Job Overview:
The Enterprise Architect (EA) Principal is responsible for leading enterprise-wide system architecture focusing on the effectiveness, design and development of solutions for complex application problems and architecture. This role focuses on defining and verifying the stability, portability, security, or scalability of systems applications across the enterprise.
The position provides leadership direction and accountability for strategic application architecture plans, system design, and implementation. The Enterprise Architect Principal independently determines and develops architectural approaches and solutions, conducts business reviews, documents current systems in the portfolio, and recommends how to proceed with the applications (e.g., replace, retire, maintain, etc.).
This is a senior role in the architecture team and regularly works with senior leaders and stakeholders across the enterprise.
Job Responsibilities:
Core Responsibilities
Enterprise Architecture
- Leverages advanced technical skills to define principles that guide technology decisions for the enterprise and provides broad understanding of platforms and applications across all technologies
- Creates the architecture development and evaluates current architecture and provides recommendations and design solutions for the enterprise
- Evaluates existing systems to determine effectiveness, and suggests changes to meet organizational requirements
- Collaborates and guides engineers or software developers to select appropriate design solutions or ensure the compatibility of system components
- Communicates and partners with internal team members and senior stakeholders to understand specific system requirements and provides recommendations and technical guidance
- Defines and analyzes objectives, overall scope issues, and organizational impacts of systems
- Incorporates SOA principles into enterprise architecture design, including identifying opportunities for common services and service reuse
- Investigates system components suitability for specified business purposes and makes recommendations regarding the system use
- Participates in the research and maintains knowledge in emerging technologies and possible application to the business, focusing on two or more areas specific to the grocery/distribution industry
- Partners with fellow architects, engineers, and security to direct the development and operation of systems and can translate business needs into system development
Strategic Planning & Road-mapping
- Develops and maintains the multi-year enterprise architecture roadmap aligned to the organization's strategic goals, priorities, and digital transformation initiatives
- Leads the creation of the Current State (AS-IS) and Future State (TO-BE) architecture blueprints, identifying capability gaps and defining transition architectures with clear milestones
- Establishes and maintains the EA strategy framework using recognized methodologies (e.g., TOGAF to guide architectural planning and decision-making across domains
- Defines technology investment strategies by assessing build vs. buy vs. partner decisions, conducting market analysis, and delivering business-case justification for architectural recommendations
- Integrates business strategy with technology planning by engaging with business unit leaders to map strategic business capabilities to enabling technologies and architectural patterns
- Leads portfolio rationalization efforts, evaluating application landscapes against strategic objectives and recommending consolidation, modernization, or retirement to optimize the portfolio
- Proactively monitors industry trends, emerging technologies, and competitive intelligence relevant to the grocery/distribution sector to inform long-range architecture planning
- Facilitates EA governance forums and architecture review boards (ARBs) to ensure that project proposals and technology investments align with the approved roadmap and strategic direction
Technology Governance & Standards
- Defines, publishes, and enforces enterprise architecture standards, policies, and guardrails that govern technology selection, integration patterns, data management, and cloud usage across all business units
- Leads the Architecture Review Board (ARB) process, providing structured review, approval, and exception-handling for technology decisions, ensuring adherence to enterprise standards
- Develops and maintains technology reference architectures, reusable architecture patterns, and a curated technology radar to accelerate delivery and reduce redundancy across teams
- Governs the enterprise technology portfolio through lifecycle management, ensuring timely identification of obsolete or end-of-life technologies and driving remediation planning
- Establishes and oversees API governance frameworks, including design standards, versioning policies, and API catalog management to enable consistent, secure, and scalable integrations
- Collaborates with IT leadership to define enterprise-wide cloud governance policies, cost management practices, and architectural best practices for multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments
- Partners with data governance and data architecture teams to establish standards for data classification, master data management, and enterprise data models
- Measures and reports on architecture compliance, technical debt levels, and standards adoption metrics to IT leadership and executive sponsors
Risk & Compliance Management
- Leads the identification, assessment, and mitigation of enterprise architecture risks including technology obsolescence, vendor lock-in, integration complexity, and scalability constraints
- Collaborates with Information Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to embed security and privacy by design principles into architecture patterns, ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements (e.g., PCI-DSS, CCPA, GDPR)
- Conducts architecture risk assessments for major technology initiatives, providing risk-informed recommendations and presenting findings to senior leadership and governance bodies
- Develops and maintains an enterprise architecture risk register, tracking identified architectural risks, remediation plans, and associated mitigating controls
- Supports business continuity and disaster recovery planning by ensuring that architecture designs incorporate appropriate resiliency patterns, redundancy, and failover capabilities
- Ensures that vendor and third-party technology integrations comply with enterprise security standards, data privacy policies, and contractual obligations
- Partners with internal audit and compliance functions to provide architecture-level evidence and documentation in support of audits, certifications, and regulatory assessments
Stakeholder Alignment & Change Management
- Serves as the primary architecture thought leader and trusted advisor to C-suite executives, IT leadership, and business unit leaders, translating complex technical strategies into clear business value narratives
- Drives enterprise-wide alignment on architectural direction by facilitating workshops, road shows, and executive briefings to build consensus, secure buy-in, and communicate the strategic rationale for technology investments
- Develops and executes architecture communication plans, including creation of executive presentations, architecture decision records (ADRs), and portfolio dashboards tailored to diverse stakeholder audiences
- Champions organizational change management efforts associated with major technology transformations, partnering with business change management resources to address impact assessments, capability gaps, and adoption strategies
- Builds and cultivates an internal architecture community of practice, fostering a culture of architectural thinking, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement across engineering and business teams
- Manages expectations and resolves conflicts among competing stakeholder priorities by applying structured decision frameworks and facilitating trade-off discussions grounded in business value and risk
- Coaches and mentors junior and mid-level architects, engineers, and technical leads, developing the next generation of architecture talent and elevating the organization's overall technical maturity
Additional Responsibilities
- Strategic Leadership & Coaching
- Provides strategic advice on project costs, design concepts, or design changes including risks and assessment of decisions
- Communicates project information to senior stakeholders that includes technical reporting and high-visibility presentations
- Directs the overall installation of systems, networks, or application software
- Trains system engineers in operations and maintenance
- Performs other duties as assigned
Job Requirements:
Education/Certifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, systems analysis, or a related study
Experience
- 10+ years of overall relevant IT experience
- 6+ years of experience with enterprise architecture, software architecture, and design patterns
- 6+ years of experience with complex architectural patterns (SOA), building APIs microservices, and event driven design
- Deep experience with software design and delivery on cloud platforms (such as AWS) with an understanding of economic and business models for software in the cloud
- 6+ overall software development experience on multi-tiered systems
Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:
- Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills; ability to communicate and influence at all management levels and with both technical and non-technical individuals and successfully manage in a cross-functional environment and remote locations
- Strong analytical, problem-solving and conceptual skills
- Ability to effectively collaborate in a matrixed environment
- Ability to effectively adapt to rapidly changing technology and apply it to business needs
- Strong project management skills; experience organizing, planning and executing large-scale projects from vision through implementation, involving internal and external resources
- In depth and breadth knowledge across multiple software engineering disciplines
- Advanced knowledge of Cloud Native Architectures, in particular architecting enterprise applications on public cloud such as AWS, GCP or Azure
- Advanced knowledge of Ecommerce in a retail or wholesale organization
- Familiarity with EA frameworks such as TOGAF, Zachman, or comparable methodologies
- Experience facilitating Architecture Review Boards (ARBs) or governance bodies
- Knowledge of risk management frameworks and regulatory compliance requirements relevant to IT environments
- Good judgment is required for this position as there may be times when direct supervision may not be immediately available
Work Environment:
Remote Role
- This position is classified as remote where the associate will perform remote work from their primary residence. Remote associates are welcome to work from the office but are not required to do so. While remote associates are not required to work from an office on a regular basis, they may be required to come to the office or other UNFI locations for necessary business reasons or if directed to do so by their manager.
Physical Environment/Demands:
Office Roles
- Most work is performed in a temperature-controlled office environment.
- Incumbent may sit for long periods of time at a desk or computer terminal.
- While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.
- Incumbent may use calculators, keyboards, telephones, and other office equipment in the course of a normal workday.
- Stooping, bending, twisting, and reaching may be required in the completion of job duties.
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature of the work performed by the employees assigned to this job. All employees must comply with Company policy and applicable laws. The responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified may vary within each department and/or location.
Compensation: UNFI anticipates paying the above-referenced pay rate (or within the above-referenced pay range) for this position. Actual Pay, where applicable, will depend on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, education, experience, training, and any requirements under applicable collective bargaining agreements. UNFI is committed to transparency in pay in compliance with applicable state and local laws.
Benefits: For Washington positions (or positions that may be performed remotely from Washington), https://www.unfi.com/jobs-more-info-wa.html for Washington-specific paid time off details.
Candidates hired into this position will also be eligible to participate in the following benefits programs: Paid Time Off; Sick Time; paid holidays and parental leave; 401K Program; medical, dental, vision, life, and accidental death/dismemberment insurance; short-term and long-term disability insurance program, Flexible Spending Account and/or Health Savings Account, subject to meeting the eligibility requirements and the terms and conditions of these programs, and subject to any requirements under applicable collective bargaining agreements.
UNFI's compensation, benefits, and paid time off policies are subject to change in the Company's sole discretion, consistent with applicable law. This job posting should not be construed as an offer of employment with certain terms, nor should it be construed as a guaranteed minimum.
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