Principal Technical Architect, (AI First)

Overview

Lab49 is hiring a Principal Technical Architect to lead the end-to-end solution architecture for an AI-first consumer platform. This is a hands-on, design authority role spanning mobile, web, backend, data, and AI - owning the platform's architecture across squads and ensuring secure, scalable, and coherent delivery. You will define integration to the core platform, establish API and event contracts, and orchestrate SOP/workflow logic so AI-driven experiences execute reliably across Lab49 and core platform-managed services. The role includes setting architectural guardrails, interface contracts, and integration strategy across domains (front end, mobile, backend, data, AI, DevSecOps). A key focus is the Trusted AI Foundation (model/runtime governance, vector/knowledge layers, feedback loops) and core platform integration to power real-time, personalised experiences at scale.

The ideal candidate brings deep experience shipping complex, distributed consumer platforms (mobile + web), integrating with large transactional systems in a high-stakes environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Solution Design and Architecture: Own the end-to-end architecture; define the target architecture (DDD), NFRs (security, performance, resilience), and platform guardrails. Create detailed design specifications, reference implementations, and architectural decision records (ADRs). Design for modularity and evolvability (microservices/micro frontends, event-driven patterns, clear service and domain boundaries).
• Offline-first and resilience: Ensure the architecture supports offline-first mobile, low-latency personalization, and graceful degradation when AI or upstreams are unavailable.
• Agentic Orchestration (Application Layer): Define the agentic execution layer (task/goal decomposition, tool use, SOP orchestration, retries/compensation, human-in-the-loop where required). Implement application-side guardrails (PII redaction at the edge, prompt-injection defences, output moderation hooks) aligned to AI Foundation policies. Establish evaluation gates, canarying and rollback for agent changes; drive telemetry for quality, safety and cost.
• Core Integration & Orchestration (Design Authority): Lead integration design with the core processing platform; define API contracts and async event schemas with versioning and backward compatibility. Manage data and event flows. Own SOP/workflow orchestration and Event Driven Architecture patterns across Lab49 and core managed services. Ensure service level objectives, resilience and clear interface SLAs.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Translate requirements into scalable tech designs and integration patterns; collaborate with engineering, security, Platform, and data/AI teams; communicate architectural vision and trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Client Interaction: Engage with client architects and programme leadership to align roadmaps, de-risk delivery, and secure sign-off on contracts and standards. Act as a trusted advisor and contribute to engagement expansion through credible technical leadership.
• Technical Leadership: Provide hands-on architectural oversight of code quality, API design, data models, and infra alignment. Mentor leads and senior engineers; run design reviews and cross-squad architecture forums. Evaluate and recommend tooling, frameworks, and reference patterns.
• Security: Embed security by design across services and data flows; IAM and identity patterns, secrets management, secure supply chain; threat modelling, vulnerability management, runtime protection, and data privacy compliance.
• Governance and Standards: Establish and enforce architectural standards, API guidelines, event schemas, and coding conventions. Maintain artefacts (models, diagrams, ADRs, interface catalogues) and run periodic architecture reviews.
• Universal Engineering: Integrate a diverse technology stack across mobile, web, backend, data, and AI.

Experience and Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field; Master's preferred.
• 10+ years in software/solution engineering with 5+ years in senior/principal architecture roles.
• Proven record designing and delivering complex, distributed cloud-native platforms at scale.
• Experience integrating with complex transactional systems is strongly preferred.

Skills and Domains

• Architecture & Integration: Design modular systems; define API and event contracts; knowledge of Telecom BSS is a plus.
• Cloud & Platform: Cloud-native design, containers/orchestration, infrastructure as code, CI/CD; optimize for performance and cost.
• Data & Agentic Layer: Data models and streaming; application-side agent orchestration and safety controls.
• Security & Reliability: Identity and access, encryption and secrets; timeouts/retries; monitoring, tracing and resilience.
• Web/Mobile & Leadership: Modern web and mobile patterns; strong in one backend language; code quality; lead cross-squad decisions.

Certifications and Nice to Have

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional
• AWS Certified Security - Specialty
• AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty
• AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate
• AWS Certified AI Practitioner
• CKA / CKAD for Kubernetes

Seniority and Logistics

• Seniority level: Mid-Senior level
• Employment type: Full-time
• Job function: Engineering and Information Technology
• Industries: Software Development