Enterprise Architect - Lifecycle and Resilience Job Snapshot - Role: Enterprise Architect - Lifecycle and Resilience - Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - Industry: Banking - Function: Software-System Architecture - Experience: Minimum 12 years in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, technology strategy or architecture governance - Job Type: Full Time - Work Arrangement: On-site
Dicetek LLC is seeking an experienced Enterprise Architect to lead technology lifecycle governance and enterprise resilience architecture initiatives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The role is responsible for defining a Technology and Application Lifecycle Management framework covering application lifecycle stages, technology obsolescence, vendor end-of-support risks and forward-looking remediation planning. The successful candidate will also lead the Enterprise Architecture contribution to the organisation 's resilience strategy, establishing target-state architecture principles and patterns that improve recoverability and address failover constraints. The position requires strong enterprise architecture leadership, experience coordinating complex cross-platform initiatives and the ability to translate technical architecture considerations into governance frameworks, investment priorities and executive-level roadmaps.
Job Details
- Country: United Arab Emirates
- City: Abu Dhabi
- Industry: Banking
- Function: Software-System Architecture
- Salary: Not disclosed
- Gender: No Preference
- Candidate Nationality: Not specified
- Job Type: Full Time
- Work Arrangement: On-site
Key Responsibilities
Technology and Application Lifecycle Governance
- Lead the definition of an enterprise Technology and Application Lifecycle Management framework.
- Establish lifecycle stages for applications and supporting technologies.
- Define governance requirements for technology obsolescence and vendor end-of-life risks.
- Develop lifecycle ownership models, decision points, control requirements and escalation paths.
- Establish forward-planning controls to identify upgrades and remediation requirements before vendor support expires.
- Incorporate technology lifecycle risks into architecture planning and governance decisions.
- Support structured investment planning for application and technology upgrades.
- Ensure lifecycle governance aligns with established enterprise architecture standards and target states.
Enterprise Resilience Strategy and Architecture
- Lead the Enterprise Architecture contribution to the enterprise resilience strategy.
- Define target-state resilience architecture across applications, infrastructure, data, integration and cloud environments.
- Establish architecture principles and patterns intended to improve recoverability.
- Identify architectural constraints affecting failover and recovery capabilities.
- Develop architecture priorities and transition considerations for resilience improvements.
- Coordinate resilience architecture decisions with relevant technical and governance stakeholders.
- Guide the development of architecture outputs supporting the enterprise resilience roadmap.
- Ensure resilience considerations are incorporated into enterprise technology strategy.
Integrated Lifecycle and Resilience Planning
- Align technology lifecycle governance with enterprise resilience architecture.
- Establish a consistent approach to evaluating obsolescence, recoverability and resilience risks.
- Identify dependencies between technology remediation and resilience improvement initiatives.
- Coordinate priorities across the lifecycle and resilience workstreams.
- Develop an integrated roadmap covering architecture activities, dependencies and governance milestones.
- Ensure proposed technology changes are assessed against relevant lifecycle and resilience considerations.
- Support coordinated planning across application portfolios and underlying technology platforms.
Architecture Governance and Decision Management
- Establish architecture governance arrangements for both workstreams.
- Define appropriate governance accountabilities and responsibility assignment models.
- Develop RACI models to clarify ownership and decision-making responsibilities.
- Establish architecture review points, decision controls and escalation mechanisms.
- Maintain architecture decision records and supporting rationale.
- Ensure architecture outputs remain traceable to enterprise standards and approved target states.
- Coordinate submissions to relevant architecture and governance review forums.
- Maintain visibility of architectural risks, dependencies and outstanding decisions.
Cross-Functional Architecture Coordination
- Coordinate architecture contributions from Technology Platforms and application owners.
- Engage IT Governance, Risk and Compliance (IT GRC) stakeholders on lifecycle and resilience risks.
- Work with Disaster Recovery and Operations teams on recoverability and failover considerations.
- Coordinate with Cyber Security on relevant architecture and risk requirements.
- Engage Procurement and Finance on vendor lifecycle, upgrade planning and investment considerations.
- Facilitate discussions involving multiple technology and control functions.
- Consolidate stakeholder inputs into coherent enterprise architecture recommendations.
Technical Architecture Leadership
- Provide architectural direction to the Resilience Architect and Technical Architect.
- Review and consolidate technical architecture outputs.
- Ensure technical recommendations support the agreed enterprise strategy.
- Guide the development of architecture principles, patterns and transition considerations.
- Resolve or elevate cross-platform architecture dependencies.
- Translate detailed technical findings into executive-level strategy materials.
- Maintain alignment between specialist architecture contributions and enterprise architecture governance.
Executive Strategy and Reporting
- Prepare executive-level architecture strategies and roadmaps.
- Develop decision papers explaining architectural options, risks and priorities.
- Communicate technology obsolescence and resilience considerations to senior stakeholders.
- Present architecture recommendations through relevant governance forums.
- Maintain clear records of architectural decisions and outstanding matters.
- Provide updates on workstream progress, dependencies and strategic priorities.
- Support management decisions through structured analysis and concise reporting.
Enterprise Architecture Accountability
The role provides strategic architecture leadership and governance rather than direct ownership of operational control implementation.
- Lead enterprise strategy, target-state architecture and architecture governance.
- Define architectural principles, standards, patterns and decision requirements.
- Coordinate specialist architecture contributions and consolidate recommendations.
- Guide architecture planning and governance across the lifecycle and resilience workstreams.
- Maintain clear accountability boundaries with delivery and platform teams.
- Ensure operational control implementation, testing and evidence production remain with the responsible delivery and platform functions.
Required Experience
- Minimum 12 years of experience in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, technology strategy or architecture governance.
- Experience leading complex, cross-platform technology initiatives in regulated environments.
- Extensive knowledge of enterprise architecture and technology strategy.
- Experience with application portfolio management and technology lifecycle governance.
- Strong understanding of technology obsolescence and vendor end-of-support risks.
- Experience developing enterprise resilience strategies and target-state architectures.
- Experience coordinating architecture activities across applications, infrastructure, data, integration and cloud.
- Practical experience establishing governance frameworks, ownership models and architecture roadmaps.
- Experience engaging senior stakeholders and presenting executive-level architecture recommendations.
- Banking, financial services or another highly regulated industry background is strongly preferred.
Required Technical and Functional Skills
- Enterprise Architecture - Enterprise architecture strategy and governance.
- Solution architecture.
- Technology strategy development.
- Architecture principles and standards.
- Target-state architecture definition.
- Architecture modelling and repository practices.
- Architecture decision records.
- Cross-platform architecture coordination.
- Technology Lifecycle Management - Application portfolio management.
- Technology lifecycle governance.
- Technology lifecycle assessment.
- Technology obsolescence management.
- Vendor end-of-support and end-of-life risk assessment.
- Upgrade and remediation planning.
- Technology investment planning.
- Lifecycle ownership and accountability models.
- Enterprise Resilience Architecture - Enterprise resilience strategy.
- Recoverability architecture.
- Failover architecture considerations.
- Application and infrastructure resilience.
- Data and integration resilience.
- Hybrid infrastructure and cloud architecture.
- Architecture transition planning.
- Resilience risk identification.
- Governance and Strategic Planning - Architecture governance frameworks.
- RACI model development.
- Governance control points.
- Decision and escalation processes.
- Integrated roadmap development.
- Risk and dependency management.
- Measurable architecture outcomes.
- Executive decision-paper preparation.
- Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement - Cross-functional architecture leadership.
- Executive communication.
- Technical workshop facilitation.
- Stakeholder coordination.
- Architecture review and challenge.
- Strategic presentation and reporting.
- Consolidation of specialist architecture outputs.
Preferred Professional Certifications
TOGAF certification is preferred.
Additional relevant certifications may include:
- ITIL 4.
- COBIT.
- Project Management Professional (PMP).
- PRINCE2.
- AWS architecture credentials.
- Microsoft Azure architecture credentials.
- Certificate of the Business Continuity Institute (CBCI) or an equivalent resilience qualification.
Technology Environment and Tools
- Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management - Enterprise architecture repositories and modelling standards.
- Application portfolio management data.
- Configuration Management Database (CMDB) information.
- Technology lifecycle management capabilities.
- Resilience architecture and planning capabilities.
Infrastructure and Cloud
- Hybrid infrastructure architecture.
- Cloud architecture.
- Enterprise application and integration environments.
- Technology recoverability and resilience considerations.
Preferred Platforms
- ServiceNow CMDB.
- ServiceNow Application Portfolio Management (APM).
- Jira.
- Confluence.
- Microsoft Power BI.
- Microsoft 365.
Key Deliverables
- Technology and Application Lifecycle Framework
- Enterprise Technology and Application Lifecycle Management framework.
- Defined application and technology lifecycle stages.
- Technology obsolescence and end-of-life risk governance approach.
- Lifecycle taxonomy and governance model.
- Ownership and accountability model.
- Defined control points and escalation procedures.
- Forward-Looking Technology Planning
- Framework for identifying upcoming vendor end-of-life risks.
- Upgrade and remediation planning approach.
- Forward-looking investment and budgeting considerations.
- Lifecycle governance decision requirements.
- Enterprise Resilience Architecture
- Enterprise resilience strategy.
- Target-state resilience architecture.
- Resilience architecture principles and patterns.
- Architecture priorities and transition considerations.
- Recommendations addressing recoverability and failover constraints.
- Integrated Governance and Roadmap
- Integrated lifecycle and resilience roadmap.
- Cross-workstream dependencies and governance plan.
- Architecture decision records.
- Architecture review and governance submissions.
- Executive strategy updates and decision-support materials.
Professional Competencies
- Strong strategic thinking and enterprise architecture judgment.
- Ability to lead complex architecture initiatives across multiple technology domains.
- Understanding of technology investment, obsolescence and resilience risks.
- Excellent executive communication and presentation skills.
- Ability to establish practical governance structures and accountability models.
- Strong facilitation and cross-functional leadership capabilities.
- Ability to consolidate technical architecture findings into actionable strategies.
- Strong documentation, decision-paper writing and stakeholder management skills.
Role Expectations
The Enterprise Architect - Lifecycle and Resilience will lead two connected strategic workstreams: technology and application lifecycle governance, and enterprise resilience architecture. The successful candidate will establish a practical lifecycle framework that enables the organisation to identify technology obsolescence risks, plan upgrades and remediation before vendor end-of-life, and maintain clear governance accountability. The role will also define the enterprise resilience target state, guiding architectural improvements to recoverability and failover capabilities. The overall objective is to deliver an integrated architecture strategy and roadmap that aligns lifecycle risks, resilience priorities, investment planning and governance decisions while preserving operational accountability within the responsible delivery and platform teams.