Associate Director Enterprise Architecture

La Fosse; London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking an Associate Director of Enterprise Architecture to lead the architectural function and empower both business and technology leadership. This pivotal role involves developing a robust enterprise architecture framework, ensuring alignment with business strategies, and providing strategic guidance. The ideal candidate will have proven experience in enterprise architecture across multiple domains, strong leadership skills, and the ability to communicate complex technical ideas effectively. Join a dynamic team and make a significant impact in shaping the future of the organization.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in designing and implementing enterprise architecture.
• Strong leadership experience managing hybrid teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop and evolve the enterprise architecture framework and roadmaps.
• Drive the creation of a comprehensive technology strategy and roadmap.

Skills

Enterprise Architecture

TOGAF

Microsoft Azure

APIs

Microservices

Cybersecurity

ITIL

DevOps

Agile/Scrum

Leadership

Education

TOGAF Certification

Tools

Bizzdesign

Archimate

LeanIX

Job description

Job Title: Associate Director, Enterprise Architecture

Overview of the Role

The Associate Director of Enterprise Architecture is responsible for empowering both business and technology leadership to make informed decisions that strike a balance between immediate operational demands, emerging opportunities, and long-term strategic goals. This is achieved by leading and shaping the enterprise architecture function, establishing and promoting architectural principles and standards, maintaining a clear target digital architecture and roadmap, and offering strategic guidance.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and continuously evolve the organisation's enterprise architecture framework, principles, standards, and roadmaps to ensure alignment with overall business strategy.
• Drive the creation and maintenance of a comprehensive technology strategy and roadmap that integrates applications, platforms, infrastructure, and integration layers, aligned with wider digital and business strategies.
• Manage architecture documentation and repositories, ensuring artifacts are current, well-governed, accessible, and recognised as the single source of truth for architecture-related assets.
• Lead architectural governance through forums such as design and architecture review boards, ensuring solution designs adhere to agreed standards and align with the target state.
• Provide architectural guidance to internal digital teams and external partners to ensure solution design is consistent, scalable, and efficient.
• Collaborate with business and digital leaders to communicate technical strategies in clear, business-friendly terms and keep stakeholders informed on relevant developments.
• Work in partnership with risk, audit, and cybersecurity teams to ensure compliance with architecture standards, especially relating to data protection, cybersecurity, and regulatory requirements.
• Support the business capability model in partnership with business analysis, ensuring accurate reflection of current capabilities and identifying areas for improvement.
• Manage a team of internal and third-party architecture professionals, ensuring sufficient skills, resources, and compliance with internal people management policies.
• Foster strong relationships across business and technology teams to ensure collaboration and alignment.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in designing and implementing enterprise architecture across multiple domains (business process, data, product, infrastructure).
• Working knowledge of Enterprise Architecture frameworks such as TOGAF.
• Broad technical understanding of cloud platforms (particularly Microsoft Azure), APIs, microservices, integration, and containerisation.
• Foundational understanding of cybersecurity, risk, and compliance (e.g. GDPR).
• Familiarity with standards such as ITIL, DevOps, and Agile/Scrum.
• Experience with architecture tools and techniques (e.g. Bizzdesign, Archimate, LeanIX).
• Strong leadership experience managing hybrid teams (internal and external).
• Ability to convey complex technical ideas to a broad audience.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to connect architectural direction to business goals.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, comfortable working within a lean team.

Desirable

• TOGAF v9 or v10 certification.
• Experience as a senior or lead enterprise architect in a business setting.
• Knowledge of AI technologies from an architecture implementation perspective.
• Deeper technical expertise across enterprise architecture domains.
• Experience in sectors such as real estate, investment, or property management.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills.

Additional Information

The role is based in a central London office, with an expectation of working on-site 3 days per week on average. Travel to other UK and European office locations is required periodically.