Contract Principal Software Architect

Salary: £39,000 - 70,500 per year

Requirements:

• Strong commercial experience working as a Software Architect / Principal Architect within complex software environments.
• Proven experience designing distributed systems and modern software platforms.
• Strong understanding of software architecture patterns, APIs, integrations and cloud-based systems.
• Experience operating within Microsoft Azure or another major cloud environment.
• Demonstrable experience defining service boundaries, ownership models and integration patterns.
• Strong understanding of SQL and NoSQL data technologies and the architectural considerations involved in selecting appropriate data stores.
• Experience working with transactional systems where data integrity, consistency, resilience and reliability are critical.
• Strong understanding of non-functional architecture, including security, scalability, performance, observability and resilience.
• Experience modernising or evolving existing platforms incrementally, including working with legacy systems and technical debt.
• Candidates must be within a commutable distance of Uxbridge due to the hybrid working requirement.

Responsibilities:

• Define and maintain architectural principles, standards and target-state designs across the technology landscape.
• Provide architectural leadership for complex initiatives, system changes and cross-platform integrations.
• Define clear service boundaries, ownership models and integration patterns.
• Support engineering teams in delivering scalable, maintainable and well-structured solutions.
• Assess existing systems and identify opportunities to simplify, consolidate and modernise platform capabilities.
• Support the evolution of legacy systems towards agreed target-state architectures through pragmatic, incremental change.
• Make and guide technical decisions around distributed systems, APIs, integrations, data and cloud architecture.
• Ensure security, resilience, observability, performance and scalability are incorporated into solution designs.
• Identify architectural risks, technical debt and platform constraints, and establish appropriate mitigation strategies.
• Provide technical review and architectural guidance for significant changes across multiple engineering teams.
• Work closely with Engineering and Product leadership on major technical decisions and platform roadmaps.
• Promote consistent architectural standards, engineering quality and technical decision-making.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor across complex, cross-functional technology initiatives.
• Support and mentor senior engineers and technical leads, helping embed architectural thinking within delivery teams.

Technologies:

• Architect
• Azure
• C#
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• DevOps
• Support
• NoSQL
• Python
• REST
• SQL
• Security
• ASP.NET
• NodeJS
• Confluence
• GitHub
• JIRA

More:

We are working with an enterprise digital platform to recruit a Contract Principal Software Architect to support a widely used, real-world consumer technology platform. This is an outside IR35 role for an initial 6-month contract with hybrid working, requiring 2 days onsite in Uxbridge per week. We operate in a brownfield architecture environment, so the successful architect will work within a live production estate, balancing existing technology, legacy decisions, technical debt, team structures and commercial priorities while improving scalability, resilience, maintainability and customer experience. This role suits a pragmatic, delivery-focused architect who can work closely with Engineering, Product, Platform and Technical Operations teams, and who is comfortable moving between high-level architecture and hands-on technical detail across .NET/C#, Microsoft Azure, Python, Node, REST APIs, SQL and NoSQL technologies, cloud infrastructure, modern DevOps and CI/CD practices.

last updated 34 week of 2026