Principal Architect

About Us The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide. At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Together, we help audiences stay better informed and deepen their understanding of the world around them. Our Product & Tech teams drive us forward in an ever-evolving digital landscape, delivering cutting-edge products to over one million digital subscribers daily. Our growth relies on a diverse, dedicated and dynamic group of product, tech, delivery and data specialists. With a supportive culture, entrepreneurial spirit and opportunities at every turn, there are no limits to where your FT career can take you. Build a newsworthy career at the FT. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups. About you You are an experienced technical architect with a track record of shaping architecture and technical strategy across complex technology environments. You are comfortable working across multiple products, platforms and engineering teams, bringing clarity and direction to complex technical decisions while balancing strategic goals with pragmatic delivery. You are an excellent communicator and collaborator who can build trusted relationships with engineers, product leaders, business stakeholders and technology partners. You are able to influence at a senior level, bringing teams together around common architectural principles and helping them make decisions that support both immediate delivery and the long-term health of our technology landscape. You are also an experienced technical leader who enjoys developing and supporting other senior technologists. You can provide clear direction while creating the autonomy for experienced technical leaders to succeed, and you are comfortable combining hands-on architectural leadership with people management responsibilities. Our ideal candidate brings fresh perspectives, strong technical judgement and a collaborative approach to architecture. You are curious about technology, comfortable navigating ambiguity and passionate about simplifying complex technology landscapes and helping engineering teams build secure, scalable and sustainable solutions. About the team Internal Products Technology is responsible for the platforms, products and services that support many of the Financial Times’ critical internal business capabilities. Our teams work across a broad technology landscape spanning Commercial Technology, Finance, People, Digital Print Services and other corporate capabilities. This includes enterprise SaaS platforms, cloud-native applications, integrations, data flows and internally developed software. As our technology landscape continues to evolve, we are strengthening our approach to architecture to ensure that decisions made across individual products and platforms contribute to a coherent, scalable and sustainable technology ecosystem. The Principal Technical Architect will play a key role in establishing this capability, working across Internal Products and with architecture and engineering colleagues throughout the FT. What you’ll work on As the Principal Technical Architect for Internal Products, you will provide architectural leadership across our portfolio of enterprise platforms and internally developed applications. To date, architecture and technical design have largely been owned within individual product, platform and engineering teams. As our technology landscape grows in complexity, and as we undertake significant transformation across our enterprise platforms, we need to strengthen our approach to architecture across Internal Products. You will define architectural principles, technology standards and reusable patterns that enable teams to make consistent and sustainable technology decisions. You will identify opportunities to simplify our technology landscape, improve interoperability, reduce duplication and ensure our platforms can evolve effectively as our business needs change. You will also provide architectural leadership for major strategic initiatives, with a particular focus on the Commercial Technology Programme, helping teams translate business strategy and requirements into scalable technology architectures and ensuring programme-level decisions align with our longer-term technology direction. This is a senior ‘Principal’ role, combining organisation-wide architectural leadership with people leadership. You will lead architecture across Internal Products, driving consistency, clarity and best practice through technical leadership, collaboration and influence. You will also directly manage two senior technical leaders, supporting their development and ensuring strong alignment of architectural and technical direction across the organisation. Your responsibilities will include Architecture & Technical Strategy Acting as the technical authority on architecture across Internal Products, providing direction across enterprise platforms, applications and strategic programmes. Defining and evolving architectural principles, technology standards, reference architectures and reusable patterns. Establishing a clear architectural direction for Internal Products that aligns with the Technology Director’s strategy and the wider FT technology strategy. Developing target architectures and technology roadmaps that help teams evolve their platforms towards a simpler and more sustainable technology landscape. Identifying opportunities to consolidate capabilities, promote reuse and reduce unnecessary technology complexity and technical debt. Ensuring architectural decisions appropriately consider scalability, resilience, security, operability, maintainability and cost. Identifying emerging architectural risks and working with teams to develop pragmatic approaches to addressing them. Strategic Programmes & Solution Architecture Providing architectural leadership for major transformation initiatives, including the Commercial Technology Programme. Working with product, engineering and business teams to translate strategic objectives and complex business requirements into technology architectures. Supporting significant technology and platform decisions, ensuring solutions align with longer-term architectural direction. Providing architectural oversight across programmes involving multiple platforms, teams, integrations and technology partners. Helping teams understand architectural trade-offs and make pragmatic decisions that balance immediate delivery needs with longer-term sustainability. Evaluating technology platforms and strategic suppliers, providing architectural input into technology selection and investment decisions. Integration & Platform Architecture Establishing and promoting consistent integration patterns across enterprise SaaS platforms, cloud-native services and internally developed applications. Defining principles and standards for APIs, events and system interoperability. Ensuring integration decisions promote appropriate reuse, loose coupling and clear ownership between systems and domains. Working with teams to identify opportunities to simplify integrations and reduce duplication across the technology estate. Collaborating with platform, security and engineering teams to ensure solutions meet wider FT technology standards. Technical Leadership & People Development Managing and supporting two senior technical leaders, providing coaching, feedback and career development. Setting clear expectations and creating the autonomy for senior technical leaders to lead effectively within their areas. Ensuring strong alignment between architectural direction and technical leadership across Internal Products. Supporting the development of architecture and engineering leadership capability across the organisation. Mentoring senior engineers and others taking architectural responsibility within their teams. Creating an environment that encourages constructive technical challenge, collaboration, knowledge sharing and continuous learning. Helping build a strong architecture community and culture across Internal Products. Architecture Governance & Collaboration Establishing pragmatic architecture governance that provides appropriate oversight while enabling engineering teams to retain autonomy. Leading architecture reviews for significant technology decisions and solutions. Partnering closely with Principal Engineers and Engineering Leads to ensure architectural direction can be effectively translated into engineering delivery. Building effective relationships with Product Managers, business stakeholders and technology leaders to ensure architecture is informed by both technology and business priorities. Collaborating with architects and engineering colleagues across the wider FT to promote consistency, shared standards and reuse. Clearly communicating architectural decisions, trade-offs, risks and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences. Representing Internal Products in relevant architecture and technology forums across the FT. Technical and leadership experience we’re looking for Demonstrable experience in a senior technical, solution or enterprise architecture role within a complex technology organisation. Experience defining architectural direction across multiple applications, platforms and business domains. Strong knowledge of modern application architecture, enterprise SaaS platforms, cloud-native technologies and distributed systems. Strong understanding of enterprise integration, APIs, event-driven architecture and common integration patterns. Experience establishing architectural principles, standards and governance while enabling teams to retain appropriate autonomy. Experience translating complex business requirements and strategic objectives into pragmatic technology architectures and roadmaps. Experience providing architectural leadership for significant transformation programmes involving multiple platforms, teams and stakeholders. Strong understanding of public cloud environments, preferably AWS. Experience identifying and managing architectural risk, technical debt and technology lifecycle challenges. Experience managing, coaching or developing senior technical professionals. Ability to provide leadership to highly experienced technical colleagues while empowering them to retain ownership and autonomy within their areas. Excellent communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical concepts and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences. A track record of influencing across organisational boundaries and aligning teams around longer-term technical direction. Ability to balance strategic architectural thinking with the practical realities of technology delivery. Experience with enterprise platforms such as Salesforce, Oracle Fusion, Workday or similar SaaS ecosystems would be advantageous. Experience modernising complex or legacy enterprise technology estates would be advantageous. Experience evaluating technology vendors and participating in technology selection or procurement processes would be advantageous. Characteristics we value Strong collaboration and communication skills. Pragmatism and good judgement when balancing technical, product and business needs. The ability to think strategically while remaining close to technology and delivery. A strong sense of ownership and accountability. Curiosity and a commitment to continuous learning. An ability to bring people together around complex technical decisions. Confidence influencing across teams and organisational boundaries. Strong coaching and mentoring skills, particularly when working with experienced technical leaders. An ability to navigate ambiguity and provide clarity in complex environments. A genuine interest in helping others grow through mentoring, coaching and knowledge sharing. An appreciation for simplicity, sustainability and long-term technical quality. What’s in it for you? Our benefits Our benefits vary by location, but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. Full details of our benefits are available here . We’ve embraced a 50% hybrid working model (averaging two to three days onsite) that fosters trust and remote adaptability while encouraging in-person camaraderie and peer learning. Additionally, we are open to accommodating specific flexible working pattern requests for all roles where feasible. Accessibility We are a disability confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory. Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments/personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, email [email protected] and a member of our team will be happy to help. Further information At the FT, we embrace innovation and the use of technology and appreciate that individuals may leverage AI tools as part of their job application process. Whilst we are happy for you to use AI to assist with your application, it is essential that all information provided is authentic and accurately represents your skills, experience, and qualifications.