Application Architect (Fixed Term Contract/Secondment)

Oxford University Press; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work policy

18‑month fixed-term contract

Job summary

Oxford University Press is seeking an Application Architect to shape the technology behind our language content platforms, APIs and integrations at scale. You will translate business needs into practical architectures, guiding cross‑functional teams and external partners with technical roadmaps and best practices.

The role emphasizes security, performance and maintainability while modernising legacy environments.

Qualifications

• Experience designing and guiding architecture for large-scale systems.
• Proven ability to translate business requirements into technical designs.
• Experience with hybrid/cloud-hosted applications and APIs.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across internal teams and external delivery partners.
• Define and assure application, API and data-flow designs.
• Support architecture roadmaps and best practices throughout the development lifecycle.

Skills

Software architecture

Cloud architecture

APIs

DevOps practices

Technical leadership

Job description

About the Role

Join Oxford University Press and play a pivotal role in shaping the technology that powers some of the world’s most trusted language resources, including the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Oxford Languages Premium, and the platforms that support them. As an Application Architect, you will work across a diverse portfolio of content, editorial, API and integration platforms, helping to design and evolve solutions that enable customers, editors and product teams to access language content securely, reliably and at scale. Working closely with Product Owners, engineering teams and stakeholders, you will translate business requirements into practical technical solutions, guiding the architecture of new products, enhancements, migrations and platform improvements.

This is a highly collaborative role where you will provide technical leadership across internal teams and external delivery partners. You will define and assure application, API, integration and data-flow designs, ensuring that security, accessibility, performance, resilience and maintainability are considered from the outset. You'll be a trusted advisor who can communicate complex technical concepts in a clear and accessible way, helping stakeholders make informed decisions while supporting delivery teams with architecture guidance, technical roadmaps and best practice throughout the development lifecycle.

We're looking for an experienced architect with a strong background in modern software engineering, cloud-hosted applications, APIs, integrations and DevOps practices. You will be comfortable working across both modern and legacy technology environments, identifying opportunities to simplify, standardise and modernise platforms while supporting long‑term strategic goals. If you enjoy solving complex technical challenges, influencing technology direction and coaching teams to deliver high-quality solutions that make a real impact for a global audience, we'd love to hear from you.

This is an 18-month fixed term contract. We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.