Senior Architect, ADC/Quant in London

We are seeking an expert Senior Architect to drive the technical vision, system design, and architectural governance for a large-scale, technically diverse engineering program. Operating across multiple complex domains, you will serve as the premier technical authority, designing mission‑critical enterprise systems, overarching data ecosystems, and leading our artificial intelligence (AI) integration strategy. The successful candidate will set the architectural target state, establish design patterns for highly resilient systems, and ensure technical coherence across a highly heterogeneous technology stack. You will partner with business stakeholders and engineering management to translate strategic objectives into robust, scalable, secure, and AI‑ready architectures, navigating the complexities of a highly regulated, high‑expectation environment.

What You’ll Bring (Experience & Competencies)

• Extensive Architectural Experience: 8+ years of hands‑on experience in software engineering, with at least 3+ years acting as a Principal or Senior Architect designing large‑scale, high‑throughput, and mission‑critical enterprise distributed systems.
• Deep Technical Breadth & Depth: Advanced data architecture experience using Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, and large‑scale data processing (Data Mesh/Lakehouse patterns). Strong background in data integration and relational platforms. Proven experience designing highly available Hybrid and Multi‑Cloud architectures (Azure & AWS).
• AI & Machine Learning Exposure: Experience designing architectures that support AI/ML workloads, including integrating Large Language Models (LLMs), predictive analytics, and vector search into enterprise applications.
• Enterprise Governance & Security: Deep understanding of security architecture, secure SDLC practices, data privacy, and compliance requirements typical of the London financial services sector.
• Resilience & SRE: Advanced knowledge of building fault‑tolerant architectures leveraging modern SRE principles, robust observability, and cloud‑native resilience patterns.
• Matrix Leadership: Exceptional stakeholder and client communication skills, with a track record of influencing cross‑functional engineering pods, product managers, and C‑level executives without requiring direct reporting lines.

Key Responsibilities

• Architecture & Technical Strategy: Define and own the end‑to‑end target state architecture across diverse systems, data platforms, and cloud integrations. Publish, maintain, and champion architectural blueprints, design patterns, and engineering excellence standards. Lead the Architecture Review Board (ARB) process for the domain, ensuring technical designs strictly adhere to non‑functional requirements (NFRs) such as scalability, maintainability, performance, latency, and security.
• AI Strategy & Adoption: Lead the architectural design for integrating AI and Machine Learning capabilities (including Generative AI) into existing and new enterprise products. Establish secure guardrails, data privacy controls, and ethical compliance standards for AI consumption within a highly regulated environment. Champion the adoption of AI‑driven engineering tooling (e.g., AI coding assistants, automated testing generation) to enhance developer velocity and code quality across the portfolio. Architect robust, scalable data pipelines (MLOps/LLMOps) to support reliable model training, fine‑tuning, and low‑latency inference.
• Technical Leadership & Governance: Act as a senior technical leader and mentor to Principal Engineers and Tech Leads across multiple engineering domains. Ensure architectural coherence across a diverse technology stack, balancing the need for enterprise standardization with the autonomy of agile delivery teams. Take ownership of technical debt management strategies and long‑term platform health, preventing fragmented or sub‑optimal legacy solutions.
• Complex Problem Solving & Hands‑on Contribution: Lead technical investigations into complex performance bottlenecks, major systemic incidents, and architectural pivots. Remain heavily hands‑on in the R&D space; write prototype code, execute Proof‑of‑Concepts (PoCs), and directly validate architectural assumptions (specifically around new AI tools or cloud services) before scaling them to development teams.
• Stakeholder Alignment & Commercial Awareness: Collaborate closely with business leadership, product owners, and Development Managers to translate strategic commercial objectives into executable technical roadmaps. Act as a trusted advisor, articulating complex technical trade‑offs, risk mitigation strategies, and system capabilities in clear, business‑centric language.

Technology Environment

• Compute & Services: Java, .NET, Python, Cloud‑native microservices.
• Data & Analytics: Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, AWS Glue, Athena, Event Streaming (e.g., Kafka).
• AI & ML: Azure OpenAI, LLM Integration patterns, Vector Databases.
• Integration & Storage: Azure Data Factory (ADF), SQL Server, Enterprise relational platforms.
• Infrastructure: Azure, AWS, and Hybrid Cloud networks.

What This Role Is (and Is Not)

This is not solely an "ivory‑tower" architecture role; pragmatic execution, hands‑on prototyping, and deep collaboration with delivery teams are essential. This is a role for a visionary technologist who thrives under pressure, sets uncompromising engineering standards, and naturally commands the technical respect of a large engineering organization.

Career Stage

Join us and be part of a team that values innovation, quality, and continuous improvement. If you’re ready to take your career to the next level and make a significant impact, we’d love to hear from you. LSEG is a leading global financial markets infrastructure and data provider. Our purpose is driving financial stability, empowering economies and enabling customers to create sustainable growth. Our purpose is the foundation on which our culture is built. Our values of Integrity, Partnership, Excellence, and Change underpin our purpose and set the standard for everything we do, every day. They go to the heart of who we are and guide our decision making and everyday actions. Working with us means that you will be part of a dynamic organisation of 25,000 people across 65 countries. However, we will value your individuality and enable you to bring your true self to work so you can help enrich our diverse workforce. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. This means that we do not discriminate on the basis of anyone’s race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. Conforming with applicable law, we can reasonably accommodate applicants’ and employees’ religious practices and beliefs, as well as mental health or physical disability needs. You will be part of a collaborative and creative culture where we encourage new ideas. We are committed to sustainability across our global business and we are proud to partner with our customers to help them meet their sustainability objectives. Our charity, the LSEG Foundation provides charitable grants to community groups that help people access economic opportunities and build a secure future with financial independence. Colleagues can get involved through fundraising and volunteering. LSEG offers a range of tailored benefits and support, including healthcare, retirement planning, paid volunteering days and wellbeing initiatives.