Senior Functional/Business Architect

emagine; Dublin; On-site; EUR 85,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

emagine in Ireland is seeking a Functional Architect to join the Organisational Management team. You will design and define the functionality and structure of systems and software to meet business needs and user requirements, aligned to strategy, with senior stakeholder collaboration.

You will lead in digital transformation projects, assess feasibility, guide architecture governance, and shape high-level design across borders while ensuring regulatory and compliance considerations in financial

Qualifications

• Proven experience delivering large IT programs with architectural oversight.
• Experience in financial services regulatory and compliance landscapes.
• Strong communication and leadership across senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Work with business leaders to propose functional solutions to problems and opportunities.
• Identify capability gaps and offer solutions to enable strategy.
• Conduct feasibility assessments and high-level IT cost estimates.
• Maintain business capability assessments and contribute to roadmap alignment.
• Provide leadership to support strategic business needs and future direction.
• Ensure proposals align with overall roadmap and business vision.
• Define scope, requirements, functional design, and high-level IT estimation for complex projects.
• Support IT delivery teams to ensure alignment with high-level solution design and goals.
• Engage with key stakeholders to advocate for product direction and architecture.

Skills

Functional architecture

IT project leadership

Waterfall/Agile

Financial services

Stakeholder communication

Cross-border collaboration

Regulatory/compliance

Change management

Job description

JOB DETAILS / ROLE PURPOSE

We are looking for a Functional Architect to join our Organisational Management team. This role focuses on designing and defining the functionality and structure of systems & software to ensure they meet the needs of the business and its users, aligned to strategy.

Key Responsibilities

Key responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Work in collaboration with business leaders to create functional solution proposals to known business problems & opportunities.
• Pro-actively identify capability gaps that may inhibit achieving business strategy & offer solutions.
• Conduct feasibility assessments and high-level IT cost estimation for new business initiatives.
• Perform & maintain business capability assessments.
• Provide leadership on direction needed to support strategic business needs into the future.
• Validate project proposals are aligned to overall roadmap and vision for the business.
• Scope Definition, high level requirements definition, Functional Design & IT estimation for complex strategic projects.
• Support IT delivery teams on project ensuring alignment to the overall high solution design and achievement of business goals.
• Identifying key design decisions within the scope of the functional roadmap, providing design solution options and initiation of design workshops resulting in a recommendation for appropriate business design authority groups.
• Close engagement with key business stakeholders, primarily responsible for product advocacy and advancement of functional architecture supporting the business.
• Monitoring the IT solutions market, developing expert opinions on the best / most appropriate solutions.
• Ensure adequate architecture governance processes and reviews in place, ensuring adherence to appropriate IT standards and strategy.
• Business travel: to be confirmed - frequency not yet specified.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Proven experience as a Functional Architect or related discipline.
• 8-10 years of experience within IT projects, waterfall & Agile methodologies.
• Track record of leading in a team that has delivered large scale digital transformation.
• Experience within the financial services industry, with a working understanding of the regulatory and compliance landscape of a regulated environment.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively within a team environment.
• A strong and motivational leader, fostering relationships and coaching/mentoring.
• Demonstrable ability to think "outside of the box" and innovate.
• Proven ability to drive and manage change.
• Comfortable challenging the ideas of others.
• Strong influencing skills, particularly with senior executives.
• Capable of working across borders and cross organizational boundaries.
• Commercial acumen.

Desirable

• Insurance sector experience specifically, in addition to the broader financial services background above.
• AI-First Mindset: Ability to operate effectively in an AI-first delivery environment, leveraging AI tools to enhance architecture activities and applying knowledge of AI architectures, agentic workflows, governance frameworks, and responsible AI principles when shaping future business and technology solutions.
• TOGAF certified.