At a Glance
- Tasks: Define and evolve multimedia technology architecture for a leading media organisation.
- Company: Join the Guardian, a diverse and inclusive global leader in fearless journalism.
- Benefits: 30 days annual leave, generous pension, health support, and flexible working options.
- Other info: Hybrid work model with opportunities for personal and professional development.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in media technology while growing your career in an innovative environment.
- Qualifications: Experience in multimedia architecture and strong communication skills required.
The predicted salary is between 30000 - 30000 £ per year.
Join our team at the Guardian and be a part of a diverse and inclusive global organisation that delivers fearless, investigative journalism, and holds power to account. Our team of award-winning journalists, cutting-edge commercial professionals, and industry-leading digital experts are committed to making a difference and represent a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. We offer a challenging and exciting environment for career development, with a focus on training, growth and fostering an inclusive culture.
The Multimedia Architect role is crucial for defining and evolving the organisation's entire multimedia technology estate, including media asset management, storage, editing, and content delivery systems, ensuring that all platforms and workflows are integrated, scalable, and secure, directly aligning them with the overarching business and technology strategy. The Architect achieves this by setting technical standards, defining the roadmap for sustainable platform development, leading the technical assessment of new tools, and providing technical leadership and subject matter expertise across internal teams and external suppliers.
About the role
- Define and maintain the architecture for the multimedia technology estate, covering core platforms, workflows, integrations, and supporting infrastructure.
- Set technical standards, design principles, and roadmaps to ensure platforms are scalable, secure, maintainable, and aligned with business needs.
- Ensure platform designs meet key functional and non-functional requirements, including performance, resilience, disaster recovery, and operational stability.
- Lead the technical assessment of new multimedia tools and platforms before acquisition.
- Support delivery teams with architectural guidance during projects, upgrades, migrations, and complex technical change.
- Define the security architecture, including data access, authorisation models, and compliance requirements, ensuring all multimedia platforms meet organisational security policies.
- Work closely with business, technology, and vendor teams to translate requirements into practical technical solutions.
About you
- Experience in architecture design within a multimedia, media, broadcast, publishing, or creative technology environment.
- Strong understanding of multimedia workflows across ingest, editing, collaboration, asset management, storage, archive, and delivery.
- Experience evaluating new platforms, producing HLDs and LLDs, and defining how solutions integrate into an existing estate.
- Strong knowledge of integration, APIs, automation, metadata, access, and interoperability, with the ability to support practical implementation.
- Experience working with vendors and supporting technology selection.
- Experience of cloud, hybrid, and on-premise storage environments.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage and inform with specialist and non-specialist stakeholders.
We actively encourage applications from groups traditionally underrepresented in the UK media. We operate in a hybrid environment working 3 days a week from our offices in Kings Cross and 2 days a week remotely. We value and respect all differences (seen and unseen) in all people. We aspire to have inclusive working experiences and an environment that reflects the audience we serve, where our people have equal access to career development opportunities, their voices are heard and can contribute to our future. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Many of our staff work flexibly and we will consider all requests for flexible working arrangements.
Benefits at the Guardian
- 30 days of annual leave per year (plus bank holidays) with the option to purchase an additional 5 days.
- A generous pension scheme; if you contribute 5% then we will contribute 8-12% (depending on your age).
- Employees are given 2 volunteering days annually and the option of payroll giving.
- Season ticket loans are also available.
- Life cover, income protection, and eye tests are provided.
- Option to opt in to dental insurance.
- Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave policies.
- Support for IVF, menopause, baby loss, and trans equality policy.
Culture and wellbeing
We want everyone to feel like they belong at the Guardian and we champion diversity of thought. Our various employee forums provide a platform to use their voice to foster an inclusive workplace. We became the first major media organisation to achieve B Corp status. We offer tools to help you prioritise your wellbeing including access to our employee benefits platform which provides tailored support for health and wellbeing. In addition, we also offer free yoga and pilates classes. These run alongside our corporate gym membership and cycle to work scheme. Our canteen has views overlooking the Regents Canal and caters for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Learning and development
We encourage personal and professional growth. Employees have access to a broad range of tools and solutions, and we are happy to support the pursuit of professional qualifications through vocational courses and apprenticeships.
Guardian News and Media is proud to be a London Living wage employer. The minimum salary for any full-time role within the organisation is £30,000 per annum. Salary ranges are dependent on skills and experience.
Solution Architect - Media Systems in London employer: WeAreTechWomen
Goldman Sachs is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment in London that fosters innovation and collaboration among over 2,000 engineers. With a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, employees benefit from extensive training and development opportunities, competitive wellness programs, and a culture that values personal and professional growth. The role of Software Engineer - Vice President not only provides the chance to lead transformative projects but also to work closely with traders and senior leadership, making a significant impact on the firm's strategic goals.
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