Head of Architecture

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Who we are 🌍

We’re IAG Loyalty - one organisation with two ambitious, growing divisions across Loyalty and Holidays. Each has its own goals, strategy and team, but together we’re united by a shared vision to create a more rewarding world of travel and experiences.

Our Loyalty division is home to Avios, the global loyalty currency, enabling millions of members to collect and spend rewards across travel, retail and financial services.

Our Holidays division including British Airways Holidays and Iberia Vacaciones, brings together trusted brands, connecting customers to thousands of destinations worldwide through seamless, end-to-end travel experiences.

We’re on an exciting journey of growth and transformation – we’re going places.

The opportunity ✨

As the Head of Architecture, you will have the opportunity to shape the technology strategy that powers the next stage of our growth. You will define and lead the strategic architecture for our Loyalty and Holidays divisions, ensuring alignment with the objectives of those businesses, the strategic roadmaps of the broader IAG operating companies, and our technology vision.

Your leadership will be instrumental in ensuring we pursue the right technology direction for our business and gaining the support of our c-suite to unlock the necessary investment.

What you’ll be doing 🚀

As the Head of Architecture, you will play a central role in shaping the next phase of our technology strategy and supporting the wider business vision. You will define and lead the strategic technology roadmaps across our Loyalty and Holidays divisions, ensuring they are aligned with our long-term objectives. This includes establishing and maintaining architectural principles, reference architectures, and decision-making frameworks that support robust and future-ready technology choices. As both an internal leader and external representative, you will promote IAGL’s architectural vision across industry forums, building the organisation’s reputation and influence.

You will work closely with product, engineering, and business teams to ensure technology decisions are in step with strategic goals, while also collaborating with IAG OpCo architecture teams to align on key initiatives and shared roadmaps. Externally, you’ll develop strategic partnerships with software vendors, industry bodies, and research organisations to ensure our architecture remains at the forefront of industry best practice. Your ability to create clear, compelling architectural roadmaps—and gain C-suite alignment around them—will be key to unlocking investment and delivering long-term business value. Through strong cross-functional collaboration and leadership, you will help drive efficiency, innovation, and strategic impact across the organisation.

Female colleague smiling at Hackathon event

What we need from you ⚡

We are aiming high, and we accept that it is unlikely that any one person will meet every aspect of the brief. Who you are is equally as important as what you have done or where you have worked.

So even if you don't tick every box, or your experience is from a unique or varied background, we'd still love to hear from you!

  • An experienced technology leader with a passion for technology, and driving value from its use

  • A proven track record of leading an Architecture function, in a multi-business group or complex enterprise environment, ideally through a period of transformation or significant growth.

  • Experience of leading an Architecture function in an environment where high rates of change are the norm, and where change is managed by autonomous teams operating a DevSecOps model.

  • Results-driven, unafraid to challenge the status quo and able to hold people accountable for delivering their commitments.

  • Experience in implementing and iterating comprehensive strategies that align with business goals and empower us to make data-driven decisions.

  • Able define and clearly articulate the team's mission and promote strong agile ways of working.

  • Ability to gain trust, influence, and steer a wide range of stakeholders, including our c-suite to gain buy in for strategic roadmaps

  • Highly resilient character, able to demonstrate drive and ambition to reach the required goals.

  • Naturally able to move at a fast pace, but with the empathy and storytelling ability to take others on a journey with you.

  • An understanding of the loyalty, travel, or aviation sector is advantageous but not critical.

We might not be right for you if:

  • You only want to focus on your to-do list; we’re a small, high-performing team, we help each other to succeed.

  • You value perfection over fast iteration and progress; IAG Loyalty moves fast, we learn and iterate as we go; our environment isn’t right for everyone.

  • You’re looking to create but not build; this is an end-to-end role, you need to be comfortable owning your space, from ideation through to delivery and review.

If you think you have what it takes but don't meet every single point above, please do still apply. We'd love to chat and see if you could be a great fit.

The Blend 📍

This role will work across both divisions and is based out of our London office. We call our approach to hybrid working The Blend — it’s about giving you the flexibility to choose where you do your best work, while staying connected with your team and the wider business. This means you will be required to spend at least two days per week in the office, with the rest of the time working from home. You may also be required to work from one of our other office or partner locations, based on your role and 'to do' list

Perks that take you places ✈️

  • Bag of cash

    Annual Bonus (dependant on Company & Individual Performance)

  • Sun

    Company Pension of 9% (6% company/3% employee)

  • Red book

    Access to Annual Bookable Travel Concessions for yourself and up to 3 nominees

  • Airplane taking off

    Unlimited standby and premium standby fares for you and your nominees on the full BA network and numerous other partner airlines

  • Globe showing UK

    Exciting global travel industry discounts including flights with hotels, rail, cruises & tour operators also available through travel providers  

  • Line chart

    Discounts on BA flights and holidays from day one for you, your friends and family

  • Calendar displaying July 17th

    20 days working from abroad in Europe allowed per calendar year

  • Bar chart

    26 days annual leave, the ability to buy or sell up to 5 days leave per year and 2 days charity leave

  • Man riding a bike

    Cycle to work scheme (UK only)

  • Red car

    Electric/ULEV car scheme (UK only)

  • Laptop

    Our unique learning offer, 'Develop You', helps you take your career, and IAGL, to new heights!

  • Arm with flexed muscle

    Private Health Care with Bupa (Sanitas for Spanish colleagues)

Diversity and Inclusion at IAG Loyalty

Our vision is to create a more rewarding world of travel and experiences. Delivering that requires diverse thinking and inclusive leadership.

We are committed to building a workplace where people feel they belong and are valued for their perspective. Inclusion drives better decisions, stronger performance and more innovative outcomes.

We actively encourage applications from people with different experiences and backgrounds, and are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is fair, inclusive and accessible.

Location

123 Buckingham Palace Road,
London,
SW1W 9SH

Get directions
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Sounds good?

Learn more about what #LifeAtLoyalty is all about on our careers site (iagloyalty.com) and LinkedIn page recent posts.

Apply now

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