Lead Architect (Mission) - Airline Operations

We are easyJet – a FTSE-250 listed, £multi-billion low-cost airline that serves tens of millions of customers every single year. If you’re reading this, you have probably already been an easyJet customer, and you’ll know that there is no more iconic (or Orange!) travel brand in Europe.

We fly more than 1,207 routes, connecting 38 countries across Europe, and employ more than 18,000 colleagues. We’re on a mission to make low-cost travel easy – and whatever your role here, you’ll connect millions of people to what they love using Europe’s best airline network, great value fares, and friendly service.

What makes us easyJet? Our Promise Behaviours – we are Safe, Bold, Welcoming and Challenging. Four Behaviours. One Spirit. One easyJet.

We are seeking a Lead Architect to join our Airline Operations team. This pivotal role is accountable for the architectural integrity, direction, and outcomes within a defined Airline Operations Mission (e.g. Crew, Airports, Flight Operations, or Engineering).

You will define and evolve target-state architecture, standards, and guardrails, ensuring technology change aligns with enterprise direction while enabling teams to make effective local decisions.

Key Responsibilities:

· Provide architectural direction and decision guidance within the Mission scope, acting as the escalation point for significant cross-product, cross-domain, or enterprise impact.

· Define architectural standards and guardrails, supporting teams in consistent application.

· Establish patterns, constraints, and design principles for adoption across product teams.

· Facilitate architecture reviews and design discussions, ensuring alignment with strategic direction.

· Assess and support teams with deviations from agreed standards.

· Identify and drive migration of capabilities to shared Airline Operations Platform services.

· Identify emerging technology trends and ensure readiness for future requirements, including AI, automation, and platform evolution.

Role Requirements:

· Experience working across senior leadership, architecture communities, and product delivery teams.

· Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, including those outside direct authority.

· Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

· Balance strategic thinking with practical delivery considerations and trade-offs.

· Familiarity with observability platforms, telemetry, event streaming, and modern data architectures.

· Knowledge of automation frameworks, digital operations platforms, and emerging technology trends.

· Experience with cloud-native architectures and platform engineering approaches.

· Understanding of identity federation and third party/partner access management.

· Experience implementing AI-enabled operational capabilities or predictive analytics solutions.

· TOGAF, ArchiMate, or equivalent architecture certification.

· Experience operating within product-centric technology organisations.