Director Principal Architect

Overview

WELCOME TO SITA

We’re the team that keeps airports moving, airlines flying smoothly, and borders open. Our tech and communication innovations are the secret behind the success of the world's air travel industry.

You'll find us at 95% of international hubs. We partner closely with over 2,500 transportation and government clients, each with their own unique needs and challenges. Our goal is to find fresh solutions and cutting‑edge tech to make their operations run like clockwork. Want to be a part of something big?

Are you ready to love your job? The adventure begins right here, with you, at SITA.

As Principal Architect, AI, Products and Enterprise Solutions, you will be accountable for defining and leading SITA’s enterprise architecture direction across AI, data, product, solution, and customer architecture, including leadership of the solution and customer architect teams across the organisation.

The role provides enterprise‑wide technical and people leadership, ensuring that AI, data, product, solution, and customer architectures are applied in a consistent and effective manner to support business value, innovation, and competitive advantage, while coaching, mentoring, and developing senior architects across SITA.

In addition to architecture leadership, the role is responsible for ensuring that AI and product solution architectures are embedded within core products, platforms, and decision‑making processes, and for building a high‑performing architecture function through effective people leadership, talent development, succession planning, and a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

This role operates at enterprise scope, with responsibility for cross‑portfolio AI and product architecture direction, the establishment of enterprise standards, and the development of architecture capability and leadership at scale.

• Enterprise AI & Architecture Strategy Ownership
  • Define and maintain enterprise architecture strategy, with a strong emphasis on AI, data platforms, and intelligent systems.
  • Establish an AI‑enabled and product‑aware architecture vision and multi‑year roadmap aligned to business and digital strategy.
  • Drive adoption of machine learning, advanced analytics, automation, and AI‑enabled product architectures across products and internal platforms.
  • Translate emerging AI trends into scalable and productised enterprise capabilities.
• Product Solution Architecture Leadership
  • Lead the definition of end‑to‑end product solution architecture across key enterprise products and platforms.
  • Own the architectural integrity of product solutions, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, AI strategy, and business outcomes.
  • Define architecture patterns and reference models for AI‑enabled products, ensuring consistency, scalability, and reuse.
  • Partner with Product, Engineering, and Data teams to shape solution design from concept through delivery.
  • Ensure product architectures are resilient, secure, and designed for global scale and operational excellence.
  • Set direction for product solution architecture across portfolios, rather than contributing to individual solution designs.
• AI Governance, Standards & Responsible AI
  • Define and enforce architecture and AI governance frameworks, including standards, guardrails, and design principles.
  • Contribute to the development and implementation of responsible AI practices, including ethics, explainability, bias mitigation, and compliance, in line with regulatory expectations.
  • Ensure AI solutions are secure, compliant, and aligned with enterprise risk frameworks.
  • Provide oversight on critical AI and data architecture decisions across portfolios.
• Data, AI Platforms & Technical Leadership
  • Define and evolve enterprise data architecture and AI platform strategy (data pipelines, MLOps, model lifecycle management).
  • Drive adoption of cloud‑native, scalable AI architectures and modern data ecosystems.
  • Lead the integration and architectural design of AI capabilities within core products, digital platforms, and customer journeys.
  • Champion technical excellence, reusability, and platform thinking across the organisation.
• Execut…