Our client is a UK airports group. Head of Architecture Permanent One of its airports / Hybrid (2 days per week onsite) About our client For airports, for partners, for people. We are a UK airports group. Our purpose is to find new and better ways to make airport travel seamless and enjoyable for everybody
from the smallest ideas to the biggest transformations. Every day is an opportunity to create better travel experiences. From our revenue-accelerating single-platform technology, Propel, through to our world-class hospitality venues including 1903 and its airport lounge brand, our solutions make travel smoother for passengers and more profitable for our clients and partners. We know that to bring your best ideas, you need the space to think, the support to grow, and the freedom to be your authentic self. Whether you're working from our offices, from home, in our lounges, or on the road, we provide an environment where you can create, innovate, and help transform airport travel. Together, we can reach new heights. Together, we are a UK airports group. About the role We're looking for a Head of Architecture to lead the technical direction, architectural strategy and engineering standards across our client's technology landscape, with a particular focus on Propel, our market-leading airport travel platform. This is a senior technical leadership role, responsible for shaping modern, scalable and secure cloud-native solutions that support both current business priorities and future growth. You'll work closely with engineering, product and technology leaders to ensure architecture enables rapid delivery, commercial success and exceptional customer experiences. Reporting to the Engineering Director, you'll lead a team of architects and technical specialists, providing both strategic direction and technical guidance across multiple disciplines. While this is not a hands-on engineering role, we're looking for someone who remains close enough to modern software development practices to challenge thinking, influence technical decisions and support teams in solving complex problems. This is an exciting opportunity to help shape the future evolution of Propel as it continues to scale, support new products and integrations, and expand into new markets and airport partners globally. Key responsibilities Architecture Strategy & Technical Leadership Define and evolve our client's architecture strategy, ensuring technology decisions align with business objectives, customer needs and long-term platform scalability. Provide technical leadership across cloud and solution architecture, driving the adoption of modern architectural patterns and engineering best practices. Lead architecture reviews and technical governance activities, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, resilient and commercially effective. Establish and maintain architectural standards, principles and technology roadmaps across the organisation. Champion modern cloud-native approaches and support the ongoing evolution of our client's technology platforms. Platform & Solution Architecture Guide the architectural direction of Propel and associated products, ensuring they can scale effectively to support future business growth. Work closely with engineering teams to evaluate solution designs, technical approaches and implementation strategies. Support the successful delivery of new platform capabilities, integrations and international implementations. Drive continuous improvement across system performance, reliability, observability and operational excellence. Promote architecture decisions that balance customer experience, technical quality, speed of delivery and cost efficiency. Leadership & Collaboration Lead, coach and develop a multidisciplinary architecture and technical quality team, creating a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement. Build strong relationships across engineering, product and business teams, acting as a trusted technical advisor to senior stakeholders. Facilitate technical discussions and architecture forums, helping teams make informed decisions and align around shared objectives. Partner with internal and external delivery teams to ensure architectural consistency and high-quality outcomes. Innovation & Future Technology Maintain awareness of emerging technologies, industry trends and architectural approaches that could create value for our client and its customers. Champion an AI-first mindset where appropriate, exploring opportunities to leverage modern technologies to improve products, platforms and engineering effectiveness. Drive conversations around technology innovation, helping shape future platform capabilities and architectural direction. About you We're looking for a highly credible technology leader who combines strong architectural expertise with a deep understanding of modern software engineering. You'll likely have progressed from an engineering, technical leadership or architecture background and be comfortable operating at both strategic and technical levels. You'll enjoy working in fast-paced product and technology environments and be passionate about building scalable platforms that deliver real business value. You'll also bring: Proven experience leading architecture functions within modern technology, SaaS or product-led organisations. Strong expertise in cloud-native architecture, ideally within AWS environments. Experience designing and governing scalable, distributed and serverless architectures. A strong understanding of modern software engineering practices and the ability to engage credibly with development teams. Experience working with technologies such as AWS Lambda, Route 53 and wider AWS platform services. Knowledge of observability, monitoring and platform reliability approaches, with exposure to tools such as Datadog being advantageous. Experience balancing technical excellence with commercial considerations, including scalability, performance and cost optimisation. Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical audiences. Experience leading and developing high-performing architecture or technical teams. A collaborative leadership style and a passion for continuous improvement. Experience within travel, aviation or airport technology is not required. What's in it for you? 25 days holiday, increasing with service (up to 28) Option to buy up to 10 extra days + 4 flexible
Head of Architecture in London employer: Hackajob Ltd
JPMorgan Chase is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment where innovation and collaboration thrive. As a Lead Site Reliability Engineer, you will not only tackle complex challenges but also benefit from extensive professional development opportunities and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. Located in a global financial hub, you'll be part of a team that values your expertise and encourages a culture of continuous improvement and technical excellence.
