Enterprise / Solution Architecture Lead

KPMG South Africa; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Big 4 experience

Continuous learning

Exposure to multidisciplinary teams

Growth opportunities

International travel

Job summary

KPMG South Africa seeks an Enterprise / Solution Architecture Lead to own solution design for cloud, platform, and enterprise technology across the portfolio. You will work with delivery teams, alliance partners, and client technical stakeholders to ensure technically sound, scalable, and well-scoped engagements.

The role involves pre-signing design, governance during delivery, and developing reference architectures with strong leadership and market awareness.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Pre-Signing Solution Design and Quality (55%) – lead architecture for major engagements.

Skills

Cloud architecture

Solution design

Architecture governance

Stakeholder engagement

Leadership

Pre-sales/support

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IS/Engineering

Azure/AWS/GCP certification

TOGAF or equivalent

Job description

Introduction to KPMG

KPMG is a global network of professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. Our purpose is to inspire confidence and empower change. We have a notable Africa Footprint serving clients across the continent. KPMG One Africa refers to the KPMG firms in the Southern, East, and West Africa regions. These are comprised of 13 countries from the 3 regional clusters: Southern Africa (Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe); East Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda); West Africa (Ghana, and Nigeria).

We are currently looking for an Enterprise / Solution Architecture Lead.

Position Summary

The Enterprise / Solution Architecture Lead is a Senior Manager-level role responsible for ensuring that all major KPMG T&I engagements are correctly designed, technically sound, and structured for repeatable, scalable delivery before contracts are signed. This role is the primary pre-signing protection mechanism for KPMG T&I, preventing costly rework, overruns, and client escalations that arise from poor upfront solution design. The Architecture Lead owns the solution design process for cloud, platform, and enterprise technology mandates across the portfolio, working in close collaboration with delivery teams, alliance partners, and client technical stakeholders.

Key Roles And Responsibilities

• Pre-Signing Solution Design and Quality (55%)
• Lead the architecture and solution design process for all major T&I pursuits – ensuring solutions are technically viable, commercially structured, and deliverable before KPMG signs the contract.
• Produce high-quality solution architecture documents, technical proposals, and delivery blueprints for cloud, platform, and enterprise technology engagements.
• Participate in all major client technical workshops, solution presentations, and architecture review sessions during the pursuit phase.
• Review and sign off on all technical scopes of work, ensuring they align with KPMG's delivery capability, alliance architectures, and market rate assumptions.
• Challenge and interrogate solution designs proposed by delivery teams or clients – preventing over-engineering, bespoke design, or architectures that KPMG cannot support at scale.
• Delivery Architecture Support (30%)
• Provide architecture oversight and technical governance during delivery – attending key design reviews, sprint reviews, and technical steering committees on major engagements.
• Serve as the escalation authority for technical architecture decisions during delivery, resolving disputes between client and KPMG delivery teams.
• Maintain architecture standards and reference frameworks for KPMG T&I's core technology platforms (Azure, AWS, SAP S/4HANA, ServiceNow, Oracle Cloud).
• Work with Block E (Enablement) to codify solution architecture patterns, reference architectures, and reusable design assets.
• Conduct formal architecture reviews (pre- and post-delivery) to identify systemic design risks and improve future solution quality.
• Alliance and Capability Development (15%)
• Maintain active relationships with alliance partner solution architects (Microsoft, ServiceNow, SAP, Oracle) to stay current on reference architectures and certifications.
• Contribute to KPMG T&I's technical community of practice – running architecture reviews, knowledge‑sharing sessions, and internal capability uplift.
• Support the hiring and technical assessment of architecture talent for the T&I team.
• Contribute to thought leadership and external market positioning on enterprise architecture topics.

Academic/ Professional Qualifications And Experience

• Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or an equivalent technical discipline.
• Cloud architecture certification required: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305), AWS Solutions Architect Professional, or Google Professional Cloud Architect.
• TOGAF or equivalent enterprise architecture certification preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of technology experience, with at least 5 years in enterprise or solution architecture roles within a consulting or systems integration context.
• Proven experience designing and reviewing architectures for large‑scale cloud migration, platform modernisation, or digital transformation programmes.
• Familiarity with African market delivery constraints and infrastructure environments.

Technical Competencies & Personal Attributes

• Technical authority: deep architecture expertise across at least two major cloud or enterprise platforms.
• Design discipline: able to define clear, structured, deliverable solution architectures under time pressure.
• Commercial awareness: understands the cost implications of architectural decisions and can balance technical idealism with commercial pragmatism.
• Stakeholder engagement: comfortable leading technical workshops with client architects, CTOs, and IT leadership.
• Quality mindset: naturally challenges designs that introduce unnecessary complexity, bespoke development, or delivery risk.
• Collaboration: works effectively with delivery teams, alliance partner architects, and client technical teams.
• Market Intelligence: demonstrates commercial awareness with sound knowledge of matters affecting the market.
• Business development entrepreneurial mind‑set and ability to identify opportunities and develop high‑quality proposals.
• Personal effectiveness – Excellent report‑writing and presentation skills.
• People management – Leadership & management skills.
• Performance management – Be a performance manager to the team in line with performance management guidelines.
• Risk management – lead in ensuring full compliance with KPMG quality & risk management requirements.
• Capacity building – takes a lead in building capability of team to future‑proof workforce and full utilization of existing workforce.

We Offer

• An exciting opportunity to work with a Big 4 firm on cutting‑edge clients across Africa.
• Continuous learning and development.
• Exposure to multi‑disciplinary client service teams.
• Unrivalled space to grow and be innovative.
• Opportunity for international travel.