Head of Architecture Standards, Patterns & Governance

JR United Kingdom; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 155,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company is seeking a Head of Architecture Standards, Patterns & Governance in London. This pivotal role involves overseeing architectural practice, ensuring regulatory compliance, and leading a team of architects to enhance enterprise architecture across domains. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in hybrid-cloud and data platforms while managing executive relationships effectively.

Qualifications

• 15+ years enterprise architecture experience in regulated environments.
• Proven governance framework ownership at enterprise scale (>5,000 users).
• Experience leading distributed architect teams and stakeholder management.

Responsibilities

• Lead Architecture Practice & Domain Centre of Excellence.
• Refine TOGAF-aligned meta-model and enforce governance.
• Ensure architectures meet FCA/PRA and GDPR regulations.

Skills

Enterprise Architecture

Hybrid-cloud

Data Platforms

Integration

Security

Education

TOGAF Certification

Cloud Certification (Azure preferred)

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Open Policy Agent

Job description

Social network you want to login/join with:

Head of Architecture Standards, Patterns & Governance, London (City of London)

Client: Intelix.AI

Location: London (City of London), United Kingdom

Job Category: Other

EU work permit required: Yes

Job Views: 2

Posted: 16.06.2025

Expiry Date: 31.07.2025

Job Description:

Head of Architecture Standards, Patterns & Governance

London | Hybrid

Up to £155k + Bonus & Excellent Benefits (Flexible)

Lead the Architecture Practice & Domain Centre of Excellence that underpins all change portfolios—front-to-back platform migrations, hybrid-cloud adoption, data-mesh enablement, and legacy retirement. Own the meta-model, reference architectures, and policy-as-code controls to industrialise delivery, reduce run costs, and meet global regulatory obligations.

• Architecture Operating Model – refine and enforce the TOGAF-aligned meta-model, artefact taxonomy, and governance cadence across technology domains.
• Policy-as-Code Automation – embed Open Policy Agent (or equivalent) into CI/CD and cloud pipelines to shift compliance "left"; target ≥90% automated control coverage.
• Domain Standards & Reusable Components – curate, publish, and measure reuse of cloud landing zones, data-platform blueprints, integration patterns, and security baselines.
• Architecture Review Authority – chair Enterprise & Solution Design Boards; arbitrate design disputes; report KPI adherence to ELT.
• Practice Leadership – line-manage 5-10 Domain Architects (Cloud, Data, Integration, Workplace, Security) plus a methods/tooling squad; run the global community of practice.
• Regulatory & Risk Alignment – ensure architectures meet FCA/PRA, GDPR, and regional regulations; provide board-level traceability on resilience and data protection controls.
• Transformation Acceleration – partner with programme directors to retire legacy estates, adopt event-driven platforms, and enable AI/ML workloads through compliant cloud patterns.

Candidate Profile – Must Have

• 15+ years enterprise architecture experience in global, regulated FS or similar complex environment.
• Proven ownership of an EA Operating Model and governance framework at enterprise scale (>5,000 users, multi-region).
• Deep hands-on expertise in two or more domains: hybrid-cloud, data platforms, integration, workplace, security.
• Experience deploying policy-driven automation (OPA, Sentinel, Kyverno or similar) integrated with Terraform/Ansible IaC.
• Experience leading distributed architect teams / CoEs and motivating senior practitioners.
• Executive stakeholder management; comfortable presenting architecture ROI to CIO/CTO and board committees.
• Certifications: TOGAF (or equivalent) and cloud (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP advantageous).
• Experience with core-banking or investment-platform modernization (Aladdin, CRIMS, SimCorp, State Street Alpha).
• Familiarity with BIAN, BCF, or other capability frameworks.