The Senior Enterprise Solution Architect is a senior individual contributor responsible for the intentional design and evolution of the enterprise technology landscape. This role ensures that technology solutions are strategically aligned to business goals, architected to enterprise standards, and designed for scalability, resilience, and compliance. Operating as a trusted advisor to business and technology leadership, the Senior Enterprise Solution Architect provides architectural direction across initiatives, enables delivery teams by removing technical blockers, and ensures coherence across the enterprise portfolio without direct people management responsibility. Here architecture is treated as a strategic capability, not a review gate.

This role is preferred hybrid in Eatontown, NJ.

What you will do:

Enterprise Architecture & Strategic Alignment

• Research, design and evolve the end0end enterprise architecture in alignment with business strategy and digital transformation goals across our entire business landscape
• Define current0state, target0state, and transition architectures across application, data, integration, infrastructure, and security domains
• Ensures strategic alignment between business objectives and technology investments
• Translate business capabilities, strategic themes, and roadmaps into cohesive architectural direction
• Engage earlier in the demand funnel and participate in discovery, business-case review, nonfunctional requirement definition, and high-level solution option analysis before initiatives enter delivery
• Enables intentional, end0to0end design of the technology portfolio rather than reactive, project0by0project decisions
• Partner with the Chief Digital Officer and peers to shape long0term technology strategy and technology investment priorities

Architecture Standards & Governance

• Establish, maintain, and champion enterprise architectural standards, patterns, and best practices. Provides consistent architectural guidance to delivery teams operating at scale

• Ensure solutions adhere to security, regulatory, and compliance requirements
• Lead architecture design reviews and technical decision forums
• Own architectural approval and refinement support throughout the planning lifecycle, ensuring solutions remain aligned as requirements evolve

• Provide guidance on tradeoffs, risks, and architectural debt. Reduce architectural drift, redundancy, and long0term technical debt
• Ensure major architectural decisions are validated through structured assessments, prototypes, vendor evaluations, or proofs-of-concept when appropriate

Technical Leadership & Delivery Enablement

• Provide hands0on architectural leadership to engineering and delivery teams to remove blockers and accelerate execution
• Provide targeted architectural intervention for strategic or at-risk initiatives when delivery velocity or solution quality is threatened
• Define and champion enterprise architecture patterns across the Microsoft/Azure stack (.NET Core, ASP.NET Core, EF Core, React/Angular/TypeScript, REST/GraphQL, SQL/NoSQL).
• Guide teams through complex solution designs, integrations, and modernization initiatives
• Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Agile, and Platform teams to ensure architecture enables delivery velocity
• Influence solution design without direct authority through expertise, credibility, and collaboration, with an eye to ROI, performance, scalability, and sustainability
• Understands and addresses business needs in context of internal and external factors

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Act as a primary architectural liaison between business leaders, product teams, and engineering
• Facilitate clear communication across teams to resolve architectural dependencies and conflicts, and ensures alignment
• Collaborate as a peer with Engineering Leadership, Product Ownership, Quality Assurance, and Platform Engineering to secure buy-in and drive adoption.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear, business0focused language for executive and non0technical audiences
• Serve as an escalation point for cross0domain architectural decisions

Portfolio Awareness & Continuous Improvement

• Maintain visibility into the enterprise technology portfolio, identifying risks, redundancies, and optimization opportunities
• Drive modernization strategies that improve scalability, resilience, and time0to0market
• Document and socialize architectural decisions, principles, and roadmaps
• Continuously evolve architecture practices to support changing business needs
• Establish and track outcomes tied to architecture adoption, execution effectiveness, reduced delivery friction, and realization of intended business and technology benefits
• Mentor and share applicable knowledge and thought leadership around design principles, best practices, implementation techniques and emerging trends across teams
• Other duties as assigned

What YOU will bring to C&F:

• Strong enterprise0level architectural thinking with the ability to connect strategy, design, and execution
• Proven experience influencing technology direction in complex, distributed environments
• Exceptional collaboration, facilitation, and communication skills
• Ability to operate effectively as a senior individual contributor without direct reports
• Sound judgment, pragmatism, and outcome0focused decision0making

Requirements:

• Bachelor0s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (Master0s preferred)
• 8+ years of experience in architecture, engineering, or senior technical roles
• 5+ years operating as an Enterprise Architect, Principal Architect, or equivalent
• Proven experience working within agile, product0centric delivery models
• Strong background in application architecture, integration patterns, and cloud0based platforms
• Experience in regulated industries (insurance or financial services preferred)

What C&F will bring to YOU:

• Competitive compensation package
• Generous 401K employer match
• Employee Stock Purchase plan with employer matching
• Generous Paid Time Off
• Excellent benefits that go beyond health, dental & vision. Our programs are focused on your whole family0s wellness including your physical, mental and financial wellbeing
• A core C&F tenant is owning your career development so we provide a wealth of ways for you to keep learning, including tuition reimbursement, industry related certifications and professional training to keep you progressing on your chosen path
• A dynamic, ambitious, fun and exciting work environment
• We believe you do well by doing good and want to encourage a spirit of social and community responsibility, matching donation program, volunteer opportunities, and an employee driven corporate giving program that lets you participate and support your community