Principal Architect

Renaissance is a global leader in education technology. We help schools and school groups in the UK and around the world with educational assessments, practice and intervention solutions, and data analytics. Renaissance now incorporates GL Assessment (known internationally as GL Education), too – a leading provider of educational assessments.

Together, our assessments offer the ideal starting point to help teachers understand their students’ strengths and pinpoint areas of need. Our teaching and learning tools then provide effective next steps, with online literacy and maths solutions that meet students exactly where we are.

Worldwide, we support over 18 million students, operating in over 100 countries.

We're evolving toward an AI-enabled, platform-centric operating model and need a Principal Architect to provide technical leadership across our Global Technology function.

You'll shape our technical direction, establish governance, and ensure architectural alignment across platforms, products, and services—without being pulled into day-to-day delivery. You'll be a facilitator and technical leader, bringing together experts across disciplines to define standards, evaluate solutions, and drive sound technical decisions.

What You'll Be Getting Up To With Us

Architecture Leadership & Governance

• Define architecture principles, standards, and governance that enable (not block) delivery
• Establish architecture review forums and decision-making processes
• Drive consistency in technical approaches, tooling, and platform standards
• Maintain visibility and accountability for significant technical decisions

Technical Strategy & Roadmap

• Own and maintain the technical roadmap aligned with business and product strategy
• Identify opportunities, technical debt, platform risks, and modernisation priorities
• Support platform scalability and AI enablement initiatives
• Evaluate emerging technologies and guide adoption decisions

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Bring together SMEs across Engineering, Infrastructure, Security, Data, QA, and Product
• Facilitate collaborative decision-making on complex initiatives
• Provide architectural guidance, design reviews, and solution assurance
• Encourage reuse, standardisation, and platform thinking

Stakeholder & Global Collaboration

• Act as technical liaison with global teams, including US-based functions
• Represent regional requirements in global platform discussions
• Communicate architectural direction and technical trade-offs clearly to all audiences
• Build strong relationships across technical and business teams

Continuous Improvement

• Promote engineering excellence and technical quality
• Support AI-enabled development and innovation
• Mentor engineers and technical leaders

Experience We’d Love To See Includes

• Significant experience in senior architecture or technical leadership roles within SaaS or product-led organisations
• Experience in EdTech or SaaS environments
• Strong background in software engineering, distributed systems, APIs, and cloud-native architectures
• Proven ability to establish architecture governance and technical standards across multiple teams
• Experience influencing technical direction without direct line management authority
• Ability to work effectively across Engineering, Infrastructure, Security, Data, QA, and Product functions
• Track record defining technical roadmaps and aligning technology strategy with business objectives
• Experience in complex, multi-team, or internationally distributed organisations
• Excellent communication skills—explaining technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong facilitation skills to drive discussions to conclusions and establish accountability
• Ability to balance strategic vision with practical delivery realities

Additional Information

This is role is a Hybrid role based out of our Houghton Le Spring office – the team come together a couple of times a week. There may be travel to other offices on occasion.

Please note: Applications will be reviewed week commencing 22nd June.

Benefits

• 25 Days holiday a year plus Bank Holidays (3 to be used for our Christmas shutdown)
• A day off for your birthday to celebrate in style!
• Workplace Nursery scheme
• 5 volunteering days a year to use for the causes of your choice
• Access to a benefits and discount platform with access to 1000’s of discounts at retailers, leisure attractions and restaurants
• BUPA Healthcare, Life assurance, Permanent health insurance
• Pension scheme with enhanced employer contribution – up to 8%
• Season ticket loan and EAP

Unfortunately we are unable to offer sponsorship for this position.

We have an ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and have taken strides to become a more welcoming and inclusive workplace, including the introduction of our DEI Matters Network which is owned and driven by our staff.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We encourage and welcome applications from all underrepresented groups, as we believe and strive for community representation within our organisation.

If you have a disability and would prefer to apply in a different format or would like us to make reasonable adjustments to enable you to apply or attend any interview, please contact us and we will talk this through with you.

All your information will be kept confidential according to GDPR guidelines. Please note that we can only consider applicants who already hold a full work permit.

This role is subject to DBS and background checks.