Technical Architect

As a Technical Architect , you will design, validate and guide the implementation of technology solutions within our qualifications portfolio. Your primary focus will be on Azure-hosted .NET applications , leveraging services such as Azure Container Apps, Azure Service Bus, Functions, Azure SQL and Cosmos DB , along with modern .NET patterns (microservices, APIs, event-driven and serverless). While Azure and .NET are the core, the role also requires supporting legacy on-premise systems and some AWS components to ensure cohesive integration and interoperability.

You will undertake structured analysis of technical issues and translate them into robust technical designs [1] . You'll provide design patterns, identify deeper issues, and look for opportunities to reuse components while communicating effectively with both technical and business stakeholders. Through close collaboration with solution architects, developers, testers and operations teams, you will ensure that solutions meet both functional and non-functional requirements (security, performance, scalability, reliability). The role emphasises hands-on technical leadership, establishing and evolving technical standards, mentoring developers, and ensuring consistent quality across the lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Design & Architecture
• Analyse complex requirements and evaluate technology options; design scalable, secure and maintainable architectures for Azure-hosted .NET solutions. Produce artefacts such as low level designs, system diagrams, dataflow models, API specifications and sequence diagrams .
• Integrate and design solutions that bridge on-premise and AWS components with Azure services (for example, migrating SQL Server workloads to Azure SQL, or integrating event streams from on-premise or AWS into Azure Event Hubs).
• Identify opportunities to reuse existing services and patterns, and advocate for consistency and efficiency across projects.
• Technical Leadership & Standards
• Lead and mentor development teams through design and implementation, providing hands-on guidance with C#, ASP.NET Core, .NET APIs and modern data access approaches.
• Define, document and continually improve technical standards, coding guidelines and architecture patterns . Develop templates and guidelines to address gaps and drive quality and consistency.
• Champion DevOps and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices, integrating tools like Terraform, Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions for automated provisioning, deployment and testing.
• Collaboration & Stakeholder Communication
• Work with solution architects, product owners and business analysts to align designs with requirements; challenge assumptions and refine scope when necessary.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, ensuring design intent and impacts are understood.
• Technology Evaluation & Continuous Improvement
• Stay up to date with advancements in Azure PaaS and .NET technologies, as well as evolving practices like microservices, event-driven architectures and serverless computing.
• Conduct proof-of-concepts and evaluations of new tools and frameworks, and recommend improvements for reliability, performance and cost efficiency.
• Compliance & Quality Assurance
• Ensure all designs conform to Pearson's governance and security policies, as well as relevant data privacy regulations and industry standards. Participate in architecture reviews, identifying and mitigating risks [2] .
• Verify implementations meet architectural intent by reviewing code, collaborating on testing strategies and supporting teams with observability and monitoring.
• Lifecycle Support & Operational Readiness
• Provide end-to-end support from design through deployment and post-release optimisation. Assist in troubleshooting production issues, conduct root cause analyses and propose improvements for future releases.
• Promote resilience and operational excellence, including performance tuning, disaster recovery planning and capacity management.

Essential Experience & Skills

• Strong .NET Expertise: Proven experience designing and building applications using C#, ASP.NET Core, RESTful APIs and microservices. Familiarity with architecture patterns such as clean architecture , domain-driven design and event-driven design.
• Azure Cloud Mastery: Deep working knowledge of Microsoft Azure PaaS services (App Service, Functions, Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Event Grid, Service Bus, Key Vault, etc.) and how to design secure, scalable solutions on Azure.
• Integration & Platform Skills: Experience architecting hybrid solutions connecting on-premise and AWS services with Azure; understanding of API gateways, messaging systems (e.g. Service Bus, Event Hub) and data integration.
• DevOps & IaC: Demonstrated proficiency with Infrastructure-as-Code (ARM/Bicep, Terraform) and CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions .
• Leadership & Collaboration: Ability to lead, mentor and collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams; strong problem-solving skills and decision-making under pressure.
• Communication & Influence: Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to articulate design rationale clearly to developers, business stakeholders and leadership.
• Education & Certification: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field. Certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert or Azure Developer Associate are highly desirable.

Desirable Skills

• Cross-Platform Awareness: Experience with on-premise technologies (e.g. Windows Server, IIS) and AWS PaaS services like RDS/SQL, SNS, SQS to support hybrid integration.
• Data & Middleware: Knowledge of relational and non-relational databases and data modelling; experience with integration patterns and event streaming technologies (e.g. Kafka, RabbitMQ).
• Microservices & Serverless: Familiarity with containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes), serverless functions and microservices architecture on Azure.
• Agile Practices: Experience working in Agile/Scrum teams, with a sound understanding of software testing frameworks and agile project management.
• AI/ML & Monitoring: Awareness of AI/ML services and modern monitoring/observability tools to ensure reliability and performance.

Job Location and Hours

The role is aligned to our Bangalore or Chennai offices in India, working a 45 hour week 9am to 6pm IST. All our roles are hybrid working; our current policy requires our team to work from their base office 3 times per week.