Lead Software Architect

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

Work arrangement
Yes