Principal Architect - Platforms in Southampton

We are using and creating technology to transform operations at sea to enable people and the planet to thrive. We are open-minded and fearless in our approach to innovation and don’t believe in boundaries. We challenge everything and have massive ambitions to drag aging industries into the tech era. We take safety, equality and education very seriously, and our responsibilities don’t stop at our front door. Our business is built on the belief that there’s definitely a more environmentally responsible way to operate at sea. We employ people who share our core values. We expect our people to be courageous, trustworthy, and conscientious, driven by a desire to do the right thing. We strive for excellence, work collaboratively, and are genuinely excited by our work. We offer opportunities for our people to develop beyond their role and span a multitude of disciplines. These are open to all, regardless of background and experience level. Working with us means being part of a team that is harnessing technology and creativity to disrupt a traditional industry. We are not your average workplace.

Ocean Infinity is seeking a Principal Architect – Platforms to provide senior technical leadership and hands-on architectural direction across shared technology platforms. This role defines and evolves the platform architectures that underpin hybrid cloud infrastructure, core services, integration foundations, and operational enablement systems across the business. Operating as a senior technical authority, you will remain actively engaged in delivery, personally contributing to the design and validation of critical platform capabilities. You will ensure that shared platforms are scalable, resilient, secure, and built for long-term operational use. Working closely with platform engineering, infrastructure, security, and application teams, you will ensure platforms accelerate delivery rather than constrain it.

What will you do:

• Define and lead platform architecture across hybrid cloud infrastructure, shared services, integration frameworks, and foundational technology capabilities.
• Lead the platform architecture function, setting standards, establishing governance, and supporting the development of platform architects.
• Translate business and operational needs into clear platform strategies, architectural principles, and multi-year roadmaps.
• Remain hands-on in the design and review of critical platform components where complexity, scale, or risk demands senior oversight.
• Contribute to architecture review forums, advising on platform constraints, integration patterns, and operational trade-offs.
• Partner with platform engineering, infrastructure, application, and cybersecurity teams to deliver scalable and resilient platform capabilities.
• Establish and maintain reference architectures, design patterns, standards, and architecture decision records.
• Lead architecture reviews to validate scalability, security, reliability, operability, and cost effectiveness.
• Define and govern integration patterns, including APIs, messaging, event streaming, and cross-platform data movement.
• Ensure platforms are designed for operability and observability, including monitoring, logging, alerting, and performance management.
• Influence DevOps and platform engineering practices, including automation, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code.
• Embed security-by-design principles into all platform architectures.
• Manage platform technical debt, architectural risk, and long-term evolution deliberately and transparently.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and lead targeted proof-of-concept initiatives where appropriate.
• Mentor senior engineers and architects, raising overall architectural maturity across the organisation.

Who you are:

You are a senior, delivery-focused architect who leads through technical credibility and sound judgment. You are comfortable owning shared platforms operating at scale and evolving them over time. You balance strategic thinking with practical execution and are trusted to make and defend complex architectural decisions in ambiguous environments.

Qualifications and skills:

• 10+ years of experience in senior platform engineering, software engineering, or architecture roles, including ownership of shared platforms at scale.
• Proven experience evolving and governing platform capabilities over time rather than designing isolated solutions.
• Strong hands-on background building and operating cloud or hybrid platforms in production environments.
• Deep experience with DevOps and platform engineering practices, including automation, CI/CD, and infrastructure as code.
• Strong understanding of reliability engineering, observability, and operational excellence.
• Security-minded with practical experience embedding security controls into platform designs.
• Experience acting as a trusted technical advisor to senior stakeholders.
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills across technical and business teams.
• Self-directed and outcome-driven, comfortable operating in complex environments.
• Pragmatic problem-solver with strong architectural judgment.

Desirable:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Relevant architecture certifications.

Salary: up to £120,000

The salary varies for this position as we are recruiting in multiple regional locations and job grades. The salary process is based on skills, abilities, and experience required.

What you can expect:

At Ocean Infinity, we believe in creating equal opportunities for all, celebrating each and everyone’s differences. We are driven by transforming the industry, through our technology, thoughts, behaviours and actions. Being inclusive and respectful to all is fundamental to who we are. It is the right thing to do and enables innovation and creativity to thrive. There is more work to be done, and we know that we aren’t perfect, but our commitment to these values is unwavering. They are central to our mission and the impact we have on the industry, meaning, we cannot live without them.