Lead Software Architect

About the role

We are seeking an experienced and hands-on professional to provide technical and architectural leadership for a web application platform, including its design, development, deployment, operation and ongoing enhancement of the web application platform. The successful candidate will serve as the technical and architectural leader for the platform. This individual will be responsible for defining and maintaining the technology architecture, providing technical direction to the development team, ensuring platform reliability and security, and overseeing the deployment and operation of applications on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The role requires a strong combination of architectural leadership and hands-on engineering capability, particularly in modern web application technologies, cloud infrastructure, APIs, system integration and production operations.

Key responsibilities

1. Technology and Architecture Leadership

• Serve as the overall technology lead and technical authority for the web application platform
• Define and maintain the overall technology architecture, application architecture and technology roadmap
• Make key technical decisions relating to application design, scalability, security, performance and maintainability
• Establish development practices, coding standards and architectural guidelines
• Evaluate and recommend appropriate technologies, frameworks, tools and third-party components
• Identify technical risks and implement appropriate mitigation strategies
• Ensuring that the platform architecture can support future business growth and increasing transaction volumes

2. Web Application Development

• Lead the design, development and maintenance of modern web-based applications.
• Work with the development team to design responsive and secure user interfaces and backend services.
• Possess strong familiarity with relevant web application technologies, including:

o   Front-end frameworks such as React, Angular or Vue.js.

o   Backend technologies such as Java, .NET, Node.js, or equivalent.

o   RESTful APIs and web services.

o   JSON, XML and other data interchange formats.

o   Relational databases.

o   Authentication and authorisation technologies.

• Review application designs and code to ensure quality, security and adherence to established standards.
• Participate directly in software development and troubleshooting where required.

3. AWS Cloud Infrastructure and Deployment

• Design, build, configure and manage the platform’s infrastructure on AWS.

• Set up and deploy applications, databases, networking and supporting services within AWS.

• Manage the full application deployment lifecycle, including development, testing, staging and production environments.

• Have practical experience with relevant AWS services, which may include:

  o   Amazon EC2

  o   Amazon ECS and/or EKS

  o   Amazon RDS

  o   Amazon S3

  o   Amazon VPC

  o   Elastic Load Balancing

  o   Amazon CloudWatch

  o   AWS IAM

  o   AWS Route 53

  o   AWS WAF

  o   AWS Secrets Manager

• Monitor cloud usage and optimise infrastructure for performance, availability and cost.

4. Security, Reliability and Operations

• Establish appropriate security controls for applications, APIs, cloud infrastructure and data.
• Implement secure authentication, access control, encryption and secrets management practices.
• Monitor application and infrastructure performance, availability and security.
• Establish logging, alerting and incident-management procedures.
• Design and maintain backup, disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities.
• Lead the investigation and resolution of critical production incidents and technical issues.
• Conduct root-cause analysis and implement preventive improvements.

5. Team Leadership and Vendor Management

• Lead, mentor and provide technical direction to internal developers and technical team members.
• Manage and coordinate external software development, infrastructure or technology vendors where applicable.
• Review deliverables from vendors and ensure compliance with technical and security requirements.
• Communicate technical issues, risks and recommendations effectively to management and non-technical stakeholders.
• Work closely with product, business, operations and customer-facing teams.

About you

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related discipline
• At least 5–8 years of relevant experience in software engineering, application development, solution architecture or technology infrastructure
• Demonstrated experience in a technical leadership, technical lead, solution architect or similar role
• Strong hands-on experience developing and maintaining web applications
• Strong understanding of both frontend and backend application architectures
• Practical experience deploying and operating applications on AWS
• Ability to independently set up AWS environments and deploy applications from development through to production
• Experience with databases, APIs and enterprise system integration
• Strong understanding of application and cloud security principles
• Experience managing production applications and resolving operational incidents
• Experience with popular Java frameworks like Spring Boot, Spring MVC, or Hibernate
• Knowledge of front-end technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and frameworks like React or Angular
• Experience with database technologies like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle
• Experience with containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes
• Knowledge of DevOps practices and tools
• Experience with Agile development methodologies
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• Strong communication and teamwork skills
• Strong leadership skills