Principal Architect - Business Capabilities

First Abu Dhabi Bank; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution in the UAE is seeking a Principal Architect to define the long-term technical strategy and architecture vision for Corporate & Investment Banking. The ideal candidate will possess strong technical skills, lead multiple product development efforts, and mentor team members. A Bachelor's degree in computer science is required, along with extensive experience in high-performance distributed systems. This full-time role does not offer remote work options and emphasizes a strong foundation in cloud technologies.

Qualifications

• 5 years leading large-scale software projects.
• Experience in building high-performance, scalable systems.
• Expert knowledge in reliability and system architecture.

Responsibilities

• Define long-term technical strategy and architecture vision.
• Build foundational reusable solutions for CIB brands.
• Mentor other members of the architecture and developer community.

Skills

Technical leadership

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Agile methodologies

Knowledge in cloud technologies

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

Tools

AWS CloudFormation

Terraform

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

FAB the UAEs largest bank and one of the worlds largest and safest institutions offers an extensive range of tailor‑made financial solutions products and services. Headquartered in Abu Dhabi the banks international network spans five continents.

The Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) offers products to Government Government Related Entities Financial Institutions Multinational Corporations and SMEs. Our service lines include Global Transaction Banking Global Corporate Finance Global Markets CIB - FAB Islamic and Business Banking.

FAB CIB is looking for a Principal Architect with experience and passion for building modern web and mobile applications for corporate and investment banking customers. As a Principal Architect you will be a technical leader and exemplary practitioner.

FAB Principal Architects are hands‑on and lead by example. They deliver artifacts that set the standard for engineering excellence from designs to implementations. They remain close to the details. You will help establish technical standards and drive FABs overall technical architecture and engineering practices. You are expected to produce both detailed technical work and high‑level architectural designs.

You will need exceptionally strong technical skills strong business acumen analytical skills and the ability to deal with ambiguity in a fast‑paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Define the long‑term technical strategy and architecture vision for FAB CIB.
• Think big and build foundational/reusable solutions and services that will help CIB brands use these solutions where applicable instead of building their own.
• Assist in the career development of others actively mentoring other members of FAB architecture and developer community on advanced technical issues.
• Exert technical influence over multiple teams increasing their productivity and effectiveness by sharing your deep knowledge and experience.
• Lead or contribute to multiple simultaneous product development efforts and/or technology initiatives.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in computer science or equivalent.
• Domain knowledge of Corporate & Investment Banking services.
• Working knowledge in mobile banking internet banking host to host open banking and corporate payments.
• Experience in building high‑performance highly available and scalable distributed systems preferably running on AWS or Azure.
• Expert knowledge in reliability performance scalability enterprise system architecture and engineering best practices.
• 5 years leading large‑scale software projects.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Hands‑on experience with infrastructure as code services such as AWS CloudFormation AWS CDK Terraform Azure Resource Manager templates.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building web and mobile applications for corporate and investment banking.
• Experience with automated deployments using CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience driving large application and infrastructure platform migrations (and ideally application modernization) to AWS or Azure.
• Practical experience and expertise in at least 3 of the following domains: Compute / Storage / Networking / CDN / Databases / DevOps / AI / ML / Big Data and Analytics / Security / Applications Development in a distributed systems environment.
• Experience developing cloud security practices and architecting highly secure public‑facing infrastructures with significant market visibility and brand power.
• AWS or Azure certified.
• Experience with AI and Machine Learning technologies to enhance data analysis capabilities and provide predictive insights.
• Strong understanding of Agile methodologies and experience with DevOps practices to ensure continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).
• Commitment to sustainable technologies and practices to drive innovation and efficiency in the digital era.
• Ability to act as a strategic advisor providing architectural leadership and vision to drive business growth and transformation.

Remote Work

No

Employment Type

Full‑time