Principle Architect - New Architectural Practice
5 days ago
Manchester
Nixor are proud to be supporting a Leading Financial Services provider at the very start of building out a brand new Architecture practice. This is therefore an opportunity to be one of the first senior hires — joining right at the start and helping to define how things are done from day one. This is a domain specific role, so Financial Services experience is required, especially within Insurance, Pensions, Annuities or Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). About the Role As a Lead / Principal Architect, you'll take technical ownership of a critical business domain. You’ll guide the transition from legacy systems to a modern, cloud-native, microservices architecture, with a specific focus on solutions that serve the business unit you are aligned too. The Principle Architect is responsible for owning the architecture roadmap end-to-end within their domain — from strategy to implementation. Unlike in some organisations where architects may focus more on governance or high-level oversight, my client expects their architects to be technically involved and closely aligned with delivery teams. Key responsibilities include: • End-to-end ownership of the domain architecture, including technical decisions, roadmap definition, and implementation oversight., • Hands-on engagement, including decisions on infrastructure, patterns, configuration, observability, and cost scaling., • Stakeholder engagement, building relationships that allow delivery teams to interface independently while maintaining architectural integrity., • Guidance and leadership, steering solution direction, ensuring scalability, and aligning designs with strategic goals., • Prioritisation of tactical vs. strategic work, ideally by evaluating trade-offs and alignment with the target state — though not all candidates demonstrated this understanding. Why Join? • Be in at the beginning of building a brand new team., • Huge Impact as you will own the technical landscape for your domain., • Clear direction, no third-party constraints, and full in-house ownership, • Minimal politics, strong alignment from board to tech team, • Tech-first and user-centric approach from day one We’re looking for experienced Senior Architects with: • Proven experience in solutions architecture within a heavily regulated industry., • A strong track record of modernising legacy systems into scalable, microservices-based platforms, • Deep knowledge of design patterns, cloud-native practices, and architectural governance, • Experience of managing and running a team of Architects., • Ability to still dig into the technical detail of P1 incidents. This is a hands-on leadership role — ideal for someone who wants to shape strategy but also stay close to the technology. Interested? This is your chance to join one of the UK’s most ambitious architecture transformations — with the scale of a large enterprise and the agility of a start-up team.