Job Description

Chief Technical Architect – Empowering Innovation Through Inclusive Leadership

Reporting to Chief Technology & Product Officer

At WSD, we believe diverse perspectives drive better outcomes. We are looking for a Head of Technology / Chief Technical Architect who combines deep technical expertise with inclusive, people‑first leadership. This role is central to shaping our technology strategy, evolving our platform architecture, and building high‑performing teams that deliver secure, scalable, and impactful solutions for the global financial markets.

If you enjoy solving complex problems, mentoring others, and working closely with product and business leaders to turn strategy into reality, this role offers the opportunity to have real influence at both a technical and organisational level.

About WSD

• Leading provider of document and workflow automation software for the global structured products industry
• Supporting tier‑one banks and asset managers with cloud‑agnostic, secure, and scalable solutions
• Enabling operational efficiency and regulatory compliance in highly regulated environments
• Private‑equity backed and headquartered in London
• Culture centred on innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning

The Role

• Own the technical direction of the WSD platform and its underlying engineering practices
• Define and evolve engineering standards and architectural principles
• Partner closely with the CPTO, Product, Architecture, Security, and Delivery leaders
• Ensure the technology roadmap supports business growth, regulatory requirements, and operational resilience
• Act as a senior technical authority and mentor across engineering teams
• Remain hands‑on where depth, judgement, or escalation is required

What You'll Bring

• Strong strategic mindset combined with deep technical expertise
• Inclusive, empowering leadership style built on clarity and trust
• Ability to operate comfortably at both executive and hands‑on technical levels

Software Development & Architecture:

• Extensive experience designing, building, and evolving complex, business‑critical systems
• Strong expertise in modern architectural patterns including microservices, event‑driven systems, and domain‑driven design
• Deep understanding of monolithic versus distributed architectures and pragmatic modernisation strategies
• Strong grounding in object‑oriented and functional programming principles
• Emphasis on maintainability, testability, and long‑term platform evolution
• Hands‑on experience designing and delivering RESTful and GraphQL APIs
  

Cloud & Infrastructure:

• Proven experience designing and operating systems on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
• Ability to design architectures that are scalable, resilient, cost‑aware, and cloud‑agnostic where required
• Strong experience with containerisation and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes
• Expertise in Infrastructure as Code using tools such as Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or Azure Bicep
• Practical understanding of serverless architectures and when they are appropriate
  

DevOps, Reliability & CI/CD:

• Deep understanding of DevOps principles including automation, continuous integration, and continuous delivery
• Experience designing and operating CI/CD pipelines using tools such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or Azure DevOps
• Strong focus on operational excellence through logging, monitoring, alerting, and observability
• Experience with tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, and APM platforms
• Strong command of Git‑based workflows and modern release management practices
  

Security,Risk & Compliance:

• Strong knowledge of secure coding practices and common security frameworks such as OWASP and NIST
• Experience implementing authentication and authorisation mechanisms including OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and SAML
• Solid understanding of encryption, network security, and zero‑trust principles
• Familiarity with regulatory and assurance frameworks such as GDPR, ISO 27001, and SOC 2
• Ability to design systems with compliance, auditability, and operational risk in mind
  

Data, Platforms and Integration

• Strong experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MS SQL
• Strong experience with non‑relational data stores including MongoDB, Cassandra, and Redis
• Understanding of data modelling, data warehousing, and analytical platforms
• Experience with technologies such as Snowflake, Apache Spark, and Google BigQuery
• Experience designing high‑throughput, event‑driven data pipelines using Kafka
• Holistic view of data quality, lineage, and governance in regulated environments

AI, LLMs and Synthetic AI

• Practical experience evaluating and integrating AI capabilities into production systems
• Clear understanding of both the opportunities and risks of AI in regulated financial environments
• Hands‑on or architectural experience with large language models applied to document automation, content generation, data enrichment, and intelligent workflows
• Understanding of modern AI patterns including prompt design, model orchestration, and retrieval‑augmented generation
• Experience integrating AI services safely into enterprise platforms and workflows
• Awareness of synthetic AI techniques such as synthetic data generation and simulation
• Ability to apply synthetic data to improve testing, resilience, and data privacy
• Strong appreciation of AI governance, model risk management, explainability, and regulatory expectations

Technical Leadership and Strategy

• Proven ability to lead and mentor senior engineers and architects
• Ability to set clear technical direction while empowering teams
• Strong capability translating business and regulatory requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Experience conducting architecture reviews, technical audits, and performance and resilience assessments
• Strong collaborator with Product, Security, Operations, and senior business stakeholders

Why Join WSD

• Senior, high‑impact role with genuine influence over technology direction and engineering culture
• Opportunity to shape platform evolution in a complex, regulated domain
• Exposure to intellectually challenging problems with real commercial impact
• Collaborative environment with highly capable peers
• Clear commitment to inclusion, diversity, and professional growth

If you have the skills, experience and drive to excel in this challenging and rewarding role, we would love to hear from you. Apply today and take the next step in your career with us!

WSD is an employer that values diversity. We highly encourage applications from appropriately qualified and eligible candidates irrespective of age, race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, veteran status, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law.