Scope and Responsibilities :

End-to-end architecture leadership :

- Own architecture from discovery through delivery : target-state design, roadmaps, HLD/LLD, integration patterns, and NFRs- (security, performance, resiliency, cost).

- Define architectural standards and govern technical decisions through architecture reviews.

- Ensure production readiness : observability, SLO/SLA alignment, incident/change readiness, and operational runbooks.

- AI-specific solution design and governance

Architect AI-enabled capabilities including :

- LLM orchestration and tool/function calling

- RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), vector search, and knowledge ingestion patterns

- Agentic workflows (Sense-Reason-Act), workflow orchestration, and safe automation

Adopt AI governance and safety controls :

- Human-in-the-loop approval patterns for high-risk actions

- Auditability and traceability (logs, reasoning traces, evaluation evidence)

- Quality and risk management (hallucination mitigation, drift detection, regression testing)

Data, integration, and platform architecture :

- Design scalable data and event-driven architectures across multi-service ecosystems.

- Lead integration design using secure, API-first and event-driven patterns (REST/gRPC, async messaging, schema governance).

- Work closely with platform and engineering teams to implement best practices across diverse technologies.

Vendor research, evaluation, and management :

- Own the architecture engagement with vendors to ensure best-fit solutions and smooth integration.

- Liaise with vendor to accelerate integration delivery (APIs, connectors, support models).

Required technical skills & experience :

Architecture & engineering (core) :

- 8+ years in software architecture / solution architecture delivering enterprise-grade systems.

- Strong expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native design, APIs, and integration patterns.

- Proven experience designing for security, resiliency, performance, and operability- (including observability and incident response readiness).

Platform technologies (hands-on architectural depth) :

- Microsoft Azure- (required) : designing production solutions across core services (networking, identity, compute, storage, monitoring).

- AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) : microservices platform design, deployment patterns, scaling, resiliency, and platform governance.

- Kafka / Confluent Cloud : event streaming architecture, topic strategy, partitioning, consumer patterns, schema management, reliability.

- Databricks : data lakehouse architecture, batch/stream processing patterns, governance, and performance considerations.

- Relational/NoSQL Databases : data modeling for operational workloads, indexing, scaling patterns, and reliability trade-offs.

AI/ML & agentic architecture :

Experience architecting and shipping AI-enabled systems, including :

- LLM-based applications and orchestration patterns

- RAG, embeddings, vector storage/search concepts

- Evaluation and quality controls for AI systems in production

- Ability to apply architectural best practices across technologies : clear boundaries, security controls, performance design, and maintainability.

Nice to have (Bonus) :

- Experience with enterprise service management environments (ITSM), AIOps, or automation platforms.

- Familiarity with Zero Trust patterns, regulated environments, and privacy-by-design engineering.

- Certifications in Azure, Kubernetes, or architecture frameworks.

- Vendor management : Confidently engages vendors, leads technical due diligence, negotiates trade-offs, and drives outcomes across commercial and technical constraints.

Soft skills (required) :

High business acumen : Can clearly articulate what the business is trying to achieve, translate goals into measurable system outcomes, and ensure the architecture delivers what the business actually needs

- Executive-level communication : Can translate technical complexity into clear options, risks, and trade-offs for leaders and stakeholders.

- Strong facilitation : Leads architecture workshops, aligns diverse teams, and drives decisions without relying on authority.

- Pragmatic leadership : Balances speed and innovation with reliability, security, and governance.

- Mentoring mindset : Coaches engineers and operations team, builds reusable patterns, and raises engineering maturity.

- Structured problem solving : Handles ambiguity, breaks down complex systems, and produces actionable architecture artefacts.

- Ownership and accountability : Takes end-to-end responsibility for architecture quality and integration outcomes.

Academic Qualifications and Certifications :

- Bachelor's degree or equivalent in computer science or software engineering or related field.

- Certification in various programming languages, for example (but not limited to) Python, React preferred.

- Scrum / Project Management certification preferred.

Required experience :

- Experience with data pre-processing, feature engineering, and model evaluation/validation techniques.

- Advanced Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience.

- Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure for building and deploying AI/ML solutions is a plus.

- Advanced experience with Programming Languages such as (but not limited to) Python, React, Java.

- Advanced experienced with Linux or Unix and Windows operating systems.

- Advanced experience working with SQL.

- Advanced project management experience and/or experience working in an Agile environment.

Academic qualifications and certifications :

- Bachelor's degree or equivalent in computer science or software engineering or related field.

- Certification in various programming languages, for example (but not limited to) Java, Perl, Python, C++ preferred.

- Scrum / Project Management certification preferred.

Required experience :

- Advanced Software Applications Engineering, Software Development experience, or related work experience.

- Advanced experience with Programming Languages such as (but not limited to) C, C++, Java, Python.

- Advanced experienced with Linux or Unix and Windows operating systems.

- Advanced experience working with SQL.

- Advanced project management experience and/or experience working in an Agile environment.