Technical Architect

First Tech is a technology company focused on building, scaling, and delivering innovative digital platforms across financial services and other industries.

We combine technology, product expertise, and a deep understanding of customer needs to create solutions that simplify complex processes and deliver seamless digital experiences. Our platforms are designed to be scalable, reliable, and impactful, helping businesses and customers navigate the evolving digital landscape with confidence.

Founded with a vision to accelerate digital transformation, First Tech brings together strong engineering capabilities, product development expertise, and a culture of innovation to build modern solutions that address real-world challenges.

By partnering with forward-thinking businesses and developing technology-driven products, we aim to reshape industries and improve everyday experiences. We believe in creating an inclusive, collaborative environment where talented individuals are empowered to innovate, grow, and make a meaningful impact.

Job Purpose The Architect will own and drive the technical architecture, standards and engineering practices across the Group’s products and platforms. The role is responsible for ensuring scalable, secure and consistent technical solutions, establishing reusable components and shared libraries, and providing technical oversight across engineering teams. Working closely with the Group CTO and Technology Directors, the Architect will ensure technical designs, code quality, testing and delivery standards are consistently applied, while driving AI-enabled engineering practices to improve productivity, quality and reliability.

What You'll Do

• Technical Architecture & Standards: Define and maintain the Group’s technical architecture, technology standards, integration patterns and design principles across all products and platforms.
• Shared Libraries & Components: Design, develop and govern reusable technical components and shared code libraries to ensure consistency and reduce duplication across products.
• Technical Design & Governance: Participate in project kick-offs, review and approve technical designs, challenge proposed solutions and ensure scalability, security and performance requirements are considered before development begins.
• Code Review & Engineering Quality: Establish and oversee code review practices, ensuring every code change undergoes AI-assisted review followed by independent human review.
• Quality, Security & Performance: Define testing strategies and coverage expectations, ensuring security, performance and quality testing are embedded into development and release processes.
• AI-Enabled Engineering: Drive the adoption of AI across the software development lifecycle, including design, estimation, development, code reviews, testing and documentation.
• Technology Direction: Guide technology selection, modernisation and architecture decisions, identifying technical debt and ensuring platforms remain scalable, secure and cloud-agnostic.
• Delivery & Technical Support: Partner with Delivery and Performance Managers to support technical estimations, resolve complex issues, conduct root-cause analysis and ensure sound technical delivery.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Provide architectural oversight across Development, Quality, AI, Platform, Reliability Engineering and Infrastructure teams.
• Capability Building: Mentor technical leads and senior engineers, promote engineering best practices and contribute to technical knowledge sharing across the Group.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related discipline. A master's degree is an advantage.
• At least 10 years of software engineering experience, including a minimum of 3 years in an Architect or equivalent technical leadership role.
• Proven experience owning technical architecture and designing production systems across multiple products or engineering teams.
• Strong experience with shared libraries, reusable components, APIs, microservices, system integrations and architecture governance.
• Hands-on proficiency in C#, ASP.NET Core, Node.js, React, React Native and TypeScript.
• Strong knowledge of databases, including MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Redis and Elasticsearch.
• Experience with cloud platforms and infrastructure technologies, including AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform and CI/CD pipelines.
• Solid understanding of AI technologies, including Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, LangChain, RAG, vector databases and LLM integrations.
• Experience establishing code review practices, test strategies, security controls and performance testing across engineering teams.
• Practical experience with AI-assisted development and agentic coding tools, with the ability to validate and govern AI-generated outputs.
• Strong understanding of software security, architecture governance, technical debt and regulatory compliance.
• Excellent technical judgement, problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to influence senior engineers and stakeholders without direct line management authority.
• Experience in insurance, financial services or other regulated industries, particularly within the UAE or KSA, is preferred.
• Cloud architecture certifications are strongly preferred; TOGAF, Kubernetes or security certifications are advantageous.
• Fluency in English is required; Arabic is an advantage.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and performance-based incentives
• Career development and learning opportunities
• Exposure to high-impact projects and cross-functional teams
• A collaborative culture that encourages innovation and ownership

So, what does it really mean to work at First.Tech?

We are building a company where people are empowered to do their best work and grow. Our culture is rooted in ownership, collaboration, and continuous learning.

As part of First Tech, you will be working in an environment that values innovation, speed, and impact, while giving you the opportunity to shape products that directly affect how people experience financial services.

We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We welcome people from all backgrounds and encourage you to apply if this role excites you.