Lead Airline Digital Solutions Architect at iOCO
iOCO
October 23, 2026
Full-time
On-site
Job Description
The Lead Airline Digital Solutions Architect is accountable for the end-to-end architecture, technical integrity and delivery alignment of organisation's customer-facing and operational digital platforms. The resource must translate airline business outcomes into secure, resilient and supportable solutions across the organisation, Amadeus and partner ecosystems while remaining sufficiently hands-on to guide implementation and resolve complex production issues.
What you'll do:
Own current-state, transition and target architecture for flysaa.com and related digital channels, including flight shopping, booking, payment, check-in, manage-booking, corporate travel, loyalty, mobile and operational applications.
Lead solution design for integrations with Amadeus Altéa, RefX, airline web services, payment providers, loyalty platforms, Star Alliance services and other third-party or internal systems.
Provide architecture and technical governance for Java/Spring Boot microservices, REST and SOAP APIs, middleware, web applications, mobile applications, caching, messaging and data integrations.
Shape organisation's airline-retailing roadmap, including NDC shopping, Offer and Order concepts, dynamic offers, corporate distribution and progressive modernisation of legacy booking journeys.
Define cloud and hybrid architecture for AWS-hosted applications, including EKS, containerisation, networking, load balancing, security controls, secrets, observability, scalability, resilience, backup and disaster recovery.
Establish non-functional requirements covering availability, response time, throughput, data protection, auditability, accessibility, supportability and recovery objectives.
Chair or participate in design authority reviews; produce solution architecture documents, interface specifications, architecture decision records, sequence diagrams and deployment views.
Lead technical planning and delivery across internal teams, systems integrators, offshore developers, SaaS providers and airline technology vendors.
Support technical due diligence, effort estimation, procurement evaluations, vendor challenge sessions and acceptance of third-party solution designs.
Provide escalation leadership for critical incidents, cross-system defects and performance or integration failures, ensuring root-cause analysis and permanent corrective actions.
Maintain architecture standards and ensure that security, privacy, PCI DSS, POPIA and company governance obligations are reflected in designs and implementation.
Coach technical leads and engineers and ensure structured knowledge transfer to company personnel and appointed service providers.
Your expertise:
A minimum of 15 years' experience in enterprise software engineering, solution delivery or technology leadership.
A minimum of 10 years' demonstrable experience in airline or travel technology, including direct delivery of airline digital commerce or passenger-service integrations.
At least 5 years' experience performing solution architecture, enterprise architecture or technical design authority responsibilities for business-critical platforms.
Demonstrable experience leading backend, API and middleware delivery for a large airline website or comparable airline digital platform.
Demonstrable experience coordinating multidisciplinary and distributed delivery teams, including on-site, remote and vendor resources.
Hands-on experience with airline shopping, booking, PNR servicing, payment, check-in, loyalty, ancillary, notification or baggage-related journeys.
Proven experience integrating Amadeus Altéa and/or comparable passenger service systems using REST, SOAP, Self-Service or enterprise airline APIs.
Demonstrable experience in the architecture of Java/Spring-based services, API-led integration, microservices and containerised workloads on AWS and Kubernetes/EKS.
Experience with Agile delivery, DevOps practices, technical assurance, code-quality governance and production support. Scrum or Agile certification is advantageous.
Qualifications:
A Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Science or a closely related discipline; an equivalent NQF Level 8 qualification may be considered.
Required domain and technical knowledge:
Airline retailing and distribution: schedules and availability, fares, flight shopping, offers, ancillaries, orders/bookings, ticketing, servicing and disruption considerations.
Amadeus ecosystem: Altéa reservation concepts, RefX booking flows, airline web services and the practical constraints of redirect, deep-link and hosted booking journeys.
IATA standards and industry direction: NDC message concepts, AirShopping, Offer and Order management, One Order and airline retailing modernisation.
Architecture methods: domain and integration modelling, API design, security architecture, non-functional analysis, technology roadmaps, architecture decisions and technical risk management.
Platforms and patterns: Java, Spring Boot, REST, SOAP, JSON/XML, microservices, AWS, EKS/Kubernetes, Docker, caching, event-driven integration, Liferay or comparable digital experience platforms, and React/Next.js or comparable front-end frameworks.
Operational engineering: monitoring, logging, tracing, alerting, capacity planning, vulnerability remediation, incident command, root-cause analysis and disaster recovery.
Expected deliverables:
Approved solution architectures and implementation roadmaps for assigned initiatives.
Architecture decision records, integration specifications, security and non-functional requirements, and traceable design approvals.
Technical delivery plans, estimates, dependency maps and risk or issue escalations.
Design assurance across organisational teams and third-party suppliers, including documented review outcomes and remediation actions.
Production architecture support, major-incident participation and root-cause recommendations.
Current architecture repository, system knowledge base and structured knowledge-transfer material.
The Lead Airline Digital Solutions Architect is accountable for the end-to-end architecture, technical integrity and delivery alignment of organisation's customer-facing and operational digital platforms. The resource must translate airline business outcomes into secure, resilient and supportable solutions across the organisation, Amadeus and partner ecosystems while remaining sufficiently hands-on to guide implementation and resolve complex production issues.
What you'll do:
Own current-state, transition and target architecture for flysaa.com and related digital channels, including flight shopping, booking, payment, check-in, manage-booking, corporate travel, loyalty, mobile and operational applications.
Lead solution design for integrations with Amadeus Altéa, RefX, airline web services, payment providers, loyalty platforms, Star Alliance services and other third-party or internal systems.
Provide architecture and technical governance for Java/Spring Boot microservices, REST and SOAP APIs, middleware, web applications, mobile applications, caching, messaging and data integrations.
Shape organisation's airline-retailing roadmap, including NDC shopping, Offer and Order concepts, dynamic offers, corporate distribution and progressive modernisation of legacy booking journeys.
Define cloud and hybrid architecture for AWS-hosted applications, including EKS, containerisation, networking, load balancing, security controls, secrets, observability, scalability, resilience, backup and disaster recovery.
Establish non-functional requirements covering availability, response time, throughput, data protection, auditability, accessibility, supportability and recovery objectives.
Chair or participate in design authority reviews; produce solution architecture documents, interface specifications, architecture decision records, sequence diagrams and deployment views.
Lead technical planning and delivery across internal teams, systems integrators, offshore developers, SaaS providers and airline technology vendors.
Support technical due diligence, effort estimation, procurement evaluations, vendor challenge sessions and acceptance of third-party solution designs.
Provide escalation leadership for critical incidents, cross-system defects and performance or integration failures, ensuring root-cause analysis and permanent corrective actions.
Maintain architecture standards and ensure that security, privacy, PCI DSS, POPIA and company governance obligations are reflected in designs and implementation.
Coach technical leads and engineers and ensure structured knowledge transfer to company personnel and appointed service providers.
Your expertise:
A minimum of 15 years' experience in enterprise software engineering, solution delivery or technology leadership.
A minimum of 10 years' demonstrable experience in airline or travel technology, including direct delivery of airline digital commerce or passenger-service integrations.
At least 5 years' experience performing solution architecture, enterprise architecture or technical design authority responsibilities for business-critical platforms.
Demonstrable experience leading backend, API and middleware delivery for a large airline website or comparable airline digital platform.
Demonstrable experience coordinating multidisciplinary and distributed delivery teams, including on-site, remote and vendor resources.
Hands-on experience with airline shopping, booking, PNR servicing, payment, check-in, loyalty, ancillary, notification or baggage-related journeys.
Proven experience integrating Amadeus Altéa and/or comparable passenger service systems using REST, SOAP, Self-Service or enterprise airline APIs.
Demonstrable experience in the architecture of Java/Spring-based services, API-led integration, microservices and containerised workloads on AWS and Kubernetes/EKS.
Experience with Agile delivery, DevOps practices, technical assurance, code-quality governance and production support. Scrum or Agile certification is advantageous.
Qualifications:
A Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Science or a closely related discipline; an equivalent NQF Level 8 qualification may be considered.
Required domain and technical knowledge:
Airline retailing and distribution: schedules and availability, fares, flight shopping, offers, ancillaries, orders/bookings, ticketing, servicing and disruption considerations.
Amadeus ecosystem: Altéa reservation concepts, RefX booking flows, airline web services and the practical constraints of redirect, deep-link and hosted booking journeys.
IATA standards and industry direction: NDC message concepts, AirShopping, Offer and Order management, One Order and airline retailing modernisation.
Architecture methods: domain and integration modelling, API design, security architecture, non-functional analysis, technology roadmaps, architecture decisions and technical risk management.
Platforms and patterns: Java, Spring Boot, REST, SOAP, JSON/XML, microservices, AWS, EKS/Kubernetes, Docker, caching, event-driven integration, Liferay or comparable digital experience platforms, and React/Next.js or comparable front-end frameworks.
Operational engineering: monitoring, logging, tracing, alerting, capacity planning, vulnerability remediation, incident command, root-cause analysis and disaster recovery.
Expected deliverables:
Approved solution architectures and implementation roadmaps for assigned initiatives.
Architecture decision records, integration specifications, security and non-functional requirements, and traceable design approvals.
Technical delivery plans, estimates, dependency maps and risk or issue escalations.
Design assurance across organisational teams and third-party suppliers, including documented review outcomes and remediation actions.
Production architecture support, major-incident participation and root-cause recommendations.
Current architecture repository, system knowledge base and structured knowledge-transfer material.