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