Principal Architect

Starr Underwriting; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Joining a leading company in the long-term savings and retirement sector, the Principal Architect will oversee strategic alignment of IT capabilities and business strategies. This role offers a competitive salary, excellent benefits, and flexible working arrangements across multiple office locations.

Benefits

Private medical cover

38 days annual leave

Excellent pension scheme

12x salary life assurance

Career breaks

Income protection

3x volunteering days

Qualifications

• Experience with strategic 3rd parties and solution architecture.
• Expertise in developing roadmaps for transition states.

Responsibilities

• Design and plan IT architecture evolution.
• Build relationships with business leaders.
• Identify technology-enabled innovation opportunities.

Skills

Understanding of enterprise architecture frameworks

Process mapping and optimization techniques

Consultative advice

Driving execution change

Job description

Job Description

We have an incredible opportunity to join us here at Phoenix Group for x3 Principal Architects to join our Business & Enterprise Architecture team.

Job Type: Permanent

Location: This role could be based in either our Birmingham, Telford, London or Edinburgh offices with time spent working in the office and at home.

Flexible working: All of our roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process. You can read more about Phoenix Flex here.

Closing Date: 27/06/2025

Salary and benefits: £70,000- £95,000 plus an indicative bonus range of 30%-60%, private medical cover, 38 days annual leave, excellent pension, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more.

Who are we?

We want to be the best place that any of our 6,600 colleagues have ever worked.

We’re Phoenix Group, we’re a long-term savings and retirement business. We offer a range of products across our market-leading brands, Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life and ReAssure. Around 1 in 5 people in the UK has a pension with us. We’re a FTSE 100 organisation that is tackling key issues such as transitioning our portfolio to net zero by 2050, and we’re not done yet

The role

The Principal Architect plays a key role in aligning IT capabilities to business strategies and overseeing execution. The Principal Architect role owns the definition, planning and governance of the Target States, associated Roadmaps and transition states across a given scope. Scope may be a major or complex programme of work, a technology architecture domain or a Value Centre - providing solution oversight, ensuring solutions delivery is executed in line with published roadmaps and standards.

Role

Principal Architect role owns the definition, planning and governance of the Target States, associated Roadmaps and transition states across a given scopeincluding:

• Formulation of strategy and setting direction - Design, plan and articulate the planned evolution of the IT Architecture for the given scope
• Building and maintaining relationshipswith business leaders, product managers and product owners
• Facilitate innovation- Identify technology enabled innovation opportunities that enable business strategies
• Orchestrating the delivery of business outcomes - Provide consultative advice, adapted to stakeholder context, and Influence and guide AOP investment decisions.
• Guiding Execution - Working closely with, supporting and guiding the solution architects working across Change and Engineering Delivery
• Proactive Application Portfolio Management- Managing the data that provides visibility into our technology estate, the positioning of technology.
  
  

What are we looking for?

• A strong understanding of enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF, Zachman) with the ability to leverage this knowledge and drive strategic alignment and ensure efficient enterprise architecture practices.
• Demonstrable experience of working closely with strategic 3rd parties to ensure solutions are architected in alignment with group architectural blueprints and roadmap
• Comprehensive experience of developing roadmaps and transition States which enable the Target State to be realised in a controlled but timely manner
• Extensive experience in providing consultative advice, adapted to stakeholder context, and provide actionable recommendations to influence and guide technology investment decisions.
• Proficiency in process mapping and optimization techniques.
• Proven experience of driving execution of change to deliver the strategy outcomes, reduce risk, contain cost, improve agility and accelerate time to value
  
  

We Want To Hire The Whole Version Of You.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.

Find out more about

Guide for Candidates: thephoenixgroup.pagetiger.com/guideforcandidates

Find or get answers from our colleagues: www.thephoenixgroup.com/careers/talk-to-us