Principal Solution Architect

Together, We Can Make A Significant Impact – Position Overview

The Principal Solution Architect provides organisation-wide technology and architecture leadership, translating business and executive priorities into scalable technology strategies, architecture blueprints and engineering capabilities.

The role is responsible for establishing the architectural direction and engineering foundations required to deliver secure, scalable and high-performing software across cloud and on-premises environments.

Beyond individual solution architecture, the Principal Solution Architect shapes how the organisation engineers software — establishing architecture principles, development standards, reusable frameworks, engineering accelerators and governance mechanisms that enable teams to deliver consistently and efficiently.

The role also plays a key part in building and maturing the organisation's in-house software engineering capability, developing architects and engineers while progressively reducing dependency on external delivery capabilities.

Be Part of Our Success – Key Responsibilities

Technology Strategy & Architecture Leadership

• Translate executive and business objectives into actionable multi-year technology and architecture roadmaps.
• Define organisation-wide architecture principles, reference architectures and software architecture blueprints across cloud, private cloud and on-premises environments.
• Ensure architecture supports scalability, modularity, performance, resilience, security and long-term maintainability.
• Establish decision frameworks that ensure technology choices are guided by strategic intent, architectural principles and measurable trade-offs rather than short-term or reactive pressures.
• Serve as the senior architectural authority for strategic and high-complexity initiatives, reviewing and approving architecture approaches and major technology decisions.
• Work closely with business and technology stakeholders to translate complex needs into innovative, scalable and sustainable technology solutions.

Engineering Standards & Governance

• Define and institutionalise software engineering standards and ways of working across the organisation.
• Establish governance for architecture reviews, design reviews, pull requests, code quality, documentation, security and engineering practices.
• Define architecture review and technology decision processes that provide appropriate governance without unnecessarily slowing delivery.
• Drive adoption of modern Agile, DevSecOps and software engineering practices across development teams.
• Establish mechanisms to assess architecture conformance and provide guidance where solutions diverge from approved principles or reference architectures.
• Promote engineering practices that improve reliability, maintainability, security and developer productivity.

Engineering Platforms & Accelerators

• Define and develop reusable software frameworks, common components and architecture patterns that accelerate product and project delivery.
• Establish engineering accelerators such as reusable component libraries, CI/CD pipeline templates, infrastructure-as-code patterns, architecture playbooks and internal developer platforms.
• Identify opportunities to standardise commonly required technical capabilities across products rather than repeatedly developing project-specific solutions.
• Drive adoption and continuous improvement of shared engineering capabilities across development teams.

Software Architecture & Technical Excellence

• Provide architectural direction for complex software systems including application architecture, microservices, integration, APIs, data flows and platform services.
• Optimise system architecture for performance, scalability, resilience and maintainability.
• Identify and address architectural bottlenecks, technical risks and integration challenges.
• Ensure security considerations are embedded into architecture and software engineering practices from design through implementation.
• Support software development teams through architecture reviews, technical problem-solving and hands-on guidance where required.

Engineering Capability Building

• Lead the strategic development and maturity of the organisation's in-house software engineering capability.
• Develop a capability roadmap identifying current skills, future competencies and gaps across the engineering organisation.
• Define phased initiatives to build critical capabilities and progressively reduce reliance on external vendors and contractors.
• Design and oversee structured technical development programmes across areas including full-stack engineering, cloud engineering, DevSecOps, infrastructure-as-code and software architecture.
• Establish appropriate competency expectations and development pathways across different engineering seniority levels.
• Mentor Solution Architects, technical leaders and software engineers to strengthen architecture thinking, engineering judgement and technical leadership across the organisation.
• Support developer onboarding by ensuring engineers understand architecture principles, engineering standards, development practices and shared technology platforms.

Technology Innovation & R&D

• Provide thought leadership on emerging technologies, industry trends and evolving architectural paradigms.
• Identify technologies with potential strategic value and determine where experimentation or investment is appropriate.
• Lead or guide technology R&D and proof-of-concept initiatives to evaluate applicability, benefits, risks and adoption considerations.
• Translate successful experimentation into practical engineering patterns, platforms or product capabilities.
• Guide the organisation through technology transformation while balancing innovation with operational sustainability and delivery realities.

Stakeholder & Organisational Leadership

• Build alignment between business, product, engineering, architecture and leadership stakeholders on technology direction.
• Communicate complex architectural concepts, options and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Influence strategic technology decisions across programmes and organisational boundaries.
• Provide trusted technical advice to senior leadership on architecture, engineering investment, technology risks and capability priorities.

Requirements

Qualities We Value

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related discipline. Significant relevant professional experience may be considered in lieu of formal education.
• 12+ years of experience in solution architecture and delivery, software engineering, and technology leadership.
• Strong track record designing and delivering complex, large-scale or mission-critical software systems.
• Extensive experience defining architecture principles, engineering standards and technology governance.
• Demonstrated experience making and communicating architecture decisions involving scalability, performance, security, resilience, integration and maintainability.
• Strong hands-on understanding of modern software architecture including cloud-native architectures, microservices, APIs, distributed systems and modern application development.
• Strong knowledge of Agile, DevSecOps, CI/CD and modern software engineering practices.
• Experience with public cloud, private cloud and/or on-premises technology environments.
• Experience establishing reusable engineering frameworks, common services, development platforms or software accelerators.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate emerging technologies and lead technology experimentation or R&D initiatives.
• Experience developing technical capability, mentoring senior engineers or architects, and raising engineering maturity across teams.
• Strong understanding of security architecture, technical risk management and secure software engineering practices.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, including the ability to engage senior business and technology leaders.
• Able to demonstrate a structured approach to architecture design, including requirements analysis, architectural options, trade-offs, technology decisions and risk considerations.