Exec Dir Enterprise Architect

Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Vision

• Define and own the enterprise architecture strategy, principles, and target-state blueprints across the data, cloud and infrastructure, application, and integration domains, incorporating security and AI architecture standards set in partnership with the CISO and CAIO organizations.
• Translate business strategy and digital transformation priorities into a coherent, multi-year enterprise technology roadmap.
• Establish and evolve the enterprise's architecture operating model, ensuring architecture decisions scale with business growth and complexity.
• Assess emerging technology trends (AI/ML, cloud-native platforms, automation) and determine their strategic fit and adoption path for the enterprise.
• Champion a "business capability first" architecture approach, ensuring technology investments map directly to business outcomes.

Architecture Governance & Standards

• Establish and lead the enterprise architecture governance framework, including review boards, design authority processes, and exception management.
• Define and enforce enterprise architecture standards, patterns, and reference architectures across build, buy, and integrate decisions.
• Own the architecture review process for major programs and capital investments, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards, security, and regulatory requirements.
• Maintain the enterprise architecture repository (current-state and future-state models, technology inventories, and roadmaps) as an authoritative source of truth.
• Partner with Security, Risk, and Compliance to ensure architecture decisions meet enterprise risk tolerance and regulatory obligations (e.g., GxP, data privacy).

Technology Roadmap & Investment Planning

• Lead enterprise-wide technology rationalization efforts, identifying opportunities to consolidate, retire, or modernize legacy platforms.
• Partner with Finance and business unit leaders to build the business case for architecture-driven investments, balancing innovation with cost discipline.
• Guide platform and vendor selection decisions for enterprise-critical systems, ensuring architectural fit, scalability, and total cost of ownership are fully evaluated.
• Own the enterprise's cloud and infrastructure strategy, ensuring architecture decisions support performance, resilience, and cost efficiency at scale.
• Drive the integration architecture strategy across the enterprise, enabling seamless data flow and interoperability between core business systems.

Business & Digital Transformation Partnership

• Serve as a trusted architecture advisor to business unit leaders, translating business problems into technology-enabled solutions.
• Partner with product, engineering, and program leadership to embed architecture thinking early in the delivery lifecycle, reducing rework and technical debt.
• Lead architecture input into major digital transformation and modernization initiatives, ensuring solutions are designed for scale, security, and long-term maintainability.
• Evaluate and guide the adoption of AI, automation, and data platforms to accelerate business capabilities and competitive differentiation.
• Act as an escalation point for cross-functional architecture conflicts, driving resolution through data-driven, business-aligned decision-making.

Solution & Platform Architecture Oversight

• Provide senior oversight and quality assurance for solution architectures developed by domain and solution architects across the enterprise.
• Ensure architectural consistency and reuse across programs, preventing siloed or duplicative technology investments.
• Guide the design of resilient, secure, and scalable platform architectures for enterprise applications, data platforms, and integration layers.
• Champion architecture practices that support DevOps, CI/CD, and infrastructure-as-code adoption across delivery teams.
• Oversee technical due diligence for mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships, assessing architectural risk and integration complexity.

Executive Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Present enterprise architecture strategy, roadmaps, and investment recommendations to executive leadership, technology governance forums, as needed.
• Build strong, trusted relationships with the Digital and Technology Leadership, and business unit executives to ensure architecture remains a strategic partner, not a bottleneck.
• Communicate complex technical concepts and trade-offs in clear, business-relevant terms to non-technical executive audiences.
• Represent the enterprise architecture function in vendor, industry, and partner forums, staying current on best practices and market direction.
• Establish and sustain the operating model for collaboration with the CISO and CAIO organizations' own architecture teams — defining clear decision rights, escalation paths, and shared standards so security and AI architecture decisions remain aligned to enterprise architecture without duplicated ownership.
• Partner with the business strategy function that owns business architecture, ensuring enterprise technology roadmaps remain traceable to business capability models maintained outside Digital and Technology.

People Leadership, Mentoring & Team Culture

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing architecture team, directly leading the Data & AI, Cloud & Infrastructure, Application, and Integration Domain Architects, and fostering a culture of technical excellence and collaboration.
• Mentor and coach architects and senior technical leaders, investing in career growth, technical depth, and succession planning.
• Establish architecture communities of practice and knowledge-sharing forums that elevate architecture maturity across the broader technology organization.
• Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring, development, and team culture within the architecture function.
• Model and reinforce a culture of intellectual curiosity, pragmatism, and accountability across the architecture team.

Technical Competencies

• Deep expertise in enterprise architecture frameworks and methodologies (TOGAF, Zachman, or equivalent) and their practical application in a large, complex organization.
• Strong technical grounding across cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), enterprise integration, data architecture, and application architecture patterns.
• Strong grounding in enterprise integration architecture — API management, event-driven patterns, and integration platform strategy.
• Working knowledge of AI/ML platforms, data and analytics architecture, and emerging technology evaluation.
• Experience with enterprise security architecture, identity and access management, and regulatory/compliance frameworks relevant to the industry (e.g., GxP, data privacy).
• Familiarity with modern software delivery practices — DevOps, CI/CD, microservices, and infrastructure-as-code.

Leadership & People Skills

• Proven ability to build, scale, and lead high-performing architecture teams, including hiring, developing, and retaining top technical talent.
• Experience leading architecture functions within a global, matrixed organization, including geographically distributed teams.
• Ability to mentor and grow architects and technical leaders, building bench strength and succession depth.
• Experience establishing and sustaining a collaborative operating model with peer architecture functions (e.g., the CISO's and CAIO's own architecture teams), ensuring clear accountability without duplicated ownership.

Strategic & Business Skills

• Strong business acumen and the ability to translate business strategy into a coherent, executable technology roadmap.
• Sound judgment in balancing innovation, risk, cost, and speed to market in architecture decision-making.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity, structuring clear technology direction from complex or evolving business requirements.

Communication & Stakeholder Abilities

• Executive presence and the ability to influence and communicate effectively with senior business and technology leaders, including at the EVP and possibly the board level.
• Ability to translate complex technical topics into clear, business-relevant narratives for non-technical audiences.
• Strong collaboration skills across global, cross-functional, and cross-cultural stakeholder groups.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field is required.
• A Master's degree or MBA is strongly preferred.
• 17+ years of progressive experience in enterprise architecture, IT strategy, or technology leadership roles.
• 10+ years in senior leadership roles guiding architecture, engineering, or technology strategy teams within a large, complex, global organization.