Principal Architect

Ezra is seeking a highly experienced and hands-on Principal Architect to own and champion the long-term architectural vision, strategy, and technical standards for its mission-critical lending, data, and customer value platform. This is a senior individual contributor role that sits at the intersection of deep technical expertise and strategic influence — you will set the architectural direction that underpins the company's aggressive growth ambitions across East Africa and beyond.

Reporting directly to the Director of Technology Delivery, you will serve as the technical conscience of the engineering organisation, ensuring that software, platform, and data architecture decisions are unified, coherent, scalable, resilient, and secure. You will also be a hands-on mentor and coach, contributing directly to production code in critical areas while guiding engineering teams through the most complex technical challenges the organisation faces.

• Co-define and champion the long-term technical architecture and standards across the entire platform, ensuring alignment across software engineering, platform engineering, and data architecture domains.
• Partner with the CTO, Director of Technology Delivery, and Engineering Managers to define, communicate, and execute the technology strategy and architectural roadmap for the lending and data platforms.
• Institute and manage architectural governance models that enforce adherence, quality, and consistency across all technology domains, with a strong focus on scalability, security, and maintainability.
• Lead architectural design and review processes for all major platform initiatives, ensuring decisions are well-reasoned, documented, and future-proof.
• Establish and promote best practices for platform engineering, including DevOps, cloud infrastructure, and data architecture, embedding a culture of system resilience and data integrity.
• Collaborate strategically with product managers, engineering managers, and business leaders to translate complex product visions into clear, robust, and well-governed technical architectures and execution plans.
• Contribute directly to production code in critical areas, demonstrating hands-on technical leadership and helping resolve the most challenging engineering problems.
• Mentor and coach engineers across teams, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and architectural accountability.
• Drive the strategic integration of advanced technologies including AI-enabled systems, cloud-native solutions, and modern architectural patterns into the core platform.
• Monitor and drive reduction of technical debt while improving system reliability and delivery velocity across all engineering teams.

• Demonstrate at least 10 years of progressive software and systems architecture experience, including hands-on delivery in production environments at scale.
• Design, architect, and deliver enterprise-grade platforms using Java and/or Clojure in high-availability, mission-critical environments.
• Define and enforce architectural governance frameworks across multiple engineering teams with measurable outcomes in quality and consistency.
• Lead cloud-native architecture design and implementation on platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, including containerisation and orchestration with Kubernetes or equivalent.
• Architect modern data platforms including data lakes, streaming pipelines, and analytical systems with a demonstrable focus on data integrity and governance.
• Integrate AI/ML capabilities into production systems, including model serving, feature engineering pipelines, and responsible AI practices.
• Communicate complex architectural decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, influencing outcomes at the executive level.
• Mentor senior engineers and leads, demonstrating measurable uplift in team technical capability and reduced dependency on reactive firefighting.
• Navigate fintech or lending platform domains, understanding regulatory, compliance, and risk considerations that influence architectural choices.
• Apply DevSecOps principles and embed security-by-design thinking throughout the software development lifecycle.

Ezra offers a competitive, market-aligned compensation package commensurate with the seniority and impact of this role. While the salary is listed as open and will be negotiated based on experience, the estimated market range for a Principal Architect at this level in Kenya is KES 400,000 – 700,000 per month. The total package includes performance incentives and access to a comprehensive benefits programme.

• Competitive base salary negotiable based on experience
• Performance-based incentives
• Opportunity to shape the technical direction of a high-growth fintech platform
• Collaborative, mission-driven engineering culture

Ideal candidate: You are a seasoned architect with a strong hands-on engineering background who has moved into enterprise-wide technical leadership. You thrive in fast-scaling environments, are comfortable holding both the 10,000-foot strategic view and diving into production code when it matters. You have a proven track record of reducing technical debt, improving platform reliability, and enabling business growth through sound architectural decisions. Experience in lending, fintech, or data-intensive platforms is a significant advantage.

Who should NOT apply: This role is not suited for candidates who are purely theoretical architects without recent hands-on coding experience, or for those seeking a management or people-leader role. It is also not appropriate for mid-level engineers who have not yet led architectural governance across multiple engineering teams or defined technical strategy at an organisational level.

• Prepare an updated CV highlighting your architectural experience, key platforms you have designed, and measurable outcomes you have delivered.
• Include a brief cover letter or summary outlining your approach to architectural governance and a specific example of a complex architectural challenge you have resolved.
• Submit your application through the Ezra careers portal or the job platform where this listing is published.
• Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an initial screening call, followed by a technical architecture discussion and panel interview with senior leadership.
• Apply as soon as possible — Ezra reviews applications on a rolling basis and may close the listing once a suitable candidate is identified.