Enterprise Architect

Ledelsea; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Ledelsea is seeking a Senior Enterprise Architect to translate high-level business goals into cohesive, enterprise-level architectural roadmaps and high-impact technology strategies. In this role, you will bridge the gap between business vision and robust IT execution, leveraging deep Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) domain expertise and structured architectural methodologies.

You will lead technical strategy formulation, define future target states, optimize enterprise value streams, and guide

Qualifications

• Strategic vision to author technical strategies for complex enterprise domains.
• Deep domain knowledge in QSR or high-transaction retail sectors.
• Experience with cloud-native platforms (AWS/GCP) and modern integration patterns.
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture frameworks (TOGAF or equivalent).
• Strong leadership, stakeholder management, and executive communication.

Responsibilities

• Formulate long-term technical strategies and multi-year roadmaps for enterprise platforms.
• Define target architectures and governance artifacts to guide solutions.
• Evaluate COTS/SaaS options and lead PoC/PoT initiatives.
• Collaborate with Security, Infra, and Solution Architecture to ensure alignment.
• Mentor teams and drive adoption of modern integration patterns across programs.

Skills

Strategic Vision

Domain Knowledge

Modern Tech Stack Savvy

Framework Familiarity

Leadership & Communication

Job description

Here are some areas the EA's need to have experience in:

Google Edge Computing

Order menu processing (mobile vs kiosk vs drive through)

• Digital commerce

Enterprise Governance & process

• Manage system changes
• Rules, roles, processes

Job Description: Senior Enterprise Architect

Location: Onsite - Chicago office

Job Summary

We are seeking a strategic and forward-looking Senior Enterprise Architect to translate high-level business goals into cohesive, enterprise-level architectural roadmaps and high-impact technology strategies. In this role, you will bridge the gap between business vision and robust IT execution, leveraging deep Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) domain expertise and structured architectural methodologies. You will lead technical strategy formulation, define future target states, optimize enterprise value streams, and guide the adoption of modern, emerging technologies to ensure our digital investments drive scalability, agility, and measurable business value.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Technical Strategy & Roadmap Development

• Formulate Technical Strategy: Lead the definition and execution of long-term technical strategies that modernize core enterprise platforms, rationalize regional/global tooling, and support rapid business scaling.
• Real-World Strategy Example: Define and execute the global reference architecture for Content & Asset Management, harmonizing multi-market systems by designing a unified Digital Asset Management (DAM) ecosystem, automated content supply chains, and flexible, API-driven integration layers.
• Strategic Roadmapping: Translate long-term business goals into cohesive, multi-year enterprise-level architectural roadmaps that outline clear transition and target states.
• Architectural Governance: Lead the creation and evolution of foundational architectural artifacts—including principles, standards, reference architectures, and guardrails—to govern new solution implementations.
• Strategic Tech Evaluation: Evaluate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software, SaaS platforms, and partner solutions. Lead Proof of Concept (PoC) and Proof of Technology (PoT) initiatives to select fit-for-purpose solutions aligned with our Global Technology strategy.
• Program Alignment: Maintain alignment, integration, and coordination of complex architectural activities across multiple programs, projects, and product lines.

Capability & Value Stream Management

• Enterprise Capability Mapping: Leverage deep knowledge in QSR domains (e.g., Menu, Ordering, Supply Chain, Kitchen Operations, Franchise Management, Restaurant Technology, Marketing, and Loyalty) to build, evolve, and maintain the enterprise capability map, ensuring strategic objectives are directly supported by a rationalized architectural landscape.
• Gap Analysis: Utilize the capability map to perform rigorous current-to-target state gap analyses, ensuring digital investments directly target capability gaps, minimize redundancy, and accelerate time-to-market.
• Value Stream Optimization: Define and analyze end-to-end enterprise value streams to identify operational bottlenecks, optimize cross-domain processes, and deliver measurable business outcomes.

Architecture Governance & Design Authority

• Lead Architectural Review Boards (ARB): Facilitate and lead ARB sessions, effectively translating technical decisions into business impacts (and vice-versa) to secure alignment across both business and technical stakeholders.
• Technology Rationalization: Rationalize the IT landscape by evaluating technical debt, assessing application health, and recommending cost-optimizing consolidation strategies that improve operational sustainability.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Security, Infrastructure, and Solution Architecture teams to ensure end-to-end alignment, mitigate architectural risks, and dynamically update the enterprise architecture when market or technology disruptions arise.

Technology Innovation & Leadership

• Emerging Tech Strategy: Drive the strategy and adoption path for next-generation capabilities, including AI/ML, Agentic AI, IoT, multi-cloud platforms, and advanced automation patterns.
• Modern Integration Patterns: Apply strong expertise in systems engineering and integration patterns (including RESTful APIs, Event-Driven Architecture (EDA), gRPC, and ETL) across diverse cloud environments (AWS, GCP, etc.).
• Mentorship & Influence: Manage, mentor, and provide architectural leadership across the organization, instilling a culture of structured design-thinking and raising the baseline architecture capability of the broader team.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Strategic Vision: Proven track record of authoring technical strategies and reference architectures for complex, multi-market enterprise domains (such as Content Management, core transactional platforms, or global integration layers).
• Domain Knowledge: Deep understanding and architectural experience within the QSR or high-transaction retail sector (Menu, Supply Chain, Kitchen, Restaurant Tech, or Loyalty).
• Modern Tech Stack Savvy: Strong hands-on architectural experience with cloud-native platforms (AWS and/or GCP), modern integration patterns (APIs, Event-Driven Architectures), and data architectures.
• Framework Familiarity: Practical understanding of enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF or equivalent) used as a tool for structured planning rather than rigid academic compliance.
• Leadership & Communication: Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and negotiation skills, with a proven ability to lead ARB sessions, build consensus, and explain complex technical concepts simply to executive leadership.