Principal Architect & Strategy Head - London £150-180k bonus & bens

The Principal Architect & Strategy Head reports to the Head of Tech Engineering and leads the group’s architecture efforts. 

In this role, you will play an integral role in determining the strategy for the group and understanding and advocating architecture principles and articulating value proposition of architecture to our technology and business partners. This is a key strategic role with accountability for articulating and realizing the true value of engineering solutions for the firm.     

As the Department Architect & Strategy Head, you own the target state architecture. 

You will

- work with stakeholders across the organization to understand the technology strategy, and translate that into our target state vision. 

- are a passionate advocate for this vision and champion for this. 

- are organizationally aware, and apply your communication, influencing, and governance skills to make sure our change projects deliver business value and move towards the target state. 

- will work closely with senior stakeholders to understand changes needed with a future view of technology to execute towards.  

The successful applicant can expect to 

- represent Technology Engineering in enterprise governance functions and would  represent Technology Engineering on the firm’s Architecture Council.

- operate a Technical Domain Authority group that decides our stance towards individual technical tools and products using biases,

You are passionate about technology and keep yourself current with industry and technology trends that might represent an opportunity or be a risk to our firm, helping shape evaluations and pilots where needed. You use your broad industry knowledge to help craft and maintain our policies and standards, ensuring that controls framework stays relevant in an ever-evolving technology landscape. 

Or client  has an advanced and progressive position on cloud with most of our estate running within AWS.   This has been accomplished by ensuring a measure of  consideration & thoughtfulness over how applications are built and migrated.   You will run an expert group that provides this governance & oversight.  

You will prepares and present value realization insights, including both financial and non-financial benefits, to appropriate stakeholders. Developing and communicating value realization strategy, including specific milestones required to deliver business benefit targets.  

Main responsibilities: 

Requires specialized knowledge and expertise and deep experience in integrating related disciplinary knowledge  

Accountable for work of self and others; sets standards around which others will operate  
Works independently, with guidance in only the most complex situations  

Acts as advisor to management and key external stakeholders on broad ranging projects
 
Build & drive the Target State architecture for Technology Engineering 

Ensures that Architects follow all aspects of the Enterprise Architecture process from initiation to closure 

Mentor and support Senior Architects on project engagements 

Ensures that solution delivery follows our Policies & Standards 

Represent our architecture and strategy at internal and external forums 

Stay abreast of industry & technology trends; to identify new technologies that might be advantageous 

Operate as a hands-on architecture practitioner, engaging with teams & as an individual architect 

Decompose complex problems into discrete work units 

Make sound and objective decisions, sometimes with limited facts/resources 

Identify and evaluate options & select the most effective solution 

Craft and validate technology standards, standard methodologies & technical biases 

Hold associates and teams accountable for adhering to practices and policies 

Technical and Business Knowledge sought:- 

You demonstrate deep knowledge of Technology Engineering, with expertise in modern software development practice and tooling, AWS Cloud, on premises infrastructure operations, and technology lifecycle management 

Whilst an AWS Certification would be useful (but not essential) we do require  experience with AWS and an ability to demonstrate expertise. in major AWS Services 

Solid knowledge of SDLC practices 

You articulate broader business concerns and/or regulatory landscape, including key risks and controls (such as  GDPR, MIFID, SOX) 

Skilled at making decisions that are in line with the firm’s broader business strategy 

You set the expectations for development practices and ensures they are known and adhered to within the area. 

Whilst preference is likely to be given to financial services, ALL industry backgrounds will be considered.

Essential Requirements 

15+ years architectural experience 

You are an authority in a specific architecture discipline or domain within your firm and potentially across the industry
 
Your designs and architectures show consideration for the operational aspects of a system, long-term supportability, TCO, maintenance, etc. 

Demonstrates mastery of architectural processes 
Track record of technology innovation and experience leading technology evaluation within your company and with other industry leaders 
Capable of leading large software development projects in terms of team size, technical complexity, and/or organizational complexity 

Able to produce results through individuals and teams where there is no direct management oversight of resources 

Able to overcome differences of opinion and drive team alignment around a specific goal or solution