Latest AI JobsBrowse Jobs
WPP Media logo

Lead Architect, Data & AI Platforms

WPP MediaLondon, United KingdomTechnology & Data
Apply on company site
Salary
Not listed
Job type
Full-time
Posted
19 Mar 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

Role Overview

WPP Media is hiring a Lead Architect, Data & AI Platforms to own the technical design of Azure-first data and AI platforms in London. This hands-on, developer-architect position focuses on defining reusable patterns, building reference architectures, and prototyping new concepts directly in code rather than through traditional documentation. Suited for an experienced cloud engineer with a passion for automation, the role splits roughly 70 to 80 percent of the time into hands-on building, coding, and packaging reusable assets, and 20 to 30 percent into client-facing technical advisory.

Key Responsibilities

Architect and implement Azure data platforms, including landing zones, networking, identity, and data services, while extending patterns to AWS or GCP when required by client estates.
Design and build key data ingress patterns, utilizing Azure Data Factory pipelines and data flows for ingestion, transformation, and orchestration.
Deliver infrastructure-as-code using Terraform, establishing reusable modules, policy-as-code guardrails, repository strategies, and automated promotion gates via CI/CD.
Package proven designs into deployable assets, Terraform modules, and pipeline templates with comprehensive documentation for delivery teams to reuse.
Introduce DataOps practices and build advanced AI layers, such as vector search, RAG workflows, and agentic capabilities.
Build working prototypes of new data and AI concepts to demonstrate to clients, shape demand, test feasibility, and de-risk delivery.
Own the technical relationship with client and agency stakeholders by leading discovery workshops, presenting at design authorities, and translating commercial goals into phased roadmaps.
Codify security controls such as private endpoints, managed identities, Key Vault-backed secrets, and RBAC directly as reusable Terraform modules.
Optimize compute and storage performance across Spark clusters, autoscaling, and serverless options while driving cloud cost savings through FinOps practices.
Mentor engineers, review pull requests and infrastructure-as-code, and hand over accelerators so larger builds can scale effectively across delivery teams.

Requirements

Demonstrated hands-on Developer-Architect experience in cloud platform and data engineering, featuring deep expertise in Microsoft Azure and familiarity with AWS or GCP.
Production fluency in Terraform applied with a software engineering mindset, including reusable modules, testing, and modular code structures.
Practical experience with core data platform tools such as Azure Data Factory, Synapse Analytics, and Azure Databricks.
Strong CI/CD experience leveraging GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps for both infrastructure-as-code and data workloads.
Solid software engineering fundamentals with coding capability in Python and SQL, Spark performance tuning, and data modeling for analytical and AI workloads.
Evidence of shipped work, including data platform code, Terraform modules, or pipelines personally authored.
Documented examples of reference architectures, reusable modules, or accelerators designed and adopted by teams outside of one's own.
Demonstrated ability to consult directly with senior client and agency stakeholders, present pragmatic technical solutions, and lead architectural workshops unaided.
Proficiency in implementing security-as-code patterns like VNets, private endpoints, managed identities, Key Vault, and RBAC via Terraform rather than portal configuration.

Nice to Have

Production experience shipping Retrieval-Augmented Generation or agentic AI workloads to live users, including vector databases and LLM orchestration frameworks.
Experience with event-driven architectures utilizing Event Hubs, Kafka, Stream Analytics, Functions, and change data capture patterns.
Familiarity with Lakehouse and Delta patterns on Databricks, MLflow, and feature store awareness.
Experience with data quality tooling and frameworks like Great Expectations, Deequ, and dbt.

Skills and Tools

Python
SQL
Terraform
Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Azure Databricks, Spark, Delta Lake, Synapse Analytics
Azure Data Factory, Kafka, Event Hubs
GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps
LLMs, RAG, Agentic AI, vector search
Key Vault, RBAC, Purview, Security-as-Code

About the Company

WPP Media is WPP’s global media collective, bringing together platforms, people, and partners to create limitless growth opportunities through its pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open. Choreograph, a leading brand within the network, operates as WPP’s global data products and technology company, transforming marketing by building connected data platforms that bridge marketing strategy to scaled activation.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should visit the official WPP Media careers page to submit an application and learn more about open opportunities.

Skills and tech stack

PythonSQLAWSGCPAzureSparkLLMRAGKafkadbtTerraform

Questions candidates ask

What is the primary focus of the Lead Architect role?

The role focuses heavily on hands-on technical design, building reusable patterns, and prototyping Azure-first data and AI platforms in code, dedicating 70-80% of time to engineering and 20-30% to client advisory.

Is this an IT infrastructure operations or cloud support position?

No. This position does not involve BAU support rotas, ticket queues, manual portal configuration, or estate management. It requires designing and building data and AI platforms through code.

What cloud platforms are required for this position?

Deep architecture and build experience on Microsoft Azure is required, alongside enough hands-on experience with AWS or Google Cloud Platform to design portable patterns for mixed client estates.

What automation and coding skills are needed?

Candidates must have strong coding capabilities in Python and SQL, production fluency in Terraform for infrastructure-as-code, and mastery of CI/CD tools like GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps.

What experience is considered a nice-to-have for this job?

Desirable skills include production experience shipping RAG or agentic AI workloads, event-driven architectures with Kafka or Event Hubs, Databricks Lakehouse patterns, and data quality tools like dbt and Great Expectations.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official WPP Media careers page.

Apply on company site