Senior Manager, IT Architecture

Xcel Energy; Denver (CO); Hybrid; USD 156,000 - 196,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual Incentive Program

Medical/Pharmacy Plan

Dental

Vision

401(k) plan

Paid time off

Holidays

Job summary

Xcel Energy is seeking a Senior Manager of IT Architecture to lead a team of architects responsible for defining technology strategy, governance, and roadmaps across Customer and ERP domains. You will partner with business and technology leaders to align investments with long-term strategies and drive enterprise architecture standards.

You will influence major programs, drive modernization efforts across cloud, data, and AI domains, and ensure architectural excellence while enabling business

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Technology, Science, Business or related field, or 4 years of experience equivalent to the position.
• Five years of prior people leadership experience
• Ten years of experience with end-to-end service lifecycle, business process, project or product management.
• Five years of experience with strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, delivery execution, and operations.
• Excellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill sets.
• Excellent relationship management and collaboration skills, with cross‑functional teamwork.
• Experience within a highly regulated industry.
• Ability to deliver value in compliance with policies and regulations.
• Demonstrated customer focus and problem solving to drive improvements.
• Proven ability to lead through change in a diverse environment.
• Experience with Sourcing and Contract Management.
• In-depth acumen in business process, technical knowledge, and architectural topology.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing architecture team with coaching and performance management.
• Define and evolve domain architectures and roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
• Develop technology strategies and target-state architectures for assigned domains.
• Establish and govern architecture principles, standards, and reference architectures.
• Partner with leaders to shape domain strategies and communicate complex concepts in business terms.
• Support architecture modernization and technology transformation across applications, data, and cloud domains.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Strategy & Planning

Architecture Governance

Stakeholder Management

Change Management

Sourcing & Contract Mgmt

Education

Bachelor's degree in Technology/Science/Business

Tools

SAP

Salesforce Energy & Utilities Cloud

Service Cloud

Marketing Cloud

Itron metering systems

Job description

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) is a leading energy provider and Fortune 500 company, dedicated to serving millions of electricity and natural gas customers across eight states: Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. We make energy work better for our customers, helping them thrive every day. That means always raising the bar - delivering better service and providing more reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy.

Xcel Energy is a place where you’ll have opportunities to grow, expand your skills, and help lead the clean energy transition. We offer meaningful rewards, recognition, and support to help you build your career and make an impact - both on the job and beyond. Most importantly, it means you’ll be joining a company that knows employees are the driving force behind its success and is committed to helping you be your best.

Xcel Energy supports a hybrid work model to enable collaboration and flexibility. Many roles are expected to work onsite three days per week (Tuesday–Thursday); however, work location expectations vary based on role, team, and business needs.

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, IT Architecture leads a team of architects responsible for defining and governing technology strategy, architecture, and roadmaps across the Customer and ERP domains. This role partners closely with business and technology leaders to evolve business capabilities, support enterprise priorities, and ensure technology investments align with long-term business and technology strategies.

As a people leader and architecture leader, the Senior Manager is responsible for domain strategy, architecture governance, technical leadership, and the development of architectural talent. The role influences technology decisions, drives adoption of enterprise architecture standards, and supports business transformation through effective architecture practices.

Essential Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing architecture team, including hiring, coaching, performance management, succession planning, and professional development. Foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.

• Define and evolve domain architectures and roadmaps that align business objectives, technology investments, and delivery priorities. Partner with business leaders to identify capability gaps, establish target-state capabilities, and drive business outcomes.

• Develop technology strategies and target-state architectures for assigned business domains, ensuring alignment with enterprise strategy, regulatory requirements, and long-term technology objectives.

• Establish and govern architecture principles, standards, patterns, and reference architectures to ensure solutions are secure, scalable, resilient, integrated, and aligned with enterprise goals. Provide architectural oversight for major programs and technology investments.

• Partner with business, technology, and executive leaders to shape domain strategies, technology investments, and key decisions. Communicate complex technical concepts in clear business terms and build alignment across stakeholders.

• Support architecture modernization and technology transformation initiatives across applications, data, integration, cloud, AI, and platform ecosystems. Drive simplification, reduce technical debt, and ensure solutions, vendor engagements, and technology investments align with approved architectures and business objectives.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Technology, Science, Business or related field, or 4 years of experience equivalent to the position.

• Five years of prior people leadership experience

• Ten years of experience with end-to-end service lifecycle, business process, project or product management.

• Five years of experience with strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, delivery execution, and operations.

• Excellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill sets.

• Excellent Relationship Management and collaboration skills, with a track record of working as one team cross-organizationally to drive innovation and business results.

• Experience working within a highly regulated industry.

• Ability to deliver value in compliance with policies and regulations.

• Demonstrated ability to apply a customer focus, problem solve, and drive continuous improvement to solutions, systems and processes.

• Demonstrated ability to drive, adopt, and lead others through change in a diverse and dynamic environment.

• Experience with Sourcing and Contract Management.

• Proven ability to attain and hold in-depth acumen in business process, technical knowledge, and architectural topology.

Preferred Requirements

• Ten years of progressive experience designing and delivering SAP-centric business solutions, including deep technical architecture and implementation experience.

• Demonstrated ability to operate as both a people leader and an enterprise architect, combining organizational leadership with deep, hands‑on architecture engagement and technical thought leadership.

• Ability to simplify and communicate complex technical ecosystems into clear, structured, executive‑ready narratives and visuals, including end‑to‑end customer journeys, system flows, and architecture blueprints, tailored to audiences ranging from engineers to senior executives.

• Demonstrated experience presenting complex technical topics to executive leadership, including CEO, CCO, and CTO audiences, with the ability to simplify technical depth into clear business context, implications, and actionable recommendations.

• Experience developing utility regulatory testimony content for presentation to commissions and regulatory audiences, with the ability to explain complex technical, operational, and customer impacts in a clear, credible, and business‑relevant manner.

• Strong understanding of Utility Financial Business model and business processes, including how accounting, billing, revenue, regulatory, and customer operations intersect within Customer systems in a utility environment.

• Proven experience within the Customer and ERP domains, with accountability for shaping and governing end‑to‑end customer technology ecosystems. Demonstrated ability to define architectures across complex, integrated landscapes, including customer engagement platforms, billing and revenue systems, and upstream and downstream enterprise capabilities, while clearly articulating system interactions, dependencies, and business outcomes to both technical and executive stakeholders.

• Experience operating in large‑scale utility or similar environments, with deep expertise in core enterprise platforms and packaged solutions, including SAP, Salesforce Energy & Utilities Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud or similar CRM platforms, metering systems such as Itron, and contact center platforms.

• Strong architecture expertise across integration, data, and AI domains, including enterprise integration patterns such as APIs, event‑driven architectures, and messaging, as well as modern data architectures. Proven ability to design cohesive, scalable, and business‑aligned solutions spanning hybrid environments across cloud and on‑premises platforms.

• Demonstrated ability to define, govern, and drive adoption of reference architectures, architecture patterns, and technology standards aligned to enterprise strategy and long‑term sustainability.

• Strong solutioning capability, including leading complex technical problem solving, diagnosing issues, navigating ambiguity, and delivering clear, actionable recommendations and trade‑offs.

• Experience engaging with system integrators, software vendors, and strategic partners to resolve technical challenges, guide architecture decisions, and align delivery activities with enterprise architecture standards and target‑state roadmaps. Experience contributing to Statements of Work, architecture deliverables, and technology evaluations is preferred.

• Proven ability to lead and influence cross‑organizational teams, driving alignment to enterprise architecture standards while enabling execution across multiple concurrent programs and initiatives.

Our culture is grounded in shared values and employee commitments that guide how we work, support one another, and grow together.

Our Values

Connected, Committed, Trustworthy, Safe

Our Employee Commitments

• Work that makes a difference

• A team you can count of

• Opportunities to grow

• Rewards that help you thrive

Xcel Energy provides job applicants reasonable accommodations for disabilities throughout the application process.

Non-Bargaining

The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $156,000.00 to $196,000.00 per year

This position is eligible for the following benefits: Annual Incentive Program, Medical/Pharmacy Plan, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Dependent Care Reimbursement Account, Health Care Reimbursement Account, Health Savings Account (HSA) (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Limited-Purpose FSA (if enrolled in eligible health plan and HSA), Transportation Reimbursement Account, Short-term disability (STD), Long-term disability (LTD), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Fitness Center Reimbursement (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Tuition reimbursement, Transit programs, Employee recognition program, Pension, 401(k) plan, Paid time off (PTO), Holidays, Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO), Parental Leave

Benefit plans are subject to change and Xcel Energy has the right to end, suspend, or amend any of its plans, at any time, in whole or in part.

In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information including but not limited to dates of school attendance and graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Deadline to Apply: 10/21/26

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