Solution Architect Principal- CDN

Working Style: Hybrid, 3 days a week from office and 2 days from home

About the role

We are seeking a Principal Solution Architect to act as BT Group's technical authority for Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Edge Compute capabilities across BT, EE and Plusnet broadband and mobile services.

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of content distribution at one of the UK's largest network providers. As a senior individual contributor, you will define the strategy, roadmap and architecture for CDN and edge computing services, ensuring we maximise the value of our network infrastructure while creating innovative products and experiences for customers and partners.

Working across engineering, commercial and research teams, you'll identify new opportunities driven by changing media consumption, IP-based content delivery and emerging edge technologies. You'll translate market and technology trends into scalable solutions, helping to create new revenue streams, enhance customer experience and accelerate strategic transformation across the business.

As the overall design authority for CDN and Edge Compute, you'll lead the development of a pan-BT strategy that:

• Creates innovative services for customers and content partners
• Identifies new product opportunities and revenue streams
• Enhances content delivery performance and customer experience
• Simplifies and evolves CDN and edge computing capabilities across the Group
• Accelerates transformation through cloud-native technologies, automation and agile delivery practices

With demand for video streaming and digital content continuing to grow at scale, CDN capabilities are increasingly critical to delivering the high-quality experiences our customers expect. At the same time, the convergence of CDN and edge computing is creating exciting opportunities to deliver new services closer to users, unlock operational efficiencies and support emerging workloads, including AI at the network edge.

We're looking for someone who can do more than deliver established solutions. You'll bring deep technical expertise, commercial awareness and strategic thinking to define what we should build next, why it matters, and how we should bring it to market. Your thought leadership will help shape investment decisions, influence senior stakeholders and guide the future direction of content delivery across BT Group.

What you’ll be doing

• Define and drive the strategic roadmap for CDN, content delivery and edge computing services, aligning technology investments with business objectives, market opportunities and customer needs.
• Lead the architecture and delivery of innovative CDN and edge compute solutions, translating complex technical and commercial requirements into scalable, high-impact services.
• Identify and evaluate emerging technologies, industry trends and new business opportunities across content distribution, edge computing and AI-at-the-edge, helping shape future products, services and revenue streams.
• Develop business cases and technical propositions, assessing build, buy and partner options while supporting commercial negotiations, bids, RFPs and go-to-market activities.
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders across engineering, commercial, research and partner organisations, influencing strategic decisions and building strong relationships up to executive level.
• Provide technical leadership and thought leadership across the CDN and edge computing domain, establishing architectural standards, design patterns and best practices that drive innovation and continuous improvement.
• Mentor and coach architects, engineers and designers, fostering technical excellence, knowledge sharing and capability growth across the wider team.
• Drive the evolution of platforms and operating models through automation, agile delivery practices and modern engineering approaches, ensuring solutions remain secure, scalable and commercially viable.

Essential Skills / Experience

We're looking for a proven technology leader with deep expertise in CDN, content delivery and edge computing, alongside the ability to shape strategy, influence investment decisions and drive innovation at scale.

• Deep knowledge of CDN technologies, content distribution architectures and edge computing platforms, with a strong understanding of industry trends and market evolution.
• Significant experience within media, broadcast, telecommunications, content delivery, hyperscale or service provider environments.
• Proven track record of defining technology strategy, product direction and multi-year roadmaps for large-scale customer-facing services.
• Strong solution architecture expertise, with experience designing and delivering complex, end-to-end solutions across software, networking, cloud and distributed infrastructure environments.
• Broad technical knowledge spanning IP networking, cloud platforms, software engineering, broadband, mobile and content distribution technologies.
• Experience evaluating build, buy and partner approaches, supporting commercial business cases, supplier engagement, RFPs and strategic technology partnerships.
• Demonstrated ability to translate technical and market insights into innovative products, services and commercially viable propositions.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to engage confidently at senior leadership and executive level.
• Experience working within agile delivery and modern product development environments.

Desirable Skills / Experience

• Experience with AI and machine learning workloads deployed at the network edge.
• Knowledge of adjacent technologies including television distribution, multicast, gaming delivery and cloud-native platforms.
• Experience combining solution architecture, product strategy and technical product ownership.
• Background working within a service provider, CDN provider, hyperscaler or media distribution organisation.
• Product management or Product Owner certification.
• Experience leading technical communities and influencing organisational technology strategy.

Our Package

Tailored benefits make a real difference. That’s why we offer a comprehensive range to support your growth, wellbeing, and everyday life. You can design the package to suit you and your lifestyle. Your core benefits include:

• Company car scheme (or cash alternative)
• 15% on target annual bonus
• Private healthcare for you and your family
• Access to an online private GP 24/7 for you and your immediate family
• Market-leading paid carers leave with up to 2 weeks off
• Equalised maternity, paternity, and adoption leave – 18 weeks’ full pay and 8 weeks’ half pay
• Discounted EE and BT products, including mobile and broadband
• Market leading Pension scheme – 5% from you and 10% from us
• Holiday purchase scheme

You can select additional benefits, including healthcare, dental, gym memberships and more when you’re ready.

BT Group is the UK’s leading communications group and the holding company behind some of the country’s most recognised brands – including BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet. Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: we connect for good. Our customers include consumers, small, medium and large businesses, public sector organisations and other communications providers.

BT Group’s role is about setting direction, unlocking value and creating the conditions for our brands and businesses to thrive.

Having come through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, our focus now is on what comes next – simplifying how we operate, using technology and AI to work smarter, and organising ourselves to serve customers better and grow sustainably. Group teams shape strategy, policy, brand, capital allocation and transformation, helping the whole organisation perform at its best.

We have a singular culture that unites all our people: we are customer-first challengers, who are committed, clear and connected. These behaviours unite us as one team to deliver for our colleagues, our customers, our stakeholders and the country. Joining BT Group means working at the heart of a business that matters to the UK, with the opportunity to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help set the future course of one of the country’s most important companies.