Senior Technical Architect

WPP Enterprise Solutions; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Training opportunities

Competitive pension

Medical insurance

Life assurance

Job summary

WPP Enterprise Solutions seeks a Principal Technical Architect to own enterprise cloud architecture and governance. You will lead AWS-based, serverless platforms and agentic AI components, ensuring scalable, secure, and high‑quality delivery for global brands.

You will mentor engineers, design robust APIs, and partner with clients in workshops to identify growth opportunities. The role emphasizes hands‑on delivery and a high standard for automation and observability.

Qualifications

• Senior/Principal architect with leadership experience in digital agencies or consultancies.
• Strong AWS serverless design and governance skills.
• Experience mentoring engineers and driving large-scale cloud solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical architecture across AWS cloud engagements and governance.
• Design agentic AI platforms with memory, orchestration, and secure integration patterns.
• Engage clients in workshops and translate complex concepts for executives.
• Review code and drive infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD adoption.

Skills

Leadership

AWS serverless

Agentic AI

Software architecture

TypeScript/JavaScript

Education

AWS Certification (Professional/Associate)

Tools

Terraform

CDK/CloudFormation

APIs design

Job description

Who We Are

WPP Enterprise Solutions designs, builds, and operates the growth systems that competitive businesses rely on. In a world where Al is reshaping how companies drive growth, we lead clients in business transformation and marketing modernization, connecting strategy directly to execution. Our 12,000 experts in engineering and platforms, commerce, consulting, content transformation, CRM, and CX work within a unified global operating unit across 40+ markets. WPP Enterprise Solutions works alongside best‑in‑class partners including Adobe, AWS, Braze, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Shopify, as well as innovators in AI, to deliver growth solutions tailored to the needs of our clients’ businesses. VML, part of WPP, supports WPP Enterprise Solutions by helping brands activate transformation through creativity and experience.

Who We Are

WPP Enterprise Solutions designs, builds, and operates the growth systems that competitive businesses rely on. In a world where Al is reshaping how companies drive growth, we lead clients in business transformation and marketing modernization, connecting strategy directly to execution. Our 12,000 experts in engineering and platforms, commerce, consulting, content transformation, CRM, and CX work within a unified global operating unit across 40+ markets. WPP Enterprise Solutions works alongside best‑in‑class partners including Adobe, AWS, Braze, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Shopify, as well as innovators in AI, to deliver growth solutions tailored to the needs of our clients’ businesses. VML, part of WPP, supports WPP Enterprise Solutions by helping brands activate transformation through creativity and experience.

We are looking for a permanent Principal Technical Architect.

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.

In this outward‑facing, energetic leadership role, you will architect enterprise‑grade cloud applications with a strong focus on agentic AI platform components—including orchestration, memory, tool integration, identity, guardrails, and observability as well as emerging Agentic Commerce. Alongside driving technical strategy, you will actively partner with clients, lead dynamic workshops, participate in governance, and collaborate with commercial teams to identify and shape new growth opportunities. Balancing strategic vision with hands‑on delivery, you will stay close to the code, prove technical solutions through rigorous code reviews, and mentor engineering teams to establish a high bar for quality, automation, and operational best practices.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 Brainsfor 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 torequest a transcript of these notes or opt outof this feature at any time. Opting out will not impact the outcome of the interview process

About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence and world‑class partnerships – all united by our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.

WPP (VML/WPP Enterprise Solutions) 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.