Vice President (12 months contract), Technology (Enterprise Architect)

Introduction

The Enterprise Architect will engage business stakeholders, technology leadership, domain architects, cybersecurity, infrastructure, data, operations, and governance teams to provide independent architecture review, design governance, and technology decision assurance across enterprise initiatives. The role requires strategic architecture thinking combined with rigorous review of solution designs, technology risks, integration patterns, non-functional requirements, platform choices, control requirements, and implementation trade-offs from a governance perspective.

In this role, you will be expected to:

• Operate as a trusted architecture governance advisor to technology leadership and architecture governance forums.
• Participate in architecture reviews, design authority forums, technology governance discussions, and risk or security review sessions as required by the assignment.
• Provide practical governance-aware architecture guidance while ensuring adherence to enterprise standards, control expectations, and architecture decision frameworks.
• Challenge solution decisions where required and document governance recommendations with clear rationale, risks, benefits, exceptions, and conditions for approval.
• Work collaboratively with internal teams and relevant stakeholders to ensure design artefacts are complete, consistent, and fit for governance review.
• Produce clear written recommendations and executive-ready summaries for architecture decisions, risks, exceptions, and trade-offs

Responsibilities

• Define, maintain, and communicate enterprise architecture principles, standards, reference architectures, patterns, and roadmaps.
• Assess whether proposed technology designs and platform decisions are aligned with business strategy, operating models, enterprise standards, and target-state architecture direction.
• Assess current-state architecture across applications, data, integration, infrastructure, cloud, operations, and security domains.
• Review and guide target-state architecture and transition roadmaps to support modernization, simplification, resilience, interoperability, and strategic technology alignment.
• Lead architecture governance through design reviews, quality gates, standards enforcement, architecture decision records, and technology decision frameworks.
• Collaborate with business and technology stakeholders to identify capability gaps, technology risks, architecture deviations, control gaps, and governance exceptions.
• Provide architecture guidance to solution architects, domain architects, engineering teams, and application teams to ensure designs align with enterprise architecture direction and governance expectations.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, SaaS platforms, cloud services, integration approaches, data platforms, AI/Agentic AI capabilities, and vendor solutions for enterprise fit, risk, and business value.

• Ensure architecture decisions support security, privacy, resilience, interoperability, performance, scalability, cost efficiency, operational supportability, and regulatory compliance.
• Provide governance input for cloud adoption, application modernization, data strategy, integration architecture, enterprise platform initiatives, and rationalization of legacy systems.
• Maintain architecture artefacts such as capability maps, application portfolio views, technology standards, reference architectures, design review records, roadmaps, and decision logs.
• Drive simplification of the technology landscape by reducing duplication, complexity, technical debt, unsupported patterns, and unnecessary customization.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity, risk, compliance, data governance, infrastructure, operations, and service management teams to embed required controls into solution designs.
• Communicate architecture recommendations, options, trade-offs, risks, exceptions, and investment priorities clearly to senior technology and business stakeholders.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related discipline.
• Typically 8–12+ years of technology experience, including several years in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, technology governance, design assurance, or senior architecture advisory roles.
• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture frameworks and practices such as TOGAF, Zachman, BIAN, FEAF, or equivalent architecture methods.
• Experience designing and reviewing architectures across multiple domains including applications, data, integration, infrastructure, cloud, security, operations, end-user technology, and AI/Agentic AI.
• Proven experience reviewing architecture roadmaps, reference architectures, technology standards, solution options, and architecture decision documents.
• Strong understanding of non-functional requirements including security, performance, availability, resilience, disaster recovery, maintainability, observability, usability, and operational readiness.
• Experience working with governance forums, design authorities, architecture review boards, quality gates, risk reviews, or technology steering committees.
• Ability to assess vendor solutions, SaaS platforms, cloud-native services, integration patterns, identity and access models, and enterprise platform capabilities.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, including experience engaging senior business stakeholders, technology leaders, architecture teams, cybersecurity, risk, compliance, and governance stakeholders.
• Excellent analytical, communication, documentation, facilitation, and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Skills & Domain Knowledge

• Experience with cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, including landing zones, network patterns, identity integration, security controls, and operational models.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft 365, Entra ID, identity federation, conditional access, collaboration platforms, endpoint management, and enterprise productivity ecosystems.
• Familiarity with data platforms, data governance, data lineage, analytics platforms, integration services, API management, event-driven architecture, and data-as-a-product concepts.
• Understanding of cybersecurity architecture, zero trust, privileged access management, secrets management, logging, SIEM integration, vulnerability management, and compliance controls.
• Exposure to enterprise AI, agentic AI governance, AI gateway patterns, model access controls, AI observability, and responsible AI operating models would be advantageous.
• Experience in financial services, investment management, regulated environments, or organizations with strong governance, risk, and compliance expectations would be beneficial.