We are News UK Technology: using technology to innovate and lead the global conversation on the future of media and storytelling. We keep people at the heart of our business through value-driven and inclusive practices enabling our staff to grow and thrive. As such, we are proud members of Tech Talent Charter UK with 34% of our Tech roles filled by gender minorities. News UK Tech is an award-winning team, winning Team of the Year at the UK Business and Innovation Awards, 2023.
Your Role: As the Head of Architecture, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring alignment between digital teams objectives and architectural decisions with the technology and engineering strategies set forth by senior leadership. Your passion for software engineering and architecture, coupled with a commitment to nurturing talent and fostering a culture of excellence, will be instrumental in driving the organisation towards world-class engineering practices.
Day to day you will:
1. Lead the software architecture discipline across the digital technology estate.
2. Provide architectural direction to business and digital technology teams.
3. Develop and maintain architectural blueprints and reference architectures in line with business objectives.
4. Maintain in-depth knowledge of strategic plans across the business.
5. Develop and maintain an enterprise-wide technology roadmap aligned with strategic goals.
6. Facilitate the establishment of best practices for end-to-end system design and implementation.
7. Specify and maintain processes such as the Request for Comment (RFC) process to guide teams in digital product development.
8. Cultivate a centralised knowledge repository and disseminate information widely across teams.
9. Stay forward-looking on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices.
10. Cultivate relationships with business stakeholders to understand their needs.
11. Chair the Architecture Design Authority (ADA) to review significant initiatives and design changes.
12. Ensure technology solutions are cost-effective, scalable, and compliant with regulations and standards.
13. Work with the technology team to design and implement solutions meeting business needs.
14. Manage the Architecture team (4 direct reports based in London).
15. Manage the Engineering Productivity team (2 direct reports, 7 people based in Bulgaria).
16. Provide guidance, leadership, mentoring, and coaching to the technology team.
What we’re looking for from you: You should be passionate about software engineering & architecture as well as the culture needed to truly practise it. You should want to nurture and develop talent and teams as well as the communities both internal and external (open source) needed to truly build world class engineering organisations.
A Strategic-minded individual adept at translating business objectives into tangible architectural plans and solutions, while crafting and implementing long-term architectural roadmaps aligned with business goals.
Proven leader with a track record of building and leading high-performing teams, fostering a culture of excellence and collaboration to drive success in architectural initiatives aligned with business strategy.
Experienced in working with world-class consumer products, ensuring high scalability and performance, and engaging with relevant communities and open-source projects to stay abreast of industry trends and innovations.
Technically adept individual with expertise in technical architecture and a focus on simplifying technology ecosystems, demonstrated by a track record of developing and implementing effective, efficient, and scalable technology solutions.
Excellent communicator with strong communication skills, capable of articulating technical concepts effectively to non-technical stakeholders, and possessing strong problem-solving abilities with a creative approach to resolving complex technical challenges.
Understanding of the cybersecurity space, including knowledge of cyber defence products and services, and experience with cloud-based architecture.
If you think you have what it takes but don’t tick every requirement on the list, please do apply. We recognise that considering someone’s potential as well as their experience is a great way to hire. We want to hear from people who have a passion to learn and develop.
We are News UK: One of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland. Our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio, TalkTV and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local radio stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning print and pixel, audio and video, events and experiences, our multiplatform brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. News UK is wholly owned by News Corp.
Life at News: Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose. We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter. We inform our audiences so that they can make decisions based on trusted information.
To do this, we believe our employees must represent different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. We strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued.
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