Enterprise Architect

Vitol; Genf; On-site; CHF 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Strategic impact

Scale and complexity

Broad technical scope

Flat culture

Global footprint

Job summary

Vitol seeks an Enterprise Architect to define and govern the company’s target architecture and data strategy across its global trading and physical operations. The role reports directly to the CTO and will build a brand-new Enterprise Architecture function, guiding platform choices, modernization, and risk management.

The position emphasizes cross-functional collaboration with product engineering, trading desks, CyberOps, and Cloud & Infrastructure teams, and requires leadership to establish

Qualifications

• Proven track record in enterprise architecture or senior technical leadership.
• Hands-on experience designing modern, event-driven architectures.
• Deep understanding of cloud-native application patterns.
• Experience building AI and agentic capabilities.
• Security and resiliency must be central to architecture decisions.
• Lean, pragmatic architecture governance models.

Responsibilities

• Own Vitol's target state architectures for key systems and platforms.
• Establish an architecture advisory framework with governance.
• Provide guidance on technology and integration across teams.
• Define build vs. buy criteria and reduce legacy debt.
• Inventory and map applications to owners and capabilities.
• Collaborate with product engineering, trading desks, and cloud teams.
• Promote and lead the new Enterprise Architecture function.

Skills

Leading experience

Architecture governance

Event-driven architecture

Cloud-native patterns

AI capabilities

Security by design

Education

Technical degree (undergraduate or postgraduate)

Job description

Company Description

Vitol is an energy and commodities company with revenues of $331 billion in 2024; its primary business is the trading and distribution of energy products globally – it trades over seven million barrels per day of crude oil and products and, at any time, has 250 ships transporting its cargoes. Vitol’s clients include national oil companies, multinationals, leading industrial companies and utilities. Founded in Rotterdam in 1966, today Vitol serves clients from some 40 offices worldwide and is invested in energy assets globally including 24mM3 of storage, 850kbpd of refining capacity, and 10,000 service stations. To date, we have committed over $2.5 billion of capital to renewable projects and are identifying and developing low‑carbon opportunities around the world.

Job Description

Vitol is seeking an Enterprise Architect to join its technology department, reporting directly to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This is a newly created role with accountability for defining, structuring, and governing Vitol's target architecture, technology strategy, and data architecture across our worldwide trading and physical operations.

The newly appointed Enterprise Architect will work closely with other technology teams to provide architectural counsel on platform and vendor choices, build versus buy, modernization sequencing, integration and data design, resilience and risk. Enterprise Architecture enables the company to make better-informed decisions by providing advice at the speed the decision requires.

The Enterprise Architect will have a unique opportunity to create a brand-new function of Enterprise Architecture at Vitol. This will cover aspects such as developing the function governance, architecture awareness within the technology department and supporting and promoting architecture principles defined by the CTO while supporting major key transformation programs such as our new data platform, our cloud journey, our AI transformation and application modernization.

Key areas of responsibility and oversight for the Enterprise Architect include:

• Target State & Technology Blueprint: Ownership of Vitol's enterprise technology blueprints, defining target state architectures for key business systems, platforms, and high-throughput integration layers leveraging the BDAT model.
• Architecture Governance: Establishing a lightweight, agile Architecture Advisory Framework that reviews high-risk technical decisions, core integration points, and major vendor selections without introducing corporate friction or slowing down business delivery.
• Technology & Integration Architecture: Define technology and integration based on Vitol’s main architecture principles, provide guidance and awareness within the technology teams. Identify technical debt and provide guidance on how to replace it.
• Build vs. Buy & Technical Rationalization: Defining clear decision criteria for custom software builds versus standard platform adoption, while systematically eliminating legacy technical debt, shadow IT, and redundant platform investments across business units.
• Application & Technology Inventory: Own, support and govern the application and technology landscape inventory platform, mapping each of them to owners and business capabilities.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Working closely with product engineering leads, trading desks, the Executive Technology team, CyberOps, and Cloud & Infrastructure teams.
• Team Leadership: Promote the newly created function within the company, hire, develop and retain future Enterprise Architects.
• Demand Management: Own the technology demand management process.

Qualifications

• Education: Undergraduate or postgraduate degree in a technical discipline.
• Leadership Experience: 7+ years of experience in enterprise architecture or technical leadership, with at least 5 years in a senior executive role.
• Architectural Governance: Proven track record of establishing lean, pragmatic architecture governance models.
• Data & Integration Topology: Hands-on expertise designing modern, event-driven architectures.
• Cloud & Modern Stack Mastery: Deep understanding of cloud-native application patterns.
• AI & Agentic: Demonstrated experience building AI and Agentic capabilities.
• Security by Design: Ensuring security and resiliency remain at the top of every architecture decision.

Additional Information

Soft Skills that will help you stand out:

• Pragmatic & Outcome-Oriented
• Commercial Mindset
• Decisive & Action-Oriented
• Executive Presence & Influence
• Highly Collaborative
• Operationally Excellent

What We Offer

• Strategic Impact: reporting directly to the CTO, a clear mandate to establish and lead the Enterprise Architecture function from the ground up.
• Scale and Complexity
• Broad Technical Scope
• Flat, Meritocratic Culture
• Global Footprint