Enterprise Architect

Headfirst-B.v.; Hounslow; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

HeadFirst Group is seeking an Enterprise Architect to ensure coherence across business, data, application, integration, infrastructure and security. You will guide architecture standards, lead a design authority, and drive a shared target state with engineering, product and leadership.

You will shape multi-region, multi-brand architecture and embed AI responsibly while ensuring security by design from day one, partnering with executives and client teams.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as an Enterprise Architect spanning business, data, application, integration, infrastructure and security domains.
• Track record of leading through influence and technical authority.
• Experience architecting for multi-region, multi-brand, or multi-tenant products.
• Hands-on embedding AI/agentic capability into products responsibly.
• Security-by-design mindset in collaboration with security/privacy teams.
• Strong communication skills to explain trade-offs to engineers and executives.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the target-state architecture across business, data, application, integration, infrastructure and security domains.
• Set architecture principles, standards and reusable patterns adopted by engineering and product teams.
• Own a unified technology roadmap aligning domain roadmaps and reducing duplication.
• Architect for scale with multi-tenancy, shared services and regional onboarding without rebuilding platforms.
• Design product architecture across regions including data residency, localisation and currency.
• Partner with VP Data & AI to create reference architectures for AI-enabled services.
• Embed security, privacy and resilience into every design from the outset.
• Lead a design authority for high-impact decisions across domains.
• Mentor architects and engineers to raise design thinking, without reporting lines.
• Act as trusted advisor to CTPO and leadership, representing architecture to clients and auditors.

Skills

Enterprise Architecture

Influence & leadership

Multi-region architecture

AI integration

Security by design

Clear communication

Job description

About the role

Technology is moving fast — every organisation is digitising, adopting AI, and rethinking how work gets done. That shift is exactly what our Product & Technology Office exists to shape. We're building the platform behind the future of workforce solutions: world-leading STEM talent services, managed services, and a growing set of AI-enabled products.

As Enterprise Architect, you'll own the coherence of that technology estate. Not one domain, but all of them — business, data, application, integration, infrastructure and security — working across our proprietary products, third-party platforms and enterprise systems. You won't manage people to get there; you'll lead through the strength of your architecture standards, your design authority, and your ability to bring engineering, product and technology teams along to a shared target state.

Three things will define your first year: scaling our platform for growth, making our products work seamlessly across regions and brands, and architecting how AI shows up safely in what we offer clients. All of it built secure by design, from day one.

What you'll do

• Define and maintain the target-state architecture across business, data, application, integration, infrastructure and security domains — then keep it current as the estate evolves.

• Set the architecture principles, standards and reusable patterns that engineering and product teams actually adopt.

• Own one integrated technology roadmap that sequences change, retires duplication, and pays down technical debt — aligning the domain roadmaps that domain leaders drive.

• Architect for scale: multi-tenancy, entity separation, shared services, and the non-functional standards that let us onboard new brands without rebuilding the platform each time.

• Design how our products work across regions — data residency, localisation, currency, regulation — through configurable patterns rather than forked codebases.

• Partner with the VP Data & AI to build reference architectures for AI and agentic capability in client-facing services, covering model access, orchestration, evaluation and human oversight.

• Embed security, privacy and resilience into every design from the outset, working closely with the Director of Information Security & Privacy.

• Lead a design authority focused on the decisions that matter — cross-domain calls, major programmes, exceptions — not routine sign-off.

• Mentor architects and engineers across the business, raising the bar on design thinking without needing a reporting line to do it.

• Act as a trusted technical advisor to the CTPO and senior leadership, and represent our architecture to clients, partners and auditors where it matters contractually.

Nice to have

• Experience in HR-tech, staffing, or a comparable regulated, multi-entity service business.

• Familiarity with recognised assurance/control frameworks used in supplier or client audits.

• Experience running or contributing to a formal architecture design authority or governance board.

Why join us

You'll shape the technical backbone of a genuinely international, fast-scaling HR-tech business — not from the sidelines, but as the person who owns how it all fits together. If you want architecture work with real commercial weight behind it, and the autonomy to drive it through expertise rather than hierarchy, this is that role.

What you'll bring

• Proven experience as an Enterprise Architect (or equivalent senior architecture role) spanning business, data, application, integration, infrastructure and security domains — not just one specialism.

• A track record of leading through influence and technical authority rather than formal management — and getting engineering and product teams genuinely aligned to a target state.

• Experience architecting for multi-region, multi-brand, or multi-tenant products, including practical patterns for localisation and regulatory variation.

• Hands-on understanding of embedding AI/agentic capability into products responsibly — including data governance, evaluation and human oversight, not just the technology itself.

• A security-by-design mindset, comfortable working alongside information security and privacy functions rather than treating them as a final gate.

• Strong communication skills — able to make architectural trade-offs clear to both engineers and executives.

• Brand: HeadFirst Group
• Mobility budget or Lease car: No