Lead Application Architect

Bestway is modernising its application estate towards cloud-native architecture. We are looking for a hands‑on Lead Application Architect to own application-level design, define our engineering standards, and introduce AI-assisted development practices across the team.

You will sit between our Solution Architects, who define high-level designs, and the development team, who deliver them. You will turn HLDs into well‑documented, implementable designs (Low-Level Design) and make sure the code that results is consistent, secure and maintainable.

Bestway Group is a diversified multinational family owned business with annualised turnover in excess of £4.5 billion. Starting off as a chain of retail convenience stores, the Group has grown to become a diversified multinational business with interests across the wholesale, pharmacy, real estate, cement and banking sectors. The Group is also the largest overseas investor in Pakistan.

Owned by the Pervez, Choudrey and Sheikh families, Bestway Group was founded in 1976 by Sir Anwar Pervez OBE H Pk, who remains Chairman. Serving over 12 million customers and employing over 28,000 individuals, the Group supports and serves communities through its operations across the UK, Pakistan and the Middle East

• Application & low-level design: Own component-level (C4 Level
  3) and code-level (C4 Level
  4) design and LLDs for our applications. Translate Solution Architects’ HLDs into clear implementation designs, and make sure the team understands why behind each decision and the constraints that apply.

• Architecture governance: Write and maintain Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), run design reviews, and work with the Technology Design Authority (TDA) so that application-level decisions are traceable and consistent.

• Engineering standards: Define Java coding standards covering exception handling, stream/resource handling, structured logging (Application Insights) and security-first practices. Automate them through project templates, linters and CI quality gates rather than manual policing.

• AI-assisted development: Lead the adoption of AI tools across the SDLC (code generation, code review, refactoring, test generation, documentation, legacy code analysis). Define guidelines for usage, review of AI-generated code, and security and IP protection, and measure the impact on delivery speed and quality.

• Cloud-native modernisation: Guide the move of legacy applications to Azure Container Apps. Build reusable reference implementations covering health checks, secret management (Azure Key Vault), stateless design and containerisation best practices.

• Mentorship: Coach junior and mid-level developers through code reviews, pairing and technical guidance, and help build a culture of engineering excellence and continuous improvement.

• Quality: Work with the QA Lead to embed automated testing (unit, integration, contract) into the standard delivery pipeline.

• Significant experience in software engineering, with substantial production experience in Java and Spring Boot and in microservices architecture.

• Proven experience designing applications at component and code level, and documenting them (C4 model, LLD, ADRs).

• Experience building applications on Azure (e.g. Key Vault, Storage, Service Bus) and a solid grasp of containerisation and cloud-native principles.

• Working knowledge of CI/CD (Docker, Git Hub Actions) from a developer’s perspective.

• Strong understanding of REST API design and OAuth2 / OpenID Connect.

• Strong commitment to automated testing, and the ability to set testing standards the team can adopt.

• Hands‑on experience with AI coding assistants, and a practical view on using them safely and effectively.

• Excellent…