Lead Architect

Lead Architect | £90,000–£100,000 | London | MediaI'm working with a major media organisation that is looking to hire a Lead Architect to play a key role in the evolution of its large-scale digital platforms.This isn't a traditional architecture role where you'll sit above engineering teams acting as an approval gate. My client is looking for someone who can set technical direction, influence engineering teams and create an environment where good architectural decisions are made at the right level.You'll be working across a high-traffic, content-driven web and mobile ecosystem, partnering closely with Engineering, Product and Delivery leadership.The role will involve:• Setting architectural direction across multiple engineering teams• Designing and evolving large-scale distributed systems• Helping engineering teams navigate trade-offs around scalability, resilience, coupling, cost and operability• Establishing architectural principles, patterns, golden paths and sensible defaults• Encouraging lightweight architectural practices such as ADRs rather than heavyweight governance• Supporting decisions around build vs buy, platform vs product and longer-term technology investment• Coaching Tech Leads and Engineers in architectural thinking• Helping modernise and simplify complex technology platformsI'm particularly interested in speaking with people who have:• A strong software engineering/technical background• Significant experience designing distributed systems• Strong knowledge of modern cloud-native architecture• Experience with CI/CD and observability• An understanding of evolutionary architecture and incremental change• Experience influencing technical direction across multiple engineering teams• The ability to challenge senior stakeholders while building consensus• Worked as a Lead/Principal Architect, Software Architect, Principal Engineer or similarExperience within large-scale digital or media environments would be beneficial, but isn't essential.Lead Architect | £90,000–£100,000 | London | Media