Technical Architect

Technical Architect - With GCP + Microservices
VML Enterprise Solutions
Department: Technology
Expertise: Technology
Location: Porto, Portugal
Last Updated: 6/25/2024
At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse.
Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences. Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work.
The opportunity:
Technical Architect required to work on an innovative platform project providing holistic AI solutions to our internal and external audiences. This is a complex and rewarding technical architecture role covering everything from IAM through to API design and MDM. It will require significant core architecture experience and a level of pragmatism when making key design decisions, considering all trade-offs, and being able to communicate direction and reasoning to our engineers and the wider senior stakeholders. The architecture role covers the application, integration, and data domains. You will need demonstrable experience of spearheading software architecture within fast-paced teams. You will need significant experience in designing for NFRs as well as functional requirements. Specific experience with application and infrastructure architecture components in GCP, including serverless and containerised environments, is essential.
What you’ll be doing:
The successful candidate will be one of four technical architects responsible for the continued architecture and improvement of our platform. Your role will involve a large amount of technical architecture across the integration, application, and data model domains. You should be familiar with API design, data model design, designing for NFRs/quality attributes, and making informed decisions about the architecture of the platform.
This is not a role for someone who doesn’t also love development. While we have a team of engineers, you should come from a hands-on development background and hold the ability to read and peer-review the code of others. You need to be a great communicator: the role will include direct interaction with our clients, who include both technical and non-technical colleagues.
As an architect, you would be expected to exemplify our commitment to continually looking for fresh technologies and innovative ideas, and sharing what we’ve learned with the team.
What we want from you:

Experience and knowledge of common GCP serverless components and how these are assembled to provide robust, highly-available, and performant solutions.
Significant experience in designing (and documenting) architectures and applications in GCP, handling a wide range of technical and non-technical constraints/NFRs/Quality Attributes.
Significant experience with making key design decisions and communicating these with reasoning and justification to a wide range of stakeholders.
Significant experience in API design, documentation, and versioning, including the implementation of common GCP components.
Experience leading a development team from a design and technical ownership perspective.
In-depth knowledge of application architecture in GCP, including an understanding of appropriate technologies and patterns for a given use case.
Experience with estimating large-scale architecture changes, identifying key risks and dependencies, forming a priorities roadmap, and informing a programme/project plan.
In-depth knowledge and experience with designing applications in a containerised environment.
Hands-on development experience, ideally in Python, and familiarity with complex enterprise software and its challenges.
Experience of designing software to run in a multi-tenant environment.
Experience with data model design, simplification, and standardisation.
Experience within complex and highly-integrated architectures comprising disparate and third-party systems.
Strong written, spoken, and diagrammatic communication skills, with the ability to convey technical and abstract principles.
Automation and quality-first mindset, including Infrastructure-as-Code languages (e.g., CloudFormation, Terraform) and advocating developer quality through unit testing, code reviews, and automated tooling.

If you know some of this, even better:

C4 Model for Software Architecture.
Applying DevOps principles.
The application of AI (in the context of model abilities and use cases).
Headless architectures and how these interact with the back end.
CI/CD pipeline creation and maintenance.
Diagrams-as-code.

What we can offer you:
Alongside the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands around the world, we’ll also prioritise your career development and help you grow your skills. We’ll empower you to make a difference, allow you to be yourself, and respect who you are.
We offer a great benefits package including hybrid working that works for everyone, social events, training opportunities, medical and dental insurance, life assurance, meal cards, and much more.
Our personality and behaviours: We believe that we are what we do, not just what we say. Our shared values and behaviours show how to bring the VML Enterprise Solutions culture to life through the actions we all take every day:

Connect Meaningfully.
Include Purposefully.

Our brilliant, talented people are what makes VML Enterprise Solutions what we are. That’s why we look for people who go beyond and always push our thinking to be better than yesterday.
AT VML Enterprise Solutions
Our Enterprise Solutions division houses strategic consultants, creative and technical architects, and skilled developers and operators that together help some of the world’s leading organisations to deliver outstanding digital experiences across all major routes to market worldwide: marketplaces, online retailers, D2C, B2B, and social platforms. With over 4,200 experts in 55 operational centres across 34 countries, our capabilities span the entire buying journey from customer acquisition, through engagement, to conversion and loyalty, driving multi-channel growth for world-leading brands.
We work with some of the most exciting brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, EY, Bosch, Unilever, Ford, DFS, Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Sainsbury’s, Selfridges, Shell, and Tiffany & Co. We’ve built over 500 platforms for brands and retailers and generate in excess of $29bn annually for our clients and work with over 50 strategic partners including Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, HCL, Shopify, Sitecore, BigCommerce, commerce tools, and Acquia. Our reputation is based on our people, and we believe we have some of the best in the business.
As our business grows internationally, we’re looking for new people to join us on our journey to inspire and take a key role in shaping some of the best commerce solutions, services, and websites in the world. Working as a team, no problem is insurmountable; we share in our client’s successes and believe that anyone can show creative bravery no matter what their role is in the team.
In our Lisbon or Porto office, you’ll join a team of other specialists who are always ready to help each other. The team is part of our Enterprise Solutions network and works in coordination with our Local and EMEA client leads.
At VML, we are committed to fostering an all-inclusive work environment that is both rewarding and career-forward. Our Inclusion, Equity & Belonging initiatives, alongside the VML Foundation, reflect our dedication to giving back and making a positive impact in our communities and beyond. Our people are the heartbeat of our organization—creators, doers, innovators, makers, and thinkers—who drive not just marketing, but meaningful experiences that resonate in every action and interaction.
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