Principal Architect - Intelligent Automation

Role

The Principal Architect - Intelligent Automation will drive the strategic technology roadmap and high-level design for Intelligent Automation across global corporate domains (Finance, HR, Legal, ESG). The role advises business stakeholders, defines and enforces architecture and governance standards, evaluates new technologies (including Agentic AI and vibe coding), and acts as the senior technical escalation point.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain medium- and long-term Intelligent Automation technology roadmaps covering LCAP, DPA, conversational interfaces, cognitive capture, computer vision, intelligent decisioning, AutoML, generative AI/LLMs, agentic AI and vibe coding.
• Collaborate with global IT, enterprise architecture, information security, privacy and data governance to align roadmaps with standards and responsible AI principles.
• Operationalise and continuously enhance solution architecture frameworks, reference architectures and patterns (including Agentic AI multi-agent orchestration, tool integration, agent memory and RAG).
• Define enterprise guardrails for vibe coding and AI-assisted development (code quality, security scanning, governance protocols).
• Conduct market and vendor assessments; work with strategic partners (explicitly Microsoft: Power Platform, Azure) to align roadmaps.
• Chair technical design authorities, monitor SLAs and operational KPIs, and govern the delivery lifecycle to ensure solutions are built as designed.
• Lead innovation efforts, run PoCs for agentic AI and vibe coding approaches, and identify high-value use cases.
• Manage 3rd-party vendor and consultant portfolios, escalate technical risks/issues, and foster global practitioner community collaboration.

Requirements

Education

• Undergraduate degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field.

Experience

• Minimum 10 years in IT with at least 5 years hands-on in end-to-end solutions architecture and delivery.
• Minimum 5 years exposure to Intelligent Automation (low-code, digital automation, conversational AI, AI).
• Demonstrable experience with AI and/or agentic AI technologies (LLMs, AI agents, multi-agent architectures).
• Experience in international contexts; experience in consumer goods, retail, hospitality or luxury retail is advantageous.

Technical & Functional Expertise

• Deep understanding of business process design for automation and transformation.
• Extensive knowledge of intelligent automation tools and platforms (LCAP, DPA, conversational AI, ML/AI).
• Familiarity with Agentic AI concepts: autonomous agents, multi-agent orchestration, agent-to-agent protocols, MCP, tool use, agent memory, RAG, human-in-the-loop.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure and Azure AI Foundry (Foundry Agent Service, model catalog, agent observability) and Microsoft Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio, Power BI, Power Pages).
• Awareness of vibe coding and AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Cursor, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot) and ability to assess governance and production-readiness.
• Programming proficiency (Python, Java, C#) and SQL/database fundamentals.
• Knowledge of cloud deployment (Azure services, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search), system integration (APIs, OpenAPI, MCP), ITSM/ITIL run models, cybersecurity, responsible AI and data privacy.

Behavioural and Leadership Traits

• Strong stakeholder engagement, communication and cross-cultural collaboration skills.
• Process-driven, pragmatic, with project management, prioritisation and change management capabilities.
• Strategic thinker who balances innovation with governance and operational excellence.

Reporting

• Reports to the Head of Technology & Operations.