Lead Architect

BBC Studios; Greater London; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

BBC Studios in London seeks a Lead Architect to shape the technical direction for a high-traffic news/content website and mobile app ecosystem. You will enable teams to make sound architectural decisions while aligning local choices with broader system goals.

The role balances autonomy with architectural consistency, introducing lightweight governance through patterns and reusable blueprints, and driving long-term sustainability.

Qualifications

• Experience designing distributed systems and shaping architecture.
• Strong grasp of trade-offs like coupling, cohesion and scalability.
• Familiarity with evolutionary architecture practices and fitness functions.
• Experience with modern engineering practices (CI/CD, observability, cloud-native).
• Ability to influence across multiple teams without formal authority.
• Strong facilitation skills to guide discussions and surface trade-offs.
• Comfort working in ambiguity and complexity.
• Ability to challenge constructively and align stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate architectural thinking within teams rather than owning decisions centrally.
• Support engineers and tech leads in evaluating trade-offs like scalability and operability.
• Encourage lightweight artefacts (ADRs, design narratives) for decisions.
• Push ownership to teams; ensure decisions are made at the right level.
• Set architectural direction through principles and reusable defaults.
• Evolve paved roads and golden paths to simplify good decisions.
• Avoid heavyweight governance; provide guidance and enablement.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering and Delivery to align goals and tech direction.
• Shape build vs buy, platform vs product, and long-term investments.
• Coach engineers and tech leads in architectural thinking.

Skills

Distributed systems

Architectural trade-offs

Evolutionary architecture

CI/CD & observability

Influence without authority

Facilitation

Ambiguity handling

Constructive challenge

Job description

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: E

CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time

LOCATION: London - TVC

DEPARTMENT: Engineering .com team

PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £85,000 - £100,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. Plus London Weigting Allowance of £5,441 and a 15% bonus OTE. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

WE ARE BBC STUDIOS

A globally renowned media company borne of the BBC. We make and distribute the world’s most sought-after TV, audio and digital content.

Our ambition is to be the home of the most powerful, entertaining, and inspiring stories for people all around the world.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

The Lead Architect is accountable for creating the conditions in which good architectural decisions emerge across teams working on a news/content-driven website and mobile app ecosystem with a large number of daily users. Rather than acting as a central authority or approval gate, they shape technical direction, enable teams to make sound decisions, and ensure local choices align with broader system goals and organisational strategy.

The role should include introducing lightweight governance through principles, patterns, and reusable blueprints, providing coherence without unnecessary centralisation. Its purpose is to optimise the system as a whole, balancing team autonomy with architectural consistency, long-term sustainability, and the ability to evolve.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

This is a high-impact role at the heart of how we evolve our technology and product operating model. You’ll work with senior stakeholders and engineering teams to simplify complexity, modernise our platforms, and deliver meaningful outcomes for the business.

Your Key Responsibilities And Impact

• Facilitate architectural thinking within teams rather than owning decisions centrally


• Support engineers and tech leads in evaluating trade-offs (e.g. scalability, operability, cost, coupling, resilience)


• Encourage explicit decision-making through lightweight artefacts (e.g. ADRs, design narratives)


• Ensure decisions are made at the right level - pushing ownership to teams wherever possible


• Set clear architectural direction through principles, patterns, and “sensible defaults”


• Establish and evolve paved roads and golden paths that make good decisions the easiest decisions


• Avoid heavyweight governance (e.g. design authorities, approval boards) in favour of guidance and enablement


• Work closely with Product, Engineering, and Delivery leadership to ensure alignment between: Business goals, Product strategy, and Technology direction


• Help shape decisions around build vs buy, platform vs product, and long-term investment


• Coach and mentor engineers and tech leads in architectural thinking

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Strong experience designing and evolving distributed systems


• Deep understanding of architectural trade-offs (e.g. coupling, cohesion, consistency, scalability)


• Familiarity with evolutionary architecture practices (e.g. fitness functions, incremental change)


• Experience with modern engineering practices (CI/CD, observability, cloud-native systems)


• Proven ability to influence without authority across multiple teams


• Strong facilitation skills - able to guide discussions and surface trade-offs


• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and complexity


• Able to challenge constructively and build alignment across diverse stakeholders

Desired But Not Required

• Experience working in large-scale digital or media organisations


• Familiarity with modern product operating models and outcome-driven delivery approaches


• Exposure to financial planning, vendor management or commercial technology decisions

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

NEXT STEPS

We appreciate your interest in this position and understand how important this opportunity is to you. Due to the high volume of interest we may need to close the application period earlier than anticipated. This step is necessary to ensure we can provide a high level of attention and service to all applicants. Thank you for your understanding.

#BBCSTUDIOS

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Recruitment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

Redeployment

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.