Enterprise Architect

Cognizant; Madison (WI); Remote; USD 135,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

Paid holidays plus PTO

401(k) plan and contributions

Long-term/Short-term Disability

Paid Parental Leave

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking an experienced Enterprise Architect to lead strategic design and governance of enterprise infrastructure across large IT environments. You will define current-state, transition-state, and future-state architectures, guiding modernization, data center, database, storage, and backup platforms.

The role requires deep expertise in architecture frameworks, governance, and roadmaps, with collaboration across business leaders, engineering, security, and vendors to align with

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/Engineering (Master's preferred).
• 16–20 years in enterprise infrastructure or solution architecture.
• Experience governing large-scale enterprise infrastructure environments.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain current/transition/target-state architectures.
• Develop standards, reference architectures, and roadmaps.
• Lead infrastructure transformations including cloud adoption and modernization.
• Evaluate options and provide scalable, secure architectural recommendations.
• Ensure resilience, DR, capacity planning, and cybersecurity alignment.
• Lead vendor evaluations and proof‑of‑concept activities.
• Collaborate across teams to ensure architecture governance throughout projects.
• Create architecture documentation and decision records.
• Provide senior technical leadership during incidents and upgrades.
• Identify opportunities for standardization and automation.

Skills

Leadership & governance

Enterprise architecture

Strategic planning

StakeholderCommunication

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/IT/Engineering

Master's degree preferred

Tools

TOGAF

Zachman

Cloud architecture (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Infrastructure automation/tools

Job description

Job Title: Enterprise Architect

Job Location: Remote, USA.

**** Please note, this role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future****

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Enterprise Architect to lead the strategic design, evolution, and governance of enterprise infrastructure architectures across large-scale IT environments. This role is responsible for defining current-state, transition-state, and future-state technology architectures while driving modernization, transformation, and operational excellence across data center, database, storage, and backup platforms.

The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in enterprise infrastructure architecture, technology governance, architecture standards, and strategic roadmaps. This individual will work closely with business leaders, engineering teams, security organizations, and technology vendors to ensure infrastructure solutions align with business objectives, operational requirements, and enterprise technology strategies.

Salary and Other Compensation:

The annual salary for this position is up to $150K depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.

In this role, you will

• Define and maintain current-state, transition-state, and target-state enterprise infrastructure architectures aligned with business and technology strategies.
• Develop and govern enterprise architecture principles, standards, reference architectures, design patterns, and technology roadmaps for data center, database, storage, backup, and disaster recovery environments.
• Lead architecture assessments and reviews for infrastructure transformation, cloud adoption, modernization, migration, consolidation, and lifecycle management initiatives.
• Evaluate solution alternatives and provide architectural recommendations considering scalability, performance, security, availability, cost optimization, and operational support requirements.
• Ensure infrastructure designs meet enterprise requirements for resilience, disaster recovery, business continuity, capacity planning, compliance, risk management, and cybersecurity standards.
• Drive technology selection processes, vendor evaluations, product assessments, and proof-of-concept activities to support strategic investment decisions.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, engineering, security, operations, service management, and project delivery teams to establish architecture alignment and governance throughout project lifecycles.
• Create and maintain architecture documentation including standards, design artifacts, decision records, exception reviews, system diagrams, and reusable reference models.
• Provide senior-level technical leadership and architectural guidance during complex incidents, critical production issues, major infrastructure upgrades, and enterprise transformation programs.
• Identify opportunities for standardization, automation, operational efficiency, and continuous improvement while promoting architecture best practices across the organization.

What you’ll need to succeed (required skills)

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline. Master's degree preferred.
• 16 to 20 years of progressive experience in enterprise infrastructure architecture, solution architecture, or infrastructure engineering.
• Extensive experience designing and governing large-scale enterprise infrastructure environments.
• Strong expertise in data center technologies, databases, storage platforms, backup and recovery solutions, and infrastructure modernization initiatives.
• Proven experience developing enterprise architecture frameworks, standards, governance processes, and strategic technology roadmaps.
• Strong understanding of infrastructure security, compliance controls, risk management, business continuity, and disaster recovery principles.
• Experience evaluating emerging technologies, vendor solutions, and infrastructure platforms to support enterprise technology strategies.
• Ability to lead cross-functional architecture discussions with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, presentation, documentation, and decision-making skills.
• Experience working in geographically distributed and matrixed organizations.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with hybrid cloud and multi-cloud infrastructure environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Familiarity with architecture frameworks such as TOGAF, Zachman, or equivalent enterprise architecture methodologies.
• Knowledge of infrastructure automation, infrastructure-as-code, and modern platform engineering practices.
• Relevant certifications such as TOGAF, AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect, or cloud architecture certifications are highly desirable.

Benefits:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Work model:

At Cognizant, we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible, and we are here to support a healthy work-life balance through our various wellbeing programs. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is a Remote role in USA.

The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you’re engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations.

Disclaimer: The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.

Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.