Senior Architect - AdTech

Sainsbury’s Group; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A retail giant in the United Kingdom is seeking an AdTech Architect to bridge the gap between retail media strategy and complex data ecosystems. Responsibilities include defining the technical architecture for data integration, liaising with stakeholders and engineering teams, and ensuring scalable features for the advertising ecosystem. The ideal candidate will have deep domain expertise in AdTech and strong skills in data literacy and problem-solving. This role offers a range of benefits including discounts, bonuses, and comprehensive support for employee wellbeing.

Benefits

Colleague discount

Performance-related bonus

Health cash plans

Qualifications

• Comprehensive understanding of the programmatic landscape, including OpenRTB protocols.
• Ability to explain complex AdTech concepts to non-technical leaders.
• Strong grasp of data modeling and how data should be structured for advertising.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical architecture for the Retail Media Network.
• Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and engineering teams.
• Consult for multiple product and engineering squads.

Skills

Systems thinking

Technical translation

Proactive problem solving

Deep AdTech domain expertise

Data literacy

Privacy & compliance knowledge

Tools

SQL

JSON/XML structures

Job description

The AdTech Architect is a critical technical leader who bridges the gap between high-level retail media strategy and the complex data ecosystems required to power it. You will serve as the primary blueprint designer for how our retail media network interacts with the broader advertising world-integrating on-site search, off-site programmatic, and social platforms into a cohesive, data-driven engine. You'll be part of our delivery squads working on Ad-tech, interpreting and following architectural and engineering principles, operating frameworks, and new and improved technology and solutions. With your craft, curiosity and experimentation, you'll use judgement to apply specific techniques to deliver focused outcomes that support our customers.

What You'll Do

• Systems Design & Mapping: Define the technical architecture for how our Retail Media Network (RMN) integrates with external DSPs, SSPs, and social platforms.
• Requirements Translation: Act as the primary liaison between Business Stakeholders and Engineering teams. You will take complex feature requests and break them down into technical data requirements.
• Data Integration Strategy: Determine which data sources and systems need to be unified to deliver specific features like audience segmenting, real-time bidding, or attribution modeling.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Consult for multiple product and engineering squads to ensure new features are scalable and maintain the integrity of the overall advertising ecosystem.
• Vendor & API Evaluation: Lead the technical discovery for third-party integrations, vetting API documentation and system capabilities to ensure they meet our long-term business needs.

Who You Are

• A Systems Thinker: You understand the end-to-end advertising ecosystem and how changes in one component (e.g. product feeds) cascade through DSP activation and ultimately impact measurement and attribution.
• The "Technical Translator": You have the rare ability to explain complex AdTech concepts to non-technical business leaders while holding your own in deep-dive sessions with backend engineers.
• A Proactive Problem Solver: You don't wait for a roadmap; you identify bottlenecks in our current data flow and propose architectural shifts to fix them.
• Retail Media Passionate: You understand the unique challenges of the retail space, specifically the value of first-party data and the importance of demonstrating ROAS to brand partners.
• Deep AdTech Domain Expertise: Comprehensive understanding of the programmatic landscape, including OpenRTB protocols, identity resolution, and the role of CDPs.
• Retail Media Knowledge: Experience with RMN-specific and how they integrate with a retailer's e-commerce frontend.
• Technical Architecture Mastery: Proven experience mapping out API integrations and data pipelines. You should be comfortable working with JSON/XML structures and understanding how webhooks and server-to-server tracking work.
• Data Literacy: Strong grasp of SQL and data modeling. You must be able to define how data should be structured in a warehouse to support advertising use cases.
• Privacy & Compliance: Up-to-date knowledge of privacy regulations and a strong understanding of the technical implications across the identity and consent ecosystem.

Benefits

Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury's every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day.

We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday.

We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks' pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks' pay for paternity leave.