Lead Architect

DEPT® is a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, our 4,000+ specialists deliver growth invention services across Brand & Media, Experience, Commerce, CRM, and Technology & Data. We’re 50|50 tech and marketing, partner-led, and first to move. Clients include Google, Lufthansa, Meta, eBay, and OpenAI. We have been certified B Corp and Climate Neutral since 2021.

Lead Architect

JOB PURPOSE

As the Lead Architect for the Future of Work program, you are the technical mastermind behind DEPT®’s AI Orchestration System for Work. While the persistent AI assistant ("D") serves as the primary interface through Slack and Chrome, your focus is the entire underlying engine—a system designed to orchestrate complex work streams, manage persistent context, and automate multi-step professional tasks across the enterprise.

You will provide the technical vision and "final say" for all engineering decisions across our specialized PODs (Context, AI Assistant, Experience, and Federated Data). You aren't just building a chatbot; you are re-architecting how a global agency executes work.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Systemic Architecture: Design and oversee the end-to-end AI Orchestration System, ensuring seamless integration between the "Shared Brain" (Context Hub), multi-agent orchestration (LangGraph), and third-party tool ecosystems.
• Technical Authority: Manage the Tech Leads and Lead Engineers within the PODs. You hold the ultimate accountability for the engineering roadmap, technical debt management, and the quality of the final build.
• AI-Native Operations: Lead the mandate to "automate the automation." You will ensure the engineering team uses Gemini and other AI tools to accelerate the build, maintaining a standard of high fluency in AI-assisted development.
• Data & Security Governance: Define the architecture for workspace isolation and "defense-in-depth" security to ensure client data remains siloed while enabling a unified user experience.
• Stakeholder Triad: Act as the technical pillar alongside the PMO Lead and Head of Product, ensuring that technical feasibility never compromises the "North Star" product vision or delivery timelines.

WHAT YOU BRING:

Experience in:

• Enterprise Architecture: Designed and owned scalable, distributed systems in cloud-native environments (preferably Google Cloud Platform).
• AI Experience: Built multi-agent, LLM-powered workflows using tools like LangGraph and Vertex AI (incl. Google Gemini).
• Data & Context Systems: Experience with vector search, semantic memory, and large-scale data platforms (e.g., BigQuery).
• Security & Identity: Implemented secure, multi-tenant architectures with strong identity and access controls (e.g., Okta).
• AI-Native Leadership: Led senior engineers using AI-assisted development and modern CI/CD (e.g., GitHub Actions).
• Technical Decision-Making: Acted as final technical authority, aligning architecture with product vision and delivery goals.

WE OFFER

• A flexible, hybrid working policy (2-3 days from the office, depending on location) and the opportunity to work from abroad for 13 weeks a year.
• 24 vacation days per year and the possibility to buy an unlimited number of extra vacation days.
• DEPT®/YOU Learning Menu and DEPT®/YOU Special Programs. Develop your skills with courses and programs tailored to your needs.
• Stay happy and healthy with a contribution to your health through the OpenUp platform, gym and wellness discounts, and healthy lunches at the office.
• Get a discount on your lease bike and ride in style. You can also enjoy hassle free-commutes with an NS Business Card.
• A reputation for doing good. DEPT® has been a Certified B Corp® since 2021, has been named a Great Place To Work since 2022 in the Netherlands and named ‘Agency of the Year’ at both The Lovies and The Webby Awards.
• Awesome clients. Whether big, small, local or global — at DEPT® you’ll get the opportunity to work with all of them. And we celebrate all of our successes together!

WHY DEPT®?

We are a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, we create what is next by pioneering ideas, acting fast, and moving further because standing still just is not in our DNA.

We are drawn to people who stay curious, move with intent, and never stop inventing. Our culture runs on three values: better together, relentlessly curious, and get sh*t done. It is how we work, how we grow, and how we make things that matter.

At DEPT®, you will find the freedom to explore, the space to collaborate, and the trust to make a real impact for our clients, for each other, and for the world we are helping to build.