Principal Architect

Principal Architect – Data, Cloud & Enterprise Modernisation

Edinburgh/Glasgow | Permanent | Financial Services

Our business is undergoing a significant evolution across technology, data and operational capability. With continued investment in modernisation, cloud migration and digital enablement, we are reshaping our application estate, ways of working and client proposition. As we move toward Agile and a squad‑based delivery model, we’re building the foundations for scalable, resilient and client‑centric solutions.

We’re now looking for a Principal Architect to lead the strategic direction of our data and cloud architecture - starting with a critical decision point: defining our future data‑warehouse solution. Whether we build or buy, you will lead the evaluation, design and recommendation of the right approach for our business.

This is a role for someone who can challenge the status quo, influence senior stakeholders, and bring clarity to complex architectural decisions. You’ll work across development, infrastructure, cloud and data teams to shape a modern, secure and resilient technology estate.

What you’ll lead

• Define the future state of our enterprise data platform, including a full build vs buy assessment for a new data‑warehouse solution.
• Lead architectural discovery across applications, integrations and data flows to determine what should be retained, modernised, consolidated, replaced or retired.
• Shape and accelerate our Azure cloud journey, ensuring new solutions align to cloud‑first principles, resilience, security and regulatory requirements.
• Provide architectural leadership across squads, development teams and infrastructure groups, ensuring designs are practical, scalable and strategically aligned.
• Influence senior stakeholders with clear, evidence‑based recommendations and articulate the impact of architectural decisions on cost, risk, resilience and long‑term capability.
• Reduce technical debt by guiding teams toward modern patterns, improved data quality, stronger integration design and simplified application landscapes.
• Ensure all architectural decisions support operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, security best practice and future business growth.

What we’re looking for

• Proven experience as a Principal Architect , Enterprise Architect or Lead Architect in financial services or another regulated environment.
• Deep understanding of data‑warehouse design, data platforms, ETL/ELT patterns and modern cloud‑native data architectures.
• Strong Azure experience - ideally across landing zones, governance, identity, networking, security and cloud‑native application patterns.
• Experience leading build vs buy evaluations, vendor assessments and architectural decision records.
• Ability to challenge legacy estates and drive modernisation across applications, integrations and data flows.
• Strong communication and stakeholder‑influence skills - able to engage senior leaders, simplify complexity and drive alignment.
• Experience working closely with development, infrastructure, cloud and data teams in a collaborative, delivery‑focused environment.
• A mindset focused on resilience, security, simplification and long‑term strategic value.

Why this role is exciting

• You’ll shape the future data platform for the entire organisation.
• You’ll influence major decisions on cloud, architecture and modernisation.
• You’ll work at the heart of a business investing heavily in technology transformation.
• You’ll have visibility and influence at senior levels across the organisation.
• You’ll help build a modern, scalable and secure technology estate that supports our next decade of growth.

If you’re a Principal Architect who thrives on solving complex problems, shaping enterprise strategy and guiding organisations through modernisation, we’d love to speak with you.