Application architect, Software Development, Software Architect

Come join the Risk Intelligence Content Curation and Distribution team as an Application Architect, and help drive application design, as we support our World-Check customers in protecting against sanctions evasion, money laundering, human trafficking, terrorism and more!

The Application Architect plays a key technical role within the Risk Intelligence Engineering organisation. As we build the next set of applications and services this role contributes to the architecture and technical direction on the Risk Content Curation and Distribution Platform.

This role focuses on application-level architecture, design quality, and technical guidance
, working closely with Solution Architects, Product Owners, and engineering teams. You will help translate business and non‑functional requirements into robust, scalable designs while ensuring alignment with architectural standards and long‑term platform strategy.

The environment is cloud‑native and distributed, supporting varied workloads with strong security, reliability, and governance requirements.

You’ll contribute to and shape application architectures aligned with enterprise and solution‑level standards. Translating requirements into clear, pragmatic architectural designs – promoting consistency, reuse, and good design practices across application components.

Applying and promoting architectural principles, security standards, and engineering best practices is a key part of the role. You will also review significant technical design decisions within the application scope, working collaboratively with engineering and solution architecture teams. Ensuring solutions meet required quality attributes, including performance, resilience, scalability, and maintainability.

You will act as a recognised technical point of reference for development teams. Collaborating with a range of stakeholders to evaluate design options and trade‑offs. You will influence technical decisions through expertise and clear communication rather than formal authority.

Guide the design of cloud‑native, AWS‑hosted applications, considering resilience, security, operability, and cost. Ensure operational concerns such as observability, supportability, and deployment are considered early in design.

You will promote continuous improvements, by contributing to architectural roadmaps and the ongoing evolution of the platform; validating architectural approaches where appropriate through lightweight proofs of concept and supporting continuous improvement in architectural practices, patterns, and technical standards.

• Experience as an application architect or senior engineering role within distributed systems
• Strong understanding of application design, API design, and data modelling
• Solid experience with Java and/or Python in production environments
• Practical experience designing and operating AWS‑based applications in a cloud‑native environment
• Working knowledge of containerised architectures, messaging patterns, and distributed data stores
• Understanding of Infrastructure as Code concepts and modern CI/CD practices
• Sound understanding of security, authentication, and authorization concepts
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences
• Ability to influence technical decisions and collaborate effectively across teams and cultures
• Experience in designing solutions with good observability practices embedded
• Understanding of performance, scalability, and resilience engineering
• Deeper exposure to event‑driven architectures and asynchronous messaging at scale
• Experience optimizing performance, resilience, and cost in production cloud environments
• Familiarity with modern front‑end architectures and integration patterns
• Experience working in financial services, risk, compliance, or other regulated environments is desirable but not essential

A pragmatic and technically strong architectural thinker who collaborates effectively with both technical and business stakeholders. Comfortable navigating complex, fast‑moving environments, they influence through expertise rather than authority. You are curious, proactive, and focused on delivering high‑quality, sustainable systems.

Career Stage:
Manager

• Healthcare
• Retirement planning
• Paid volunteering days
• Wellbeing initiatives

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. This means that we do not discriminate on the basis of anyone’s race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. Conforming with applicable law, we can reasonably accommodate applicants’ and employees’ religious practices and beliefs, as well as mental health or physical disability needs.