Job title: Chief Application Architect Department: IT Location: Homebased in and around the Halifax or Peterborough area. Hours: 37.5 hours per week Salary: Competitive We're looking for a Chief Application Architect to be part of our success story. **Listed in the 2022 Sunday Times 100: Britain's fastest-growing private companies. **Great career development opportunities – grow with us. About the role The Chief Application Architect is responsible for defining and governing the technical vision and architectural standards across our .NET application portfolio. Leading the architectural direction for our Blazor-based solutions, this role ensures technical excellence, scalability, and innovation while maintaining architectural governance across development teams. Working closely with the IT Director and Product teams, this role drives technical strategy and establishes development standards that align with business objectives. Key responsibilities • Technical Strategy & Governance: Define and maintain the technical vision for our .NET applications, establishing architectural principles, patterns, and coding standards across development teams. • Solution Architecture: Design and oversee implementation of scalable .NET solutions, focusing on Blazor frontend architectures, microservices, and cloud-native applications. • Development Standards: Establish and maintain development standards, best practices, and quality gates. Lead code review processes and architectural design reviews. • Cloud Architecture: Define cloud architecture patterns using Azure services, including implementation of infrastructure-as-code and deployment automation strategies. • Integration Architecture: Design and govern API strategies, integration patterns, and data flow architectures across our application landscape. • Security Architecture: Ensure application security by design, implementing secure coding practices and maintaining security standards across development teams. • Performance & Scalability: Define performance standards, implement monitoring strategies, and ensure applications are designed for scale. • Technical Leadership: Mentor development teams on architectural best practices, leading technical decision-making and innovation initiatives. • Architecture Governance: Chair Architecture Review Board, oversee technical decisions, and maintain architectural compliance across projects. • Modernisation & Innovation: Lead application modernisation initiatives and evaluate new technologies for potential adoption. • Documentation & Standards: Maintain architecture documentation, reference implementations, and technical roadmaps. • Stakeholder Management: Work closely with Product Owners, Development Leads, and business stakeholders to align technical solutions with business needs. Skills and experience • Expert knowledge in .NET development, particularly .NET Core/.NET 8 and Blazor • Strong experience in designing cloud-native applications and microservices architectures • Proven track record in establishing technical governance and development standards • Deep understanding of Azure cloud services and modern deployment practices • Experience with event-driven architecture and distributed systems design • Strong background in API design and integration patterns • Knowledge of DevOps practices and CI/CD implementation • Excellent communication skills with ability to influence and guide technical decisions • Solution-oriented approach with strong analytical capabilities • Background in Agile development methodologies • Relevant technical certifications (Azure Solutions Architect Expert or equivalent) • Minimum 8 years of software development experience with 3+ years in architectural roles Benefits + 33 days holiday (including bank holidays) + Personal health cash plan – claim back the cost of things like dentist and optical check ups + Enhanced maternity / paternity / adoption / shared parental pay + Life assurance: three times basic salary + Free breakfasts and fruit + Birthday surprise for everybody! What you can expect from us At Activate Group, looking after team members is a major priority. Whether you're at our smart Halifax or Peterborough offices, one of our AAR sites or working from home, we'll make sure you have all the support you need to succeed. From benefits that put your health and wellbeing first, to impressive rewards for our employee of the month, and little perks like free fruit and cereal, we'll go out of our way to show how much we appreciate you. A bit about us Named by the Sunday Times as one of the UK's 100 fastest-growing private companies, we employ more than 700 team members nationwide. We work with some of the UK's largest fleets and insurance companies, supporting drivers that have been involved in a road incident at our contact centres in Halifax and Peterborough. We look after every step of the repair process, repairing vehicles at our own Activate Accident Repair body shops, and through a UK-wide network of independent repair partners. Want to know what it's like to work with us? Take a look at our purpose and values. They define who we are, and how we work with team members, customers and suppliers: Purpose: Make someone's bad day better Values: + Make it happen – Be accountable. Take the initiative, work fast, and do a great job. + Strive for better – Be bold. Challenge the norm – make small improvements often. + Win together – Be a team-player. Win together, learn together, respect each other.