Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, this is a senior technical leadership role created to deliver TradeWindow’s shift from standalone products to a unified TradeWindow platform. The Senior Platform Architect will own the end-to-end platform architecture, shared services strategy, and integration layer that will enable reusable workflows, embedded AI, scalable monetisation, and
progressive product convergence while protecting near-term revenue growth. This role provides the design authority and technical governance essential for executing the approved platform programme on time and within budget.
Responsibilities & Expectations
The Senior Platform Architect is the primary owner of the TradeWindow platform architecture and the technical design authority for the company’s ongoing platform evolution and product consolidation programme. Working in close partnership with the Chief Delivery Officer, Chapter Leads, Product Owners and Senior Leadership Team, you will translate strategic objectives into a coherent, scalable, and commercially viable technical reality.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead the design and continuous evolution of the TradeWindow platform architecture, including shared services (workflows, document processing, customs, and operational services), reusable components and support for both freight forwarder and shipper operating models.
- Define and implement a scalable integration layer, shared data models, and API-led integration patterns to enable progressive alignment and convergence of existing products while eliminating unnecessary duplication.
- Establish and enforce platform standards, governance frameworks, technical guardrails, and development practices that ensure long-term scalability, performance, maintainability, and security across the entire ecosystem.
- Drive architecture decisions for complex capability areas including monetisation frameworks, billing engines — including scoping, build-versus-integrate assessments and third-party integration evaluations.
- Collaborate with Product Owners to define internal product integration requirements, retained versus replacement functionality, and external integration opportunities, ensuring all development remains aligned with operational and commercial priorities.
- Provide hands-on architectural leadership across platform build, validation, release, and customer deployment activities to support controlled rollout and ongoing platform adoption.
- Participate in governance processes, providing visibility of technical risks, integration dependencies, platform scalability concerns, and delivery alignment.
- Mentor and upskill the development team on modern platform engineering practices, ensuring consistent architecture patterns and reduced technical debt over time.
- Maintain fierce efficiency by prioritising shared capability and integration work over duplicate standalone functionality, and by operating within available resources and capital constraints.
Required Background & Experience
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems or a related technical discipline (or equivalent practical experience).
- Relevant architecture certifications (e.g., TOGAF, AWS/Azure Solutions Architect, or equivalent) are advantageous but not mandatory.
Skills / Experience
- 8+ years of experience in software architecture, with at least 4 years in a Senior or Principal Platform Architect (or equivalent) role.
- Proven track record designing and delivering modern SaaS platforms, including microservices architectures, API-first/API-led designs, event-driven systems, shared services platforms, and scalable integration layers.
- Demonstrated success leading platform modernisation and product consolidation initiatives — transitioning from fragmented standalone systems to unified, reusable platform operating models.
- Deep expertise in scalable system design, shared data modelling, integration patterns (internal and external), and cloud-native architectures.
- Strong experience with usage-based monetisation frameworks, billing engines, complex workflow orchestration, and embedded AI capabilities is highly desirable.
- Domain familiarity with logistics, freight forwarding, trade compliance, customs documentation, or high-volume transaction systems is a significant advantage.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate complex architectural concepts clearly to both technical teams and non-technical audiences (SLT, Product Owners, Sales, Customer Success).
- Proven ability to operate autonomously and collaboratively in a fast-paced, lean environment with tight budget and delivery constraints.
- Strong commercial acumen and a pragmatic, results-oriented approach that balances long-term platform vision with near-term revenue protection and operational stability.
