Lead Architect - Data & AI Platforms

309 - Lead Architect, Data & AI Platforms – Choreograph Consulting

About WPP Media

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. For more information, visit wpp.com.

WPP Media is WPP’s global media collective. In a world where media is everywhere and in everything, we bring the best platform, people, and partners together to create limitless opportunities for growth. For more information, visit wppmedia.com

About Choreograph: A Leading WPP Media Brand

Choreograph is WPP’s global data products and technology company. We’re on a mission to transform marketing by building the fastest, most connected data platform that bridges marketing strategy to scaled activation.

We work with agencies and clients to transform the value of data by bringing together technology, data and analytics capabilities. We deliver this through the Open Media Studio, an AI-enabled media and data platform for the next era of advertising.

We’re endlessly curious. Our team of thinkers, builders, creators and problem solvers are over 1,000 strong, across 20 markets around the world.

Role Summary and Impact

We are hiring a Lead Architect to own the technical design of Azure-first data and AI platforms. You will define the reusable patterns, reference architectures and end-to-end solution concepts that our delivery teams build from, and prove them in code rather than in slideware.

This is an engineering-first, developer-architect role: roughly 70–80% designing solutions, building and packaging reusable patterns, and prototyping new concepts in code, and 20–30% client-facing advisory.

As a senior technical authority, you will bridge client strategy with hands-on code, setting the reference architecture and proving it yourself, then partnering with the Data Engineering, Platform/DevOps, Security and Client Delivery teams who industrialise it into resilient, self-service, cost-effective and compliant delivery at scale. Replacing traditional IT operations and manual governance with modern software automation, you will mentor engineers, review code/IaC, and own key technical decisions and trade-offs.

What this role is not: This is not an IT infrastructure, cloud operations or estate-management position. There is no BAU support rota, ticket queue, or manual portal configuration. Candidates whose recent experience is running and supporting cloud infrastructure, rather than designing and building data and AI platforms in code, will not be a fit. Equally, this is not a hands-off design role: you will prototype and prove your own patterns before a delivery team scales them.

Area of expertise:

• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) & Automation: Production fluency with Terraform; treating IaC like software code using modular designs, policy-as-code, reusable baselines, and automated testing via CI/CD (GitHub Actions / Azure DevOps).
• Solution Architecture Pattern Design & Packaging: Defining end-to-end solution concepts and reference architectures, then packaging them as deployable, versioned assets that other teams can pick up and run, rather than as documents.
• Azure-First Data Platforms: Deep architecture and build experience on Microsoft Azure (Data Lake/Lakehouse patterns, ADLS Gen2, Synapse Analytics, Azure Databricks, Delta Lake), with enough hands-on AWS or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) experience to design portable patterns for mixed client estates.
• Orchestration & Data Pipelines: Batch and streaming ingestion using Azure Data Factory (pipelines, wrangling flows, integration runtimes), Event Hubs, Kafka, and performance optimization (Spark/Synapse SQL).
• AI Solution Design & Build: Designing and building AI solutions on the data platform: Agentic AI workflows, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) patterns, vector search and LLM orchestration, alongside standard analytical workloads.
• Security as Code: Networking, private endpoints, managed identities, Key Vault, RBAC, Purview governance and data masking, all defined in Terraform and versioned like application code.
• Observability, FinOps & Operations: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, cost/performance telemetry, SLAs/SLOs for pipelines, and FinOps-aware cloud design.
• API & Service Integration: Designing data services using Azure Functions, Logic Apps, and API Management.

Skills and Experience:

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values:

• Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity.
• Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust.
• Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.
• Developer-Architect Mindset: A hands-on builder who sets reference architectures and patterns, leading by example through direct code contributions and rigorous code/IaC reviews.
• 70/30 Design-to-Advise Split: Spends 70–80% of the time architecting solutions, writing code, packaging repeatable patterns and prototyping new concepts, drawing on end-to-end understanding of the data platform in use, and 20–30% in front of clients, translating commercial objectives into technical roadmaps and explaining trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders in their own language.
• Coding & Automation Obsession: Strong scripting/programming skills (Python, SQL, Terraform); automates everything possible via IaC and CI/CD, favoring repeatability over legacy IT ticket processes.
• Azure-Deep, Cross-Cloud Aware: Expert on Azure and comfortable across AWS and GCP, designing for operability, security, and cost while preparing platforms for emerging AI architectures.
• Clear Communicator & Mentor: Able to facilitate client workshops, write concise design docs/runbooks, align cross-functional teams, and mentor engineers to create shared ownership of outcomes.
• Outcome-Focused: Measures success with deployment frequency, lead time for changes, data pipeline SLAs, cost efficiency, and platform reliability metrics.

Responsibilities:

• Lead Azure-First Platform Architecture: Architect and implement Azure data platforms for clients, including landing zones, networking, identity, and data platform services (Azure Data Lake Storage, Synapse, Databricks), extending patterns to AWS or GCP where a client estate requires it.
• Design & Build Data Pipelines: Design, Implement key data ingress patterns across data platforms. Key focus would be Azure Data Factory pipelines and data flows for ingestion, transformation, and orchestration; establish patterns for parameterization, retries, and error handling to meet pipeline SLAs, then work with the Data Engineering team to scale those patterns into production delivery.
• Implement Modern IaC & CI/CD: Design, implement key IaC patterns. Deliver infrastructure-as-code using Terraform; create reusable modules and policy-as-code guardrails. Establish repo strategies, branching, pull requests, multi-stage pipelines, approvals, and automated promotion gates.
• Package Reusable Solutions: Turn proven designs into packaged, deployable assets (Terraform modules, pipeline templates, reference implementations and accelerators) with the documentation and worked examples delivery teams need to reuse them across clients.
• Architect for AI & DataOps: Introduce DataOps practices (automated unit/integration testing, data quality checks) and build the AI layer on top of it: vector search, RAG workflows and agentic capabilities.
• Prototype & Showcase New Concepts: Build working prototypes of new data and AI concepts (RAG, agentic workflows, streaming and real-time patterns) and demonstrate them to clients to shape demand, test feasibility and de-risk delivery before a full team is committed.
• Client Advisory & Technical Leadership: Own the technical relationship with client and agency stakeholders. Run discovery and design workshops, present at design authorities, and translate commercial objectives into phased roadmaps, costs and trade-offs that a non-technical audience can act on.
• Ship Secure-by-Default Controls: Codify private endpoints, managed identities, Key Vault-backed secrets, RBAC, network isolation, data encryption and Purview cataloging/lineage as reusable modules, so security ships with the platform rather than being applied afterwards.
• Optimize Performance & Cost (FinOps): Optimize compute and storage across Spark clusters, autoscaling, partitioning, and serverless options; track, report, and drive cloud cost savings.
• Observability & Reliability: Build monitoring into pipelines and platforms using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics, and define the SLOs and alerting the owning engineering team runs against.
• Guide Event-Driven Architectures: Lead streaming and micro-batch patterns (Event Hubs, Kafka on Azure, Structured Streaming) where required by client use cases.
• Enable the Data Engineering Team: Mentor engineers, review pull requests/IaC, and hand over patterns and accelerators in a state the Data Engineering team can run with, so larger builds are delivered by the team rather than bottlenecked on you.

Requirements:

• Hands-on Developer-Architect experience: Proven track record in cloud platform and data engineering, with deep expertise in Microsoft Azure and hands-on exposure to AWS and/or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Production IaC Fluency: Strong proficiency in Terraform applied with a software engineering mindset (reusable modules, testing, modular code structures).
• Data Platform Core: Hands-on experience with Azure Data Factory, Synapse Analytics, and Azure Databricks (Spark).
• CI/CD Mastery: Strong CI/CD experience using GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps for both IaC and data workloads.
• Software Engineering Fundamentals: Solid coding capability in Python and SQL; performance tuning for Spark/Databricks; data modelling for analytical and AI workloads.
• Evidence of Shipped Work: Able to walk through data platform code, Terraform modules or pipelines you have personally authored. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to talk through their own code and design decisions at interview.
• Patterns Adopted by Others: Examples of reference architectures, reusable modules or accelerators you have designed, packaged and had adopted by teams other than your own.
• Client-Facing Advisory Skills: Demonstrated ability to consult directly with senior client and agency stakeholders, including non-technical business audiences, present pragmatic technical solutions, and lead architectural workshops unaided. You will be the technical voice in the room, not supported by a separate engagement lead.
• Security as Code: Ability to implement VNets, private endpoints, managed identities, Key Vault, RBAC and governance patterns as Terraform, rather than through portal configuration or change-request processes.

Nice to have:

• Production experience shipping RAG or agentic AI workloads to live users (vector databases, LLM orchestration frameworks).
• Event-driven architectures with Event Hubs, Kafka, Stream Analytics, or Functions; CDC patterns.
• Lakehouse/Delta patterns on Databricks; MLflow and feature store awareness.
• Data quality tooling and frameworks (Great Expectations, Deequ) and dbt for transformation governance.
• Data Governance: Experience tracking data lineage, defining data quality policies and procedures, and enforcing them at runtime.
• API Management, Logic Apps, or Azure Functions integration experience.
• Experience with Azure Enterprise-Scale Landing Zones and Azure Policy.
• Relevant certifications: Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure Data Engineer Associate, or AWS / GCP equivalents. Certifications are welcome but are weighted below demonstrable evidence of shipped code.

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.  

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location

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