Technology Architecture, Principal

About the Role The Technology Architecture, Principal is responsible for defining and governing AIA Singapore’s technology-wide architecture, ensuring that technology investments are aligned with business strategy, scalable for future growth, and compliant with Group standards. This role develops and drives architecture frameworks and integration strategies, and technical roadmaps across the application, data, infrastructure, and security domains. The ideal candidate is a strong technologist with deep architecture expertise and the ability to influence senior stakeholders across business and technology. You will play a critical role in enabling AIA’s digital transformation, modernizing our application landscape, and guiding engineering teams toward future ready platforms and patterns. WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING Technology Architecture Strategy & Governance • Define, maintain, and evolve the technology architecture blueprint aligned with AIA Singapore’s business strategy. • Establish architecture standards, patterns, principles, and guardrails across application, data, integration, and security domains. • Lead the evaluation and selection of technologies, platforms, and tools to support future‑state architecture. • Drive adoption of Group architecture frameworks and ensure compliance with governance and regulatory requirements. Architecture Planning & Roadmap Execution • Work closely with business, technology, and AIA Group teams to develop multi‑year architecture roadmaps. • Guide the modernization of legacy systems toward -native, scalable, API-driven architectures. • Partner with product and engineering leaders to design target-state architectures for major programs and initiatives. • Ensure architectural designs deliver performance, scalability, security, resilience, and operational efficiency. • Conducts analysis of technology trends, vendor/products lifecycles, regulatory conditions, and market capabilities to determine recommended improvements to the existing solutions. Technology Design Leadership • Provide leadership for technology design across major organisational initiatives, from concept to delivery. • Review and endorse technical design proposals, ensuring alignment with organisational technology standards. • Resolve complex technical challenges and ensure designs are scalable, resilient, and cost‑efficient. • Conduct impact assessments, technology evaluations, and design‑related risk assessments. Collaboration & Stakeholder Management • Engage senior business leaders, product teams, Group architecture, Cybersecurity, and Infrastructure teams to ensure common alignment on technology direction. • Act as the architecture thought leader, influencing decision-making across the organization. • Communicate architecture strategies, decisions, and technical trade-offs in a clear and structured manner. Technology Leadership & Capability Building • Champion engineering excellence, modern architecture practices, and reusable platform capabilities. • Mentor solution architects and senior engineers, developing the next generation of architectural talent. • Promote continuous learning, innovation, and adoption of emerging technologies (-native, integration, analytics, DevSecOps, API-first, etc.). WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE • 8 to 10+ years of experience in technology architecture or technical leadership roles. • Strong architectural expertise across: • Technology architecture. • Application architecture (microservices, event-driven architecture, APIs). • Data and integration architecture (data platforms, streaming, ETL/ELT, API gateway). • Security and infrastructure fundamentals. • Proven track record defining technology architecture frameworks and governing large-scale technology ecosystems. • Strong understanding of SDLC, engineering practices, DevOps, and -native development. • Experience leading architecture for large digital transformation programs. • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with ability to influence at senior levels. • Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Good To Have: • Experience in insurance or financial services. • Certification in TOGAF, Azure Architecture, or similar. • Understanding of regulatory and compliance requirements in a financial institution. • Background in platform engineering and API management.