Principal Architect- Software Development

For more than 40 years, Accelya has been the industry’s partner for change, simplifying airline financial and commercial processes and empowering the air transport community to take better control of the future. Whether partnering with IATA on industry-wide initiatives or enabling digital transformation to simplify airline processes, Accelya drives the airline industry forward and proudly puts control back in the hands of airlines so they can move further, faster. 

Location: United Kingdom

Reporting to: VP – Software Development, FLX ONE Cargo

About Accelya

Accelya is a global leader in airline software, supporting over 200 airlines worldwide with an open, modular platform that enables modern airline retailing. The FLX ONE platform supports airlines across Offer, Order, Settlement, and Delivery (OOSD), aligned with IATA standards for modern retailing. Built on a cloud-native AWS infrastructure and backed by more than 40 years of airline industry expertise, Accelya helps airlines modernise operations, improve customer experience, and scale with confidence.

Role Context

As Principal Architect for FLX ONE Cargo, you are the architectural authority for Cargo within the FLX ONE ecosystem. You are responsible for defining the system architecture, engineering patterns, and integration strategies that allow Cargo capabilities to evolve while remaining aligned with FLX ONE Retail, shared platform services, and industry standards such as IATA ONE Record.

A critical aspect of this role is ensuring modularity by design and a clear, low-risk migration path from existing Cargo solutions. You will define how airlines and internal teams can adopt FLX ONE Cargo incrementally—supporting coexistence with legacy systems, phased rollout, and safe operational transition—without forcing disruptive “big bang” migrations.

This is a hands-on architectural leadership role, working closely with engineering teams, product leaders, and airline customers to turn architectural direction into practical, production-ready solutions.

What You’ll Own

End-to-End Architecture

• Own the architecture for FLX ONE Cargo across core domains, including offer creation, booking, execution, and integrations.
   
• Define and evolve reference architectures and engineering patterns used by Cargo engineering teams.
   

Modularity & Migration Strategy

• Define a modular architecture that enables independent capability adoption through clear domain boundaries, contracts, and versioning.
   
• Own the migration strategy from existing Cargo solutions, including coexistence patterns, phased rollout approaches, and backwards-compatible integration paths.
   
• Establish reference migration playbooks (e.g. strangler patterns, parallel run, data and event replication, controlled cutover) suited to airline operational realities.
   
• Ensure migrations are safe, observable, and reversible through strong traceability and operational controls.
   

Platform & Ecosystem Alignment

• Ensure Cargo services align with FLX ONE Retail, Open Connect, and shared platform capabilities.
   
• Guide integration patterns for airline systems, partners, and external platforms.
   

Architectural Governance & Decision Making

• Lead architectural decision-making with a focus on simplicity, scalability, security, and long-term maintainability.
   
• Review designs and implementations to ensure alignment with agreed standards and patterns.
   

Engineering Enablement

• Work closely with Senior Managers, Team Leads, and Specialists to translate architectural direction into executable designs.
   
• Mentor senior engineers and architects, raising architectural maturity and consistency across teams.
   

Customer & Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as the architectural representative for Cargo in discussions with airline customers and internal stakeholders.
   
• Clearly articulate architectural trade-offs, constraints, and decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences.
   

Non-Functional Excellence

• Drive architecture decisions related to performance, reliability, observability, and security.
   
• Ensure systems are designed for production-grade operation in a cloud-native environment.
   

What You Must Bring

• 12+ years of experience designing and delivering large-scale, distributed software platforms.
   
• Strong hands-on experience with modern enterprise stacks (e.g. .NET, Node.js, Java/Spring Boot, or similar).
   
• Deep experience designing cloud-native architectures on AWS, including API-driven and event-driven systems.
   
• Proven experience leading modularisation and migration journeys from legacy or monolithic systems to modern platforms, including coexistence and incremental cutover.
   
• Ability to influence engineering direction without formal authority through clarity and sound judgment.
   

Nice to Have

• Experience in airline, cargo, logistics, or other highly regulated enterprise domains.
   
• Familiarity with IATA standards such as ONE Record or modern airline retailing concepts.
   
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, AWS CDK).
   
• Exposure to AI-assisted or data-driven platform capabilities.
   

Why This Role Matters

FLX ONE Cargo must evolve within a complex airline ecosystem while supporting existing operational realities. This role ensures Cargo is built as a modular, extensible platform with a clear and safe migration path, enabling airlines to modernise at their own pace while protecting reliability, continuity, and long-term platform health.

What does the future of the air transport industry look like to you? Whether you’re an industry veteran or someone with experience from other industries, we want to make your ambitions a reality!