• Job Description

  Req#: 211885

  In a nutshell

  The Domain Architects tackle some of the most compelling technology problems in the retail industry, helping to plan and shape investment for large-scale, exciting technology solutions which make a difference to millions of customers everyday.

  The roles are responsible for creating an overall technology strategy and future roadmap of change for a significant area of our business (usually a portfolio with capital spend of up to £20M per annum), partnering brilliantly with Directors / Heads of Engineering and Heads of Product to achieve this.

  Domain Architects focus on delivering plans that balance new feature requests from our business teams with our need to simplify and modernise our current complex technology estate using the latest cloud-native technology.

  Domain Architects are highly credible technology leaders who collaborate brilliantly up, down and across the Sainsbury’s Tech division. This collaboration and influence also extends to multiple stakeholders and teams across the wider business.

  At Sainsbury’s Tech, we work in, empowered teams that contain the skills and support needed to deliver at pace. Our culture encourages teams to innovate, collaborate, learn and take ownership. Domain Architects have experience of defining and delivering new capabilities into this type of environment, adept at working in a world of and iterative development at scale.

  What you need to do

  • Partner with Heads of Engineering and Product to deliver strategic, big-picture thinking and overall technology direction at a domain and enterprise level. The Domain Architect glues together the technology across teams and partners at a domain level.
  • Work with the broader engineering, product and architecture communities across the domain to develop, communicate and implement an overall technical architecture roadmap and strategy so that we collectively maximise the return on technology investment, drive re-use, reduce technical debt and decommission at pace.
  • Drive the adopting of the overall Technology Principles across your domain, influencing how teams design and build product components that help deliver the roadmap, encouraging teams to work on the components that add most value
  • Be relentless about communicating and championing the technology strategy for the domain. Excellent at articulating technical complexity in simple terms, and brilliant at inspiring colleagues to contribute and engineer within that strategy.
  • Role model key architecture competencies and behaviours across the broader architecture community to support architects and teams across other domains. Share personal learning and expertise, promoting wider alignment for key strategic initiatives across Sainsburys Tech.
  • Maintain and develop accurate data about their domain that can be shared holistically across multiple teams for planning, insight and ever-better decision making.
  • Network taking a collaborative and inclusive approach with teams and colleagues, balancing the need for impartiality and constructive, yet supportive challenge.
  • Scan the external environment to bring in fresh and innovative perspectives in support of the overall Sainsburys Tech strategy. Take external advice from our key partners and other influencers as required.

  What you need to know and show

  • Significant, all-round architecture experience, having worked with others to develop and agree domain level roadmaps, blueprints and plans
  • Strong knowledge of overall Technology Principles and Standards, and application of these to ideas that help shape the components being developed within the domain.
  • Experience in evolving architectures and modern. Use emergent design ideas to help develop target and transition states for the architecture of the domain that helps the area to simplify and evolve gracefully over time.
  • Experience in business and capability modelling and associated frameworks that support the development of domain roadmaps.
  • Ability to strongly influence and communicate at all levels, condensing complex technology choices into simpler, digestible decisions.
  • Ability to learn, adapt and evolve – for new techniques implemented, there will be things that need to stop. As the wider tech industry rapidly evolves, so must architects.

  • Curious - colleagues at Sainsbury’s are encouraged to find answers to the questions that matter to them and their teams. Domain Architects understand what new products are emerging across the organization to understand how they will interact with the domain.
  • Influence, communicate and share - where teams have the autonomy to deliver outcomes themselves, problem solving solutions, new ways of working and innovative ideas emerge quickly. Interfacing with these teams, needs a highly credible collaborator who can influence brilliantly up, down and across Sainsbury’s Tech and with the wider business, including up to Divisional Director level
  • Think and plan ahead - it is essential there are plans and ideas for what is needed in the short, medium and long-term at all levels of our organisation. This is particularly important as the organisation works through the implications of becoming a multi-brand, multi-channel organisation from a technology perspective. Domain Architects are clear on the current view of their area of responsibility (As-Is) and will have worked in a consensus-based manner to reach an agreement on the shape of the future landscape (North Star).

  What decisions I can make including budget

  • Full ownership of the Domain technology roadmap, including the shaping of work to simplify and modernise the domain over time.
  • How to best spend time within the domain to drive forward an impactful and pragmatic strategic technology agenda
  • Influence the overall capital planning for the domain – ensuring that the right pieces of work are prioritised and driven forward.

  Directly or indirectly manages

  • No reports

  Support we will provide

  • Collaboration and counsel from key colleagues – including Chief Technology Officer, Directors of Engineering and Heads of Product.
  • Architecture community of practice made up of like-minded colleagues across Sainsburys Tech
  • Architecture Competency Framework to help self-assess development needs.
  • Application datasets and frameworks toolsets to enable prioritisation of work.
  • Other resources as required.

  Qualifications

  We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new — whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

  Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to save 10% on your shopping online and instore at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat, and we regularly increase the discount to 15% at points during the year. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.

  Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy up to an additional week's holiday, and we provide private heathcare. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme.

  Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

  Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibiity criteria may apply).

  Responsibilities

  We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Think about the scale it takes for us to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety it involves. Then you’ll realise that ours is a modern software engineering environment because it has to be. We’ve made serious investment into a Tech Academy and into setting standards and principles. We iterate, learn, experiment and push ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to awesome opportunities in everything from AI to reusable tech.

• About the company

  Shop online at Sainsbury's for groceries, clothing, homewares, electricals, financial services and more. Together we’re helping everyone eat better.

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