Principal Solution Architect

British Airways; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 100,000

Job description

A career without limits

As the nation’s flag carrier, we take great pride in connecting Britain with the world and the world with Britain.

It’s something we’ve been doing for over 100 years, ever since we launched the world’s first international scheduled air service between London and Paris.

This originality has been in our blood since day one. It’s the spirit we share with the people that fly with us, our partners, and our colleagues.

So, whether you are a reassuring voice on the end of a phone, a smile at the door, under a wing keeping the turbines spinning or landing us gently in far-flung places, a job at British Airways is yours to make.

We know great things can happen when you’re inspired to think big and bring your ambition to work every day, which is why, at British Airways the sky is never the limit.

The role: Principal Solution Architect

Shape the future of British Airways as a Principal Solution Architect. We have multiple opportunities available across distinct business areas, each playing a critical role in driving innovation, scalability, and efficiency across the airline.

Where You'll Work

1. Operations Technology – covering above and below wing solutions, crew applications, catering systems, flight planning, and more.
2. Customer and Commercial Technology – enhancing the digital customer experience across BA.com, ancillary services, contact centres, and beyond.
3. Enterprise Enablement & Platform Services – supporting foundational services including cloud, observability, HR systems, integration platforms, and internal tooling to enable delivery at scale.

We’re building with a modern tech stack that includes cloud-native solutions on AWS, Java-based services, React and Angular for UI, and DevOps automation using GitHub and Terraform.

What You’ll Do

• Guide and define solution architecture across multiple domains, ensuring alignment with BA’s strategic goals and architectural principles.
• Solve complex business problems through innovative, scalable technical designs that trace back to clear business outcomes.
• Own the technical integrity of solutions, balancing short-term delivery with long-term maintainability and performance.
• Identify and drive continuous improvement initiatives across architecture, tooling, and delivery methods.
• Lead strategic supplier relationships, ensuring external contributions align with BA’s technical and business requirements.
• Partner closely with stakeholders, architects, and delivery teams to deliver consistent, efficient, and value-driven solutions.
• Mentor and coach Solution Architects, supporting their development and capability within your domain.
• Contribute thought leadership during Agile ceremonies, shaping estimation, backlog refinement, and architectural reviews.
• Share and promote architectural patterns, frameworks, and standards across the wider architecture community.

What You’ll Bring

• Strong leadership presence and the ability to influence and guide senior stakeholders across complex environments.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, with the ability to weigh competing priorities and guide teams toward shared goals.
• Proven experience delivering technology-led business change in a structured, scalable way.
• A collaborative, pragmatic mindset with a strong grasp of the bigger picture and commercial value.
• A passion for innovation, improvement, and evolving architecture to meet future needs.

Your Experience

• Extensive experience defining and delivering complex solution architectures across business, data, applications, and technology domains.
• Deep understanding of application development, enterprise integration, infrastructure, and migration strategies.
• Proven ability to lead technical decisions that influence organisation-wide change.
• Awareness of industry trends and emerging technologies, with the ability to apply these to solve business problems.
• Global experience working across multiple countries or regions (desirable).

Why British Airways?

This is an exciting time to join BA Digital. As we modernise and grow, you’ll play a critical role in shaping our digital future, ensuring we deliver resilient, forward-thinking solutions. You’ll work in a collaborative team that values innovation, technical excellence, and delivering real impact.

Ready to lead transformational change in a global airline? Apply now and help shape the future of British Airways.

What we offer:

We believe that all the people who work with us should feel valued for the part they play. It’s one of the reasons our rewards go far beyond a competitive salary.

From the day you join us, you’ll get access to brilliant staff travel benefits including unlimited basic and premium standby tickets on British Airways flights. You’ll also receive up to 30 discounted ‘Hotline’ airfares per year for yourself, friends, and family.

At British Airways you’ll have the chance to take on new challenges and move forward in a way that feels right for you. We encourage all those who work for us to consider opportunities right across our business to help you develop and progress.

We never stand still, and we don’t expect our people to either.

Inclusion & Diversity

At British Airways we all have a part to play in creating an inclusive place to work. Diverse representation among our people is really important to us and we recognise that all our colleagues are uniquely different and bring their own originality, creativity and identity to work.

Inclusion and diversity is a key driver of innovation and we’re committed to creating a culture where everyone feels that they can be themselves. We’re looking for people from all backgrounds and cultures to join us and be a part of our journey to become a Better BA as we continue to connect Britain with the world and the world with Britain.