Application Architect (.NET & Azure)

Lead the evolution of a mission-critical .NET ecosystem Take the next step in your career with a bold move to a highly regarded, New Zealand-owned technology company. We offer a creative and stimulating work environment and value and respect inclusivity and diversity. About this role | Mō tēnei tūranga mahi Role Overview You will be an experienced Application Architect embedded in a multi-year digital transformation programme for a large New Zealand-based global customer. This is a deeply application-focused, engineering-led architecture role. Important : this is not a cloud landing zone or enterprise platform architecture role. Your domain is the application — clean design, integration patterns, code quality, and long-term maintainability across a mixed .NET estate that spans legacy .NET Framework 4.x through to modern .NET (up to .NET 10), hosted primarily on Microsoft Azure. You will define the technical direction, own the path from legacy to modern, design the API and integration layer, and be the engineering authority the team and customer both rely on. Mentoring the engineers around you and defending your design decisions in front of customer management are as important as the architecture itself. Key Responsibilities Define and evolve application architecture across a mixed .NET estate (Framework 4.x → modern .NET up to .NET 10), setting the modernisation roadmap and ensuring new work follows clean, sustainable patterns while legacy components are uplifted incrementally. Lead frontend-focused architecture for Angular-based SPAs — defining and governing the API interaction model, ensuring frontend squads have well-designed, stable, and versioned contracts to build against. Design and govern API contracts for internal first-party APIs and integrations with third-party services operating within the customer's environment. Create and maintain a pragmatic technical debt remediation roadmap — identifying what to address, in what order, and how to do it without stalling live delivery. Define and enforce engineering standards: DDD, clean architecture, automated testing, CI/CD, and code review practices. Facilitate architecture workshops with engineering squads, product owners, and customer stakeholders; provide technical governance through sprint reviews and release gates. Mentor senior engineers and junior architects — through pairing, design reviews, code feedback, and knowledge sharing. Build capability, not dependency. Be the technical voice in customer-facing conversations — able to explain design decisions clearly to non-technical management and defend them with confidence. Skills and Experience | Ngā pūkenga me ngā wheako Essential: Deep, hands-on experience with .NET Framework (4.x) and modern .NET (6 through 10) — and a track record of managing the gap between them in a live production environment. Strong grasp of application modernisation patterns: strangler fig, anti-corruption layers, incremental migration — and knowing which to apply when. Good knowledge of modern SPA frameworks (Angular preferred) — the confirmed frontend framework in this environment. Sufficient depth to review component architecture, understand data-binding patterns, and collaborate meaningfully with frontend squads. Strong API design and enterprise integration experience — REST, messaging patterns, and third-party API governance. Experience designing and governing frontend-facing application architectures, including SPA/API interaction models and API contract management. Azure-hosted application experience: App Services, Azure Functions, API Management, Azure SQL, Service Bus, and related PaaS tooling. Solid grounding in web application security: authentication, authorisation, secrets management, and secure API design. Proven ability to manage and incrementally reduce technical debt as part of an active delivery programme — not as a separate workstream. Outstanding mentoring ability — a natural instinct to build up the people around you, not just solve problems yourself. Strong client-facing communication — able to simplify technical complexity for non-technical executives and earn confidence through clarity. Desirable: Knowledge of Zero-Trust security, DevSecOps, and FinOps. Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate or Azure Solutions Architect. iSAQB Certified Professional for Software Architecture About us | Mō mātou We have 30 years of experience as a New Zealand-owned technology consultancy. We take pride in our multicultural and diverse team of circa 280 skilled professionals. Our offices are in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, and Christchurch. Working with clients in both the public and private sectors, we strive to deliver innovative solutions and enable smarter outcomes. Our company attracts some of the brightest minds in the industry, as we foster a culture of excellence and continuous learning. Our values are: Our people are our greatest asset. We conduct business ethically. Invention, imagination and creativity are the foundation for growth. We work with positive energy, enjoyment, humour and work/life balance. Excellence is our passion, and we deliver what we promise – or more! We strive to take a pragmatic approach to all of our activities We value and appreciate our natural environment and seek to play our part to maintain it Benefits of working at Theta | Ngā hua ka puta i te mahi ki Theta Theta offers a family friendly work environment with flexible work hours where practical; especially relevant for caregivers. We embrace gender equality and are committed to providing a supportive, diverse and inclusive work environment throughout our workplace. Theta is committed to giving back to the community and are avid supporters of Cure Kids. We compete in various adventure races and do many other things to raise money for Cure Kids. And we make time for the fun things in life! We currently provide the following benefits to ensure your professional development and personal wellbeing: Professional growth and learning opportunities A competitive salary (commensurate with experience) Fully subsidised medical insurance for employees Heavily discounted medical insurance for immediate family of employees Enhanced parental leave payment – salary top-ups plus return-to-work incentive Hybrid working model (minimum 2 days in the office) Volunteer days Internal Referral Incentive Staff Assistance Programme Annual Flu injections Sick leave from your first day on board Remote working options where practical and mutually agreed Daily fresh fruit basket, coffee machine, wide selection of teas and biscuits in all of our offices. Please note : We are only accepting applications from those already residing in Auckland with the relevant visas. All potential employees will be required to consent to a Ministry of Justice criminal record check. Apply now | Tono ināianei