Senior Technical Architect

VML; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Training opportunities

Pension

Medical insurance

Life assurance

Hybrid work model

Social events

Retailer discounts

Job summary

VML, part of WPP, is seeking a Principal Technical Architect to own the design and quality of scalable AWS-based cloud apps, including agentic AI platforms. You will lead governance, run workshops with clients, and mentor engineering teams to deliver robust, automated solutions.

The role requires senior leadership in digital agencies or consultancies, deep AWS/serverless expertise, and strong communication to translate complex tech for executives.

Qualifications

• Senior/Principal architect with experience in digital agencies or consultancies.
• Deep hands-on expertise in designing AWS-based, serverless enterprise applications.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills for engaging senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Architect enterprise cloud solutions with agentic AI components and secure patterns.
• Lead client workshops and governance to shape technical growth opportunities.
• Provide hands-on delivery and mentorship to engineering teams, ensuring quality and automation.

Skills

AWS & Serverless

Agentic AI

API Design

DevOps & CI/CD

Communication

Tools

Terraform

CDK

CloudFormation

Job description

Who We Are

VML, part of WPP, is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports, as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement & Optimization. In addition, VML’s specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world’s largest and most awarded health agencies. VML’s global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.

Who We Are

VML, part of WPP, is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports, as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement & Optimization. In addition, VML’s specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world’s largest and most awarded health agencies. VML’s global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.

About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting‑edge media intelligence and data solutions, world‑class creativity, next‑generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com. Our Commerce & Technology division helps leading global brands deliver digital experiences. As clients transition from AI experimentation to production‑grade, autonomous agentic platforms (systems that plan, reason, act, and transact), we are seeking a Principal Technical Architect. Serving as the senior technical authority on our AWS and cloud engagements, you will own the design and quality of robust, scalable applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect Agentic Solutions: Design enterprise cloud applications, specializing in agentic AI platform components (orchestration, memory, tool integration, identity, guardrails, observability) and emerging Agentic Commerce.
• Lead Clients & Drive Growth: Serve as an outward‑facing, energetic leader who runs workshops, participates in governance, and collaborates with commercial teams to identify and shape technical growth opportunities.
• Hands‑on Delivery & Mentorship: Remain close to the detail by proving solutions, reviewing code, and mentoring engineering teams to set a high bar for quality, automation, and best practices.

What you’ll be doing

• Technical Leadership & Governance: Act as the account's senior authority on complex cloud architectures (esp. AWS serverless). Establish technical governance, design standards, and manage risk, non‑functional requirements (NFRs), and technical debt.
• Agentic AI & Commerce Innovation: Design AWS‑based agentic AI platforms (orchestration, RAG, memory, guardrails, and MCP). Establish reusable patterns and advise clients on emerging Agentic Commerce standards (ACP, AP2, A2A, and secure payment models).
• Client Engagement & Account Growth: Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, translate complex concepts, and facilitate technical discovery workshops. Proactively identify, shape, and pitch technical solutions to drive account growth.
• Hands‑on Engineering & Delivery: Provide hands‑on technical ownership by proving solutions, reviewing code, and designing robust API/integration patterns. Champion a quality‑first mindset using Infrastructure‑as‑Code (IaC), CI/CD, and automation.
• Capability Building: Mentor engineers and architects, share knowledge on emerging technologies, and raise the overall technical bar across the account and practice.

What we want from you

• Leadership & Consulting: Senior/Principal architect with experience in digital agencies or consultancies, skilled at leading development teams, guiding clients through workshops, and identifying business growth opportunities.
• AWS & Serverless Architecture: Deep hands‑on expertise in designing, documenting, and delivering resilient, high‑availability enterprise applications on AWS (including serverless patterns and appropriate integration components).
• Agentic AI & Commerce: Strong understanding of building agentic AI platforms on AWS (e.g., Bedrock, orchestrations, RAG, gateways/MCP) and awareness of emerging Agentic Commerce concepts and standards (ACP, AP2, A2A).
• Software Engineering & API Design: Strong development background (ideally TypeScript/JavaScript) coupled with robust API design, documentation, and versioning experience.
• DevOps & Quality Automation: Infrastructure‑as‑Code (Terraform/CDK/CloudFormation), CI/CD pipelines, and a strict quality‑first mindset (unit testing, automated tooling).
• Communication & Collaboration: Proactive, energetic collaborator with excellent written, verbal, and diagrammatic skills capable of translating complex technical concepts for senior stakeholders.

If you know some of this, even better

• AWS Solutions Architect Professional (or Associate as a minimum)
• AWS Specialty certifications (e.g., Security, Data/ML)
• Familiarity with:
• The C4 model
• Diagrams‑as‑code
• DevOps practices
• Headless architectures
• Practical application of LLMs within enterprises

What we can offer you

Alongside the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands around the world, we’ll also prioritise your career development and help you grow your skills. We’ll empower you to make a difference, allow you to be yourself, and respect who you are.

Permanent Only

We offer a great benefits package including a discretionary bonus scheme, training opportunities, competitive pension, medical insurance, life assurance, social events, opportunities to buy and sell holidays, family friendly policies, discounts with hundreds of retailers and much more.

Our culture thrives on our core values, designed for impact‑driven individuals: Heart, Brains and Courage.

We lead with Heart, fostering empathy and trust where genuine connections and human‑centric work flourish.

We empower your Brains for innovation, valuing relentless curiosity and collaborative intelligence to solve complex challenges.

And we champion Courage, inspiring you to speak up, embrace experimentation, and advocate for bold solutions that push our thinking to be better than yesterday.

How We Use AI In The Recruitment Process

To ensure more focused and engaging conversations, we leverage AI in our recruitment processexclusively for secure, objective note‑taking, never for evaluative judgments. This allows our team to be fully present with you. You are always welcome to request a transcript of these notes or opt out of this feature at any time. Opting out will not impact the outcome of the interview process

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

VML is a WPP agency (NYSE: WPP). For more information,please visit www.vml.com, andfollowalong on Instagram,LinkedIn, andX.