Principal Enterprise Architect

Role Summary

The Principal Enterprise Architect serves as a senior technology leader responsible for establishing and advancing the organization's enterprise architecture vision, strategy, and governance. In partnership with executive business and technology stakeholders, this role drives the alignment of technology investments with enterprise objectives while enabling scalable, secure, and sustainable solutions across the organization.

Reporting to the Enterprise Architecture and Engineering Enablement leadership team, the Principal Enterprise Architect develops architectural frameworks, future-state technology roadmaps, and enterprise standards that guide decision-making across applications, data, integration, platforms, cloud services, security, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies.

Operating within a federated architecture model, this individual collaborates closely with domain architects, engineering teams, platform owners, and business leaders to ensure technology initiatives deliver strategic value while maintaining consistency with enterprise architecture principles. The role requires the ability to balance long-term architectural vision with practical execution, influencing both strategic planning and solution delivery across complex enterprise environments.

The successful candidate will demonstrate exceptional leadership, business acumen, communication skills, and the ability to influence outcomes across organizational boundaries.

Primary Responsibilities

Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Leadership

• Partner with architecture leadership to evolve enterprise architecture frameworks, principles, standards, and strategic roadmaps.
• Establish and maintain architectural direction across business capabilities, application ecosystems, cloud environments, data platforms, integration services, security, AI, and infrastructure domains.
• Define enterprise technology standards, governance approaches, decision models, and future-state architecture objectives.
• Convert strategic business goals into actionable architectural guidance for technology and engineering organizations.
• Foster consistency and alignment across business units, shared technology services, and delivery teams.
• Design and guide enterprise-scale solutions that support both current and future business requirements.

Architecture Transformation & Modernization

• Lead architectural planning and oversight for enterprise-wide transformation initiatives and strategic technology programs.
• Evaluate solution alternatives and recommend approaches that optimize business value, operational efficiency, risk management, scalability, and sustainability.
• Drive modernization efforts through technology simplification, platform consolidation, and reuse of enterprise capabilities.
• Identify opportunities to streamline technology landscapes, reduce complexity, and improve interoperability.
• Support long-range architectural planning that enables organizational growth and innovation.

Architecture Governance & Technology Decision Support

• Contribute to architecture review processes, governance forums, standards committees, and technology evaluation boards.
• Assess strategic technology decisions using established evaluation methodologies and enterprise guidelines.
• Review proposed solutions for alignment with architecture standards, target-state strategies, and compliance requirements.
• Oversee exception management processes, including impact assessments, risk evaluation, mitigation planning, and approval recommendations.
• Provide architectural guidance during high-impact operational incidents when necessary.

Stakeholder Collaboration & Advisory Services

• Work closely with technology leaders, architects, engineering teams, security professionals, data specialists, platform owners, and business stakeholders.
• Facilitate resolution of architectural dependencies, design conflicts, and cross-functional technology challenges.
• Serve as a trusted advisor on technology strategy, investment decisions, and architectural direction.
• Promote consistent interpretation and application of architecture standards throughout the organization.
• Translate enterprise architecture priorities into executable plans for distributed delivery teams.

Security, Risk & Operational Resilience

• Integrate security, privacy, compliance, resiliency, and disaster recovery considerations into architecture recommendations.
• Collaborate with governance, risk, and compliance functions to ensure technology decisions support organizational controls and regulatory obligations.
• Evaluate architectural impacts related to operational stability, business continuity, and highly available environments.
• Advocate for secure, resilient, and sustainable technology solutions.

Talent Development & Architecture Excellence

• Mentor architects and senior technology professionals, supporting their technical and leadership growth.
• Contribute to the evolution of architecture practices, methodologies, and professional communities.
• Support competency development, role frameworks, and quality standards across architecture teams.
• Encourage enterprise-focused thinking, disciplined architectural practices, and effective decision-making.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Minimum 12 years of progressive experience in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, technology strategy, or related leadership roles.
• Extensive knowledge across multiple technology domains, including applications, cloud platforms, integration, data management, AI, security, and enterprise platforms.
• Demonstrated experience leading or supporting large-scale transformation and modernization initiatives.
• Strong background in architecture governance, standards management, future-state planning, and strategic technology assessment.
• Proven ability to influence stakeholders and drive outcomes in matrixed organizations without direct authority.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, and executive presentation skills.

Preferred

• Experience within highly regulated industries such as insurance, healthcare, banking, financial services, or similar sectors.
• Familiarity with organizations that utilize centralized architecture governance alongside decentralized technology delivery.
• Experience with cloud adoption programs, API-led architectures, platform engineering, enterprise integration, and data ecosystem strategies.
• Knowledge of AI-enabled business capabilities, automation technologies, and emerging technology trends.
• Advanced degree and/or industry certifications such as TOGAF, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, SAFe, or comparable credentials.

Core Competencies

• Deep understanding of enterprise architecture frameworks, methodologies, and governance models.
• Broad technical expertise spanning multiple enterprise technology domains and their interdependencies.
• Ability to define future-state architectures and create realistic transition roadmaps.
• Strong business and financial acumen with the ability to relate technology decisions to measurable business outcomes.
• Skilled in evaluating trade-offs across cost, speed, risk, quality, and strategic alignment.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement, negotiation, and consensus-building abilities.
• Effective communicator capable of engaging executive, business, and technical audiences.
• Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and leading through influence in complex enterprise environments.

Compensation: Up to $210,000 annually
Compensation is based on a range of factors that include relevant experience, knowledge, skills, other job-related qualifications.