Application Architect — AI-Driven, Hybrid Delivery Leader

HotSchedules; Macclesfield; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 holidays/yr with flexibility

Hybrid work environment

Laptop provided

Healthcare expense claims

Certification opportunities

Annual meetups

Pension & life insurance

On-demand pay

Job summary

Fourth LTD is seeking an experienced Application Architect in the UK to shape architectural direction across strategic initiatives. You will work within the Enterprise Architecture team, providing hands-on leadership to engineers and fellow architects to deliver scalable, secure software solutions.

You will evolve architecture standards, collaborate across business and product teams, and help implement AI-enabled engineering practices while balancing delivery velocity with long-term

Qualifications

• Demonstrable, hands-on experience in application or software architecture and engineering.
• Strong knowledge of application design patterns and architectural styles (e.g. microservices, event-driven, layered).
• Experience with modern application frameworks and technologies.
• Experience with API design, microservices, and distributed systems architecture.
• Excellent collaboration and problem-solving skills with the ability to document and communicate complex solutions.
• Ability to lead and manage projects and teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Proficiency in one or more programming or scripting languages.
• Solid understanding of the end-to-end Software Development Lifecycle.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (preferably Microsoft Azure).
• Awareness of or hands-on experience with AI tools and technologies, and their application in software development and engineering productivity.

Responsibilities

• Deliver the application architecture for strategic projects and programmes, ensuring solutions are scalable, maintainable, secure, and aligned with Fourth's architectural direction.
• Provide hands-on architectural leadership within delivery teams, working alongside engineers to solve complex technical challenges and guide architectural decision making from concept through to delivery.
• Apply and contribute to the evolution of Fourth's application architecture standards, patterns, and engineering principles through practical delivery experience.
• Produce architectural designs, decision records, and technical documentation that clearly communicate solution intent and support long-term maintainability.
• Participate in architecture, design, and code reviews, providing constructive feedback and helping ensure consistency with established architectural principles.
• Collaborate with business, product, engineering, and fellow architects to understand requirements and translate them into pragmatic, high-quality technical solutions.
• Own the architectural direction of assigned initiatives, balancing business objectives, technical quality, operational considerations, and long-term maintainability.
• Identify technical risks, architectural debt, and opportunities for improvement, working with engineering teams to develop practical remediation plans.
• Design and evolve AI-assisted software engineering practices, tooling, and delivery pipelines that enable teams to build software safely, efficiently, and consistently.
• Use AI-assisted development tools to prototype, validate, and deliver architectural solutions, reference implementations, and production-quality software where appropriate.
• Research, evaluate, and recommend new technologies, frameworks, and architectural approaches that improve engineering effectiveness and deliver measurable business value.
• Champion the adoption of AI and emerging technologies to enhance application capabilities, engineering productivity, and software quality.
• Share knowledge, mentor engineers and technical leads, and contribute to the continuous improvement of Fourth's architecture and engineering communities.

Skills

Application architecture

Microservices

Event-driven design

Distributed systems

API design

Cloud platforms (Azure)

Programming languages

Team leadership

Documentation

Tools

Azure

AI tooling

Job description

Fourth LTD is seeking an experienced Application Architect in the UK to shape architectural direction across strategic initiatives. You will work within the Enterprise Architecture team, providing hands-on leadership to engineers and fellow architects to deliver scalable, secure software solutions.

You will evolve architecture standards, collaborate across business and product teams, and help implement AI-enabled engineering practices while balancing delivery velocity with long-term