Principal Enterprise Architect

N Brown Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Annual bonus

Company pension

Private Medical Insurance

Life Assurance

Volunteer time

Colleague discount

Onsite café

Mental Health support

Job summary

N Brown Group in Manchester is seeking a Principal Enterprise Architect to lead our Fintech architecture and shape the technology landscape. You will drive target-state architecture and align business and technology strategies across teams, while applying AI-enabled problem solving to scale quality and delivery.

This hands-on, strategic role requires influencing senior stakeholders, modernising platforms and delivering enterprise-wide outcomes with an emphasis on AI-driven options and

Qualifications

• Significant EA leadership experience in a large-scale or scale-up organisation.
• Proven ability to define target-state architectures and roadmap strategies.
• Strong understanding of modern digital platforms, cloud technologies, data architectures and integration patterns.
• Ability to translate business strategy into practical technology solutions and architectural frameworks.
• Influence and challenge senior stakeholders while balancing strategy and delivery.
• Experience working across product, engineering and business teams to deliver enterprise-wide outcomes.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills with the ability to navigate ambiguity.
• Experience using AI tools to support architecture design and decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Own and define the enterprise target architecture aligning business strategy with technology delivery.
• Translate business direction into architectural approaches, principles and specifications for engineering teams.
• Provide end-to-end architectural leadership across multiple domains.
• Establish architecture standards, governance, design principles and integration patterns.
• Identify and manage architectural risks and dependencies, escalating where needed.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Data and Business stakeholders to deliver strategic initiatives.
• Drive modernization of platforms and reduce technical debt with scalable approaches.
• Apply AI/automation to model options, test designs and improve specifications.

Skills

Enterprise Architecture Leadership

AI-driven design

Stakeholder influence

Roadmap planning

Architectural governance

Multi-domain leadership

Tools

Cloud platforms

AI tools

Job description

We're looking for a Principal Enterprise Architect to join our Fintech team.

As N Brown continues to evolve its technology landscape and accelerate digital transformation, this role will play a critical part in shaping our future architecture. You'll provide strategic leadership across business and technology, defining target-state architecture, driving alignment across teams, and ensuring technology investments support our long-term business objectives.

This is both a hands on and a highly strategic role that combines enterprise architecture leadership with an AI-native approach to problem solving and delivery. We are looking for someone who is already embracing AI as a core part of how they think, design, evaluate options and create architectural outputs, helping us scale quality and consistency across our Fintech start up division.

What will you do as a Principal Enterprise Architect at N Brown?

• Own and define the enterprise target architecture, ensuring alignment between business strategy, technology priorities and delivery outcomes.
• Translate business direction into clear architectural approaches, principles and specifications that engineering and delivery teams can execute with confidence.
• Provide end-to-end architectural leadership across multiple domains, ensuring solutions work cohesively across the wider technology ecosystem.
• Establish and maintain architecture standards, governance, design principles and integration patterns.
• Identify and manage architectural risks, dependencies and opportunities, escalating issues where appropriate and influencing decision-making at senior leadership level.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Data and Business stakeholders to ensure strategic initiatives are delivered in line with agreed architectural direction.
• Drive simplification and modernisation of existing technology platforms, helping to reduce technical debt and legacy constraints.
• Use AI and automation as a core part of the architecture process to model options, test designs against constraints, improve specifications and create scalable, repeatable approaches across the Digital Factory.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and AI capabilities, sharing insight and recommendations that improve organisational effectiveness.
• Contribute to commercial opportunities and strategic initiatives by providing architecture expertise, thought leadership and technical credibility.

What skills and experience will you have?

• Significant experience operating in an Enterprise Architecture leadership role within a small, scale-up or large-scale, complex organisation.
• Proven ability to define target-state architectures and roadmap strategies that enable business transformation.
• Strong understanding of modern digital platforms, cloud technologies, data architectures, integration patterns and enterprise applications.
• Experience translating business strategy into practical technology solutions and architectural frameworks.
• Ability to influence and challenge senior stakeholders, balancing strategic goals with delivery realities.
• Broad understanding of software engineering practices, platform architecture and technology governance.
• Experience working across multiple product, engineering and business teams to deliver cohesive enterprise-wide outcomes.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and complexity.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience supporting organisational transformation, operating model change and modern ways of working.
• Experience using AI tools to support architecture design, option modelling, specification development and decision‑making.
• A growth mindset, with curiosity for emerging technologies and a desire to drive innovation through AI-enabled ways of working.

What's in it for you?

• Hybrid working (2 days in the office at a minimum)
• 24 days holiday (+ 8 bank holidays)
• Annual bonus scheme
• Enhanced maternity and adoption leave
• Company pension with up to 8% N Brown contribution
• Mental Health support both internally and externally, including access to our wellbeing champions and counselling services
• A range of financial wellbeing support
• Stream - a financial wellbeing tool that helps you track your pay, access earnings early and manage your money with confidence
• Colleague discount across all N Brown brands
• Onsite café with subsidised rates and local restaurant discounts!
• Life Assurance and Private Medical Insurance
• Paid volunteer time - all our colleagues can take a full day paid to volunteer for a charity of their choice

N Brown - who we are and why work for us?

N Brown is a leading UK digital retail platform for clothing, footwear, home and technology, headquartered in Manchester and employing over 1,000 people nationwide. Through our strategic retail brands JD Williams, Jacamo and Simply Be and our unique payments offering, we exist to champion inclusivity and serve the underserved. Our customers are our passion, and we take great pride in delivering products that ensure they can look and feel amazing, without compromising on choice, value and accessibility.

We're committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive environment that values equality for all. Our vision is that by championing inclusion, N Brown will become the UK's most loved and trusted consumer platform, shaping the future of financial empowerment and personal expression. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging are therefore at the heart of our culture.

In May 2024 we were delighted to be named one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work. We work hard to create a happy and inclusive culture for everyone and we're proud to have been recognised by our colleagues.

Ways of Working

We offer hybrid working which varies across the business depending on the role you're in. Our Head Office is located in the Northern Quarter in Manchester City Centre.

Our working hours are 36.17 per week over 5 days.

We believe AI will become a standard part of modern professional practice. We are therefore looking for individuals who are open to learning, testing and responsibly adopting AI tools to improve efficiency, insight and impact in their role.

Our promise to you

We're an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.

Please know your application is being reviewed by a real human being. We value your interest in joining us and appreciate you taking the time to submit your application.