Enterprise Architect

Skipton Building Society Group; Skipton; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual discretionary bonus

25 days annual leave

Pension contribution up to 10%

Discounted Skipton products/services

Flexible working

Private medical insurance

Wellbeing app

Volunteer opportunities

Cycle-to-work

Job summary

Skipton Building Society is seeking an experienced Enterprise Architect to shape data, AI and technology strategies across the organisation. You will connect strategic ambitions to capabilities, information and technology while guiding pragmatic transition roadmaps.

The role focuses on Data and AI, offering hybrid working with office days in Skipton. You’ll influence senior stakeholders and drive architectural thinking across diverse teams and platforms.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in enterprise, data, solution or domain architecture within a complex organisation.
• Strong knowledge of data architecture, including information architecture, data platforms, integration, governance, analytics and data management.
• Developing or established understanding of AI architecture and its implications.
• Broad technology knowledge beyond Data and AI, including applications, integration, cloud, cyber security, infrastructure and engineering.
• Experience creating target architectures, principles, capability models and transition roadmaps.
• Ability to turn complex problems into clear models, options and recommendations for senior stakeholders.
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills with the confidence to challenge constructively.

Responsibilities

• Shape enterprise-wide Data and AI architecture with guiding principles and strategic guardrails.
• Connect business strategy and customer outcomes to data, information and AI capabilities.
• Develop a coherent view of current and target architecture and create practical transition roadmaps.
• Shape responsible adoption of emerging AI capabilities, including generative AI and intelligent automation.
• Collaborate across business, data, technology, security, risk and change to embed Data and AI decisions enterprise-wide.
• Provide enterprise direction to Solution, Platform, Data and Security Architects while ensuring ownership alignment.
• Use capability modelling, emerging technology insight and governance to inform investment choices.

Skills

Enterprise Architecture

Data Architecture

AI Architecture

Technology Strategy

Target Architectures

Stakeholder Influence

Problem Modelling

Job description

This is an organisation-wide Enterprise Architecture role for an experienced architect who wants to help shape how data, AI and technology enable the future of Skipton Building Society. You’ll work across business and technology, connecting our strategic ambitions and customer outcomes to the capabilities, information, applications and technology needed to deliver them.

Data and AI will be a major focus. We’re looking for someone with strong data architecture experience and a genuine interest in the rapidly developing opportunities presented by AI. You don’t need to arrive as an expert in every aspect of AI. We want someone curious and proactive who can help develop our thinking, challenge the status quo and shape our approach as our capabilities mature.

You’ll work across the Society rather than within a single programme, product or technology platform. You’ll help define our enterprise direction and target architecture, connecting our Data and AI strategy to the wider business and technology landscape and creating pragmatic transition roadmaps that move us towards our future ambitions.

At Skipton, we're founded on fairness. We exist to do right by our members - and we believe that starts with doing right by our people. So whoever you are and whatever you bring, there's a place for you here and a genuine plan for where you go next.

What You’ll Do

Every day at Skipton is innovation day. Join our Technology team and you’ll discover that we’re constantly focused on real challenges as we build the tools that get things done for our members - quicker than you imagine.

You’ll work with senior business and technology leaders, architects, engineers, data specialists, product teams and transformation colleagues to identify opportunities, expose dependencies and trade-offs, and make complex decisions clearer. Your impact will reach beyond individual technology choices into how Data and AI capabilities develop across the organisation.

• Shape enterprise-wide Data and AI architecture, establishing principles, target states and strategic guardrails that guide investment and change.
• Connect business strategy and customer outcomes to the data, information and AI capabilities needed to support them.
• Develop a coherent view of our current and target architecture, identifying gaps, duplication, dependencies, risks and opportunities for simplification, and turn these into practical transition roadmaps.
• Help shape the responsible adoption of emerging AI capabilities, including generative AI and intelligent automation, focused on genuine customer and business value.
• Work across business, data, technology, security, risk and change communities so Data and AI decisions are considered in the context of the whole enterprise.
• Provide enterprise context and strategic direction to Solution, Platform, Data and Security Architects, while maintaining clear ownership between enterprise direction and solution or platform design.
• Use architecture and capability modelling, emerging technology insight and proportionate governance to inform investment choices, priorities and strategic options.

Hybrid Working Information

We work in a hybrid way, balancing flexibility with collaboration. For this role, you'll typically spend three days a week in our Skipton office, with the remaining two days working from home.

What You’ll Need

You may have built your career in Data Architecture, Enterprise Architecture or broader Solution Architecture and now want to operate across a wider strategic landscape. You’ll naturally look across organisational and technology boundaries, understand how the pieces fit together and be comfortable tackling problems where the answer isn’t already known.

• Significant experience in enterprise, data, solution or domain architecture within a complex organisation, with the ability to operate at an enterprise and strategic level.
• Strong knowledge of data architecture, including information architecture, data platforms, integration, governance, analytics and data management.
• A developing or established understanding of AI architecture and its implications, coupled with the curiosity and motivation to keep developing your expertise as the technology evolves.
• Broad technology knowledge beyond Data and AI, enabling you to understand the relationship with applications, integration, cloud, cyber security, infrastructure and engineering.
• Experience creating target architectures, principles, capability models and transition roadmaps rather than focusing solely on individual solution designs.
• The ability to turn complex and ambiguous problems into clear models, options and recommendations that senior business and technology stakeholders can understand.
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively, ask difficult questions and help shape what comes next.

What’s In It For You

Your work matters.

And the way we reward you matters, too.

At Skipton, we offer pay and benefits that really do make life better, together with a genuine thank you for making a difference.

• Annual discretionary bonus scheme
• 25 days standard annual leave + bank holidays + rising 1 day per year of service to a max of 30 days
• Matching employer pension contribution (up to 10% per annum)
• Colleague Mortgages and access to Skipton products and services at discounted rates
• Flexible working to help balance your commitments
• Private medical insurance, health and wellbeing app, volunteering opportunities, cycle-to-work scheme, discounted gym memberships

We’re here to make life better for our members.
About Skipton.

Our story began in 1853 in Skipton, North Yorkshire. Today, you’ll find us across England and Scotland, from Aberdeen to Plymouth.

We help over a million members put down roots, save for what matters, and feel good about their money. As a mutual, they own us, so everything we do is for them.

You'll feel that same fairness and purpose in how all 2,500 of our colleagues work together, too

It all means that life at Skipton is more exciting than you imagine.

What it's like to work here
Life at Skipton

We talk and we listen to each other. And we make decisions as a team. That way, you get all the support you need to do work that works for everyone.

For most of our roles there's the option of blended working, which means we mix working from home and meeting in person. The right balance depends on your role, and what works best for you, your manager, and your team.

We also value what everyone brings to Skipton. And we create a fair place where you can be yourself. Our colleague networks play a big role in this. They connect people with similar life experiences and make our workplace warm, friendly, inclusive and welcoming.

It’s not just our members who are important to us.
You are, too.

Lots of organisations talk about wellbeing, but they don’t always back it up. As a mutual, we put people first. And that includes the people who work here. So, when we say we care about your wellbeing, we mean it.

Wellbeing isn't just one thing. It’s about feeling good, having energy, and being able to be yourself and perform at your best. That’s why we offer help for your mental and physical health across five key areas.

What’s more, it’s help that you can actually use too - not just read about.