Reports to: Global Head of Technology (SVP Engineering)Function: Platform & Product Architecture (Cloud-Native Data/SaaS) About Reltio At Reltio®, an SAP Company, we believe data should fuel…
Est. 144,000 USD
Electrosoft Services, LLC is an award-winning company that provides comprehensive technology-based solutions and services to federal customers. While cybersecurity is our specialty, we also focus on ICAM, Zero Trust, dig…
About Workato Workato delivers enterprise infrastructure for the agentic era, redefining iPaaS and helping enterprises unify data, applications, processes, and AI into a single, governed platform. A leader in Enterprise…
Est. 250,000 USD
Role: Principal Architect Reports to: Global Head of Technology (SVP Engineering)Function: Platform & Product Architecture (Cloud-Native Data/SaaS) About Reltio At Reltio®, an SAP Company, we believe data should fuel…
Est. 155,000 USD
Systems Architect (Expert) #901 Clearance Required: TS/SCI Minimum Years’ Experience: 18 Springfield, VA - 100% onsite Overall Assignment Description: Responsibilitie
Overview: We are seeking a highly skilled Solutions Architect to lead the design and optimization of our product’s architecture. In this role, you will serve as the key architect for data solutions, overseeing the integr…
Est. 120,000 EUR
Technical Director – BU CTO (all genders) Why Valtech? We’re the experience innovation company - a trusted partner to the world’s most recognized brands. To our people we offer growth opportunities, a values-driven cultu…
ScaleOps is redefining autonomous cloud and AI infrastructure. We're on a mission to free DevOps and platform engineers from manual resource management so they can focus on innovation, not tuning resources. The results:…
Est. 141,000 USD
Cloud Architect Location: Houston, TX This is a 4 month assignment with potential to extend Houston, local OR be able to travel to Houston, TX to be at customer site every other week for a 4-5days/week Company Overview R…