Strategic IT Architecture Leader

Forvis Mazars LLP; Warrington; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Forvis Mazars is seeking an experienced IT Architecture Team Lead to drive the maturity of the UK Architecture function. You will set architectural direction, align technology decisions with business priorities, and establish governance that ensures secure, scalable, resilient solutions.

Working with UK and Group IT, business leaders and suppliers, you will shape roadmaps, support major programmes and build a mature architecture capability delivering real business value.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading or significantly shaping an IT Architecture function within a complex organisation.
• Strong experience establishing architecture governance, standards, design authorities and decision-making frameworks.
• Experience partnering with senior business and technology stakeholders to translate strategy into technology outcomes.
• A successful track record of enabling project delivery through practical and risk-based architectural leadership.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the architecture vision, principles, standards and technology guardrails across the UK estate.
• Translate business strategy into target-state architectures, practical roadmaps and delivery priorities.
• Lead architecture governance processes, including Technical Design Authority (TDA), design reviews and exception management.
• Provide pragmatic architecture guidance to programmes, projects and change initiatives.
• Build strong relationships with business stakeholders to understand operational priorities and influence technology decisions.
• Establish and maintain high-quality architecture documentation, including roadmaps, design documents, decision records and reference architectures.
• Drive continuous improvement of architecture practices, governance processes, tooling and standards.
• Manage architecture demand and prioritisation to ensure resources focus on the highest-value initiatives.
• Lead, coach and develop a team of architecture professionals.
• Embed security, resilience, data and compliance considerations into technology decisions from the outset.

Skills

Leadership

Architecture governance

Stakeholder management

Delivery leadership

Coaching

Communication

Strategic thinking

Collaborative leadership

Tools

TOGAF

ITIL

COBIT

Job description

Forvis Mazars is seeking an experienced IT Architecture Team Lead to drive the maturity of the UK Architecture function. You will set architectural direction, align technology decisions with business priorities, and establish governance that ensures secure, scalable, resilient solutions.

Working with UK and Group IT, business leaders and suppliers, you will shape roadmaps, support major programmes and build a mature architecture capability delivering real business value.