Job Description .buttontext1967aeac1bf131b4 a{ border: 1px solid transparent; } .buttontext1967aeac1bf131b4 a: focus{ border: 1px dashed #757575 !important; outline: none !important; }
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Job Requisition ID: 41291
Job Closing Date: 3rd July 2026
London, GBR, W12 7FA
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JOB DETAILS
JOB BAND: E
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time
LOCATION: London - TVC
DEPARTMENT: Engineering .com team
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £85,000 - £100,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. Plus London Weigting Allowance of £5,441 and a 15% bonus OTE. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
WE ARE BBC STUDIOS
A globally renowned media company borne of the BBC. We make and distribute the world’s most sought-after TV, audio and digital content.
Our ambition is to be the home of the most powerful, entertaining, and inspiring stories for people all around the world.
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
A Lead Architect is accountable for creating the conditions in which good architectural decisions emerge across teams. Rather than acting as a central authority or approval gate, the architect operates as a facilitator - shaping direction, enabling teams, and ensuring that local decisions align with broader system goals, organisational strategy, and long-term sustainability. This role exists to optimise the system as a whole - not individual components - balancing autonomy with coherence across a complex, evolving technology landscape.
WHY JOIN THE TEAM
This is a high-impact role at the heart of how we evolve our technology and product operating model. You’ll work with senior stakeholders and engineering teams to simplify complexity, modernise our platforms, and deliver meaningful outcomes for the business.
YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:
Facilitate architectural thinking within teams rather than owning decisions centrally
Support engineers and tech leads in evaluating trade-offs (e.g. scalability, operability, cost, coupling, resilience)
Encourage explicit decision-making through lightweight artefacts (e.g. ADRs, design narratives)
Ensure decisions are made at the right level - pushing ownership to teams wherever possible
Set clear architectural direction through principles, patterns, and “sensible defaults”
Establish and evolve paved roads and golden paths that make good decisions the easiest decisions
Avoid heavyweight governance (e.g. design authorities, approval boards) in favour of guidance and enablement
Work closely with Product, Engineering, and Delivery leadership to ensure alignment between: Business goals, Product strategy, and Technology direction
Help shape decisions around build vs buy, platform vs product, and long-term investment
Coach and mentor engineers and tech leads in architectural thinking
YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:
Strong experience designing and evolving distributed systems
Deep understanding of architectural trade-offs (e.g. coupling, cohesion, consistency, scalability)
Familiarity with evolutionary architecture practices (e.g. fitness functions, incremental change)
Experience with modern engineering practices (CI/CD, observability, cloud-native systems)
Proven ability to influence without authority across multiple teams
Strong facilitation skills - able to guide discussions and surface trade-offs
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and complexity
Able to challenge constructively and build alignment across diverse stakeholders
DESIRED BUT NOT REQUIRED:
Experience working in large-scale digital or media organisations
Familiarity with modern product operating models and outcome-driven delivery approaches
Exposure to financial planning, vendor management or commercial technology decisions
If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.
NEXT STEPS
We appreciate your interest in this position and understand how important this opportunity is to you. Due to the high volume of interest we may need to close the application period earlier than anticipated. This step is necessary to ensure we can provide a high level of attention and service to all applicants. Thank you for your understanding.
#BBCSTUDIOS
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Disclaimer
This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.
Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.
Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Recruitment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.
We are unable to accept applications via CV and only applications made online will be considered. Please click on the APPLY NOW button to proceed with your application.
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Redeployment
The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.
Information at a Glance .buttontextd5e73a7f5816cb58 a{ border: 1px solid transparent; } .buttontextd5e73a7f5816cb58 a: focus{ border: 1px dashed #757575 !important; outline: none !important; }
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This is your BBC
At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world’s best loved content, and the BBC’s mission to inform, educate and entertain.
Find out more about BBC Studios
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Life at BBC Studios
- A flexible 35-hour working week with 26 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) and the option to buy an extra five days.
- Defined pension (up to 10% employer contributions).
- Caring and parenting support, 24/7 remote GP access, life assurance and accident benefit.
- BBC Studios is a world leader in operating sustainably both on and off screen. Find out more about BBC Group’s science-based Net Zero targets here .
- Career development in a values-led purpose-driven culture.
Benefits may vary if you are joining on an FTC basis.
Learn more about life at the BBC and our values in our candidate pack.
Candidate pack
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You belong
We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.
We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.
We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.
Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.
Diversity, inclusion & belonging strategy
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Disability confident
We are a disability confident employer. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process, or to carry out this role, please contact us via email and we’d be happy to discuss:
[email protected]
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