Senior Salesforce Architect

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Sunderland (Hybrid working - 3 days in the office)

Working hours per week: 40 hours

Level: Senior

Application Closing Date: Friday 26th June 2026

About us

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivalled service, and reassuringly good value. We’re also on a mission to empower our business with smart technology; we've recently launched our AI Academy, providing a tailored AI learning journey for every colleague.

We’re Ocado Retail, a market-leading joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S, and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket, ocado.com. Not only is Ocado the only place to shop a full range of M&S food online, it’s also the home to the widest online supermarket range in the UK and champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.

About the team and the role

At Ocado Retail, our IT & Product Support model is built around high-performing, in-house "Product Pods" that hold complete ownership of business-critical systems. This role sits within our Customer Hub Product Pod, the team responsible for driving, designing, and maintaining the systems and platforms that power our contact centre operations. Our mission is to ensure our customer service advisors have cutting-edge capabilities and that our customers experience flawless, automated support.

As our Senior Salesforce Architect, you will own the end-to-end technical architecture of our Salesforce Service Cloud platform. Operating at manager level, you will report directly to the Product Practice Lead and lead a dedicated engineering squad of six, consisting of Salesforce Developers, Salesforce Administrators, and platform-agnostic Customer Service AI Developers. You will be a strong technical counterpart to our Product Manager, actively steering technical decisions, translating requirements into robust architectural designs, and confidently pushing back or recommending alternative paths to ensure we build a platform of the highest standard.

What you’ll do

• Architectural Ownership: Define and lead the decision-making on the overarching architecture deployed in Salesforce Service Cloud, working closely with Central IT to align on integrations, security standards, and testing protocols.

• Data we can trust: Design architectures that guarantee clean, accurate, and real-time customer data (from volumes to customer intent), ensuring everything we do in the Customer Hub is measurable and trackable to raise the bar continuously.

• Technology that keeps pace: Build a flexible, future-proof tech stack with open, well-architected connectors that integrate seamlessly with AI, automation platforms, and emerging communication channels, allowing the business to pivot and grow rapidly.

• Advisors set up to do their best: Direct the implementation of streamlined advisor workflows and AI-assisted tools (such as case summaries and next-best-action logic), allowing our front-line team to focus completely on the customer.

• Fewer contacts, more resolutions: Champion architectures that drive self-service, deflection, and proactive resolution, whilst ensuring that when a human touch is needed, our systems enable first-time resolution.

• Built to scale: Architect every platform, process, and technical tooling investment to scale in step with Ocado Retail’s business growth, ensuring future scalability remains a non-negotiable core design principle.

• Team Leadership & Reporting: Report directly to the Product Practice Lead, and provide line management, coaching, and technical mentorship to a team of six Salesforce and Customer Service AI professionals.

Who you are

• Experienced Architect: You bring several years of experience designing and executing Salesforce Service Cloud architectures within a large, multi-channel customer service or contact centre environment (ideally 200+ advisors).

• Technical Strategist: You have a proven track record of owning entire platform architectures, acting as a true technical partner who can steer product management on what is possible and constructively challenge business requests where necessary.

• AI & Integration Enthusiast: You possess practical experience or deep architectural understanding of contact centre AI deployments, automation strategies, and integrating third-party solutions cleanly into Salesforce.

• People & Delivery Lead: You are an inspiring leader who has successfully managed or mentored technical team members (developers, admins, or AI specialists) to deliver high-quality platform changes.

• Rigorous Engineer: You have a deep understanding of standard software development life cycles (SDLC), release management, and sandboxing environments, working closely with central teams to maintain a highly stable platform.

Required Qualifications:

• Salesforce Certified Application Architect (OR Salesforce Certified System Architect)
  And/Or

• Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant

What’s in it for you
By joining Ocado Retail you’ll have the chance to experience life at the world’s largest online retailer, work with an amazing bunch of people who challenge what’s possible each day, and grow your skills and career in online retail.
If that’s not enough to tempt you, you’ll also get access to loads of great benefits to sweeten the deal. Here’s a taste of what we offer:

Health & Wellbeing: Healthcare Cash Plan with the option to add your family, Digital GP appointments, market-leading family policies, mental health support, discounted gym memberships, dental insurance, and more.
Spend & Save: Recognition with reward platform, up to 7% matched pension contributions, 15% Ocado discount, 20% M&S discount
Never miss the moments that matter: Annual leave and bank holidays, as well as an additional day off for your birthday & options to buy extra holiday.

Our Hiring Process
Lucky for us, we get loads of great applications and we really appreciate that so many people put the time and effort in to apply. To recognise that, we treat all applications respectfully and fairly. So, if yours stands out, you’ll follow our standard hiring process - one of our Talent Partners will talk you through this in an initial call.

Your Application and AI

In the spirit of innovation, we welcome you to use AI tools in your application, just as we use them in our own business at Ocado Retail. However, as you leverage this technology, please don't lose sight of the most important element: your unique self. Your experiences, passions, and personality are what truly set you apart. Ensure that your application still authentically conveys who you are and why you're a great fit for us.

Everyone’s welcome

We’re an equal opportunities employer, which means that we make sure all potential colleagues are treated fairly and equally. We want to ensure everyone has a fair chance to apply; if you need this job description in an alternative format (e.g., larger print, different document type, etc.), please reach out to us at careers@ocadoretail.com and we'll be happy to assist you, and if you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know on the application form.