Enterprise Architect Lead

Reporting relationships

Reports to: Director Tech

Functional leadership: Process Architect, Technical Domain Architects, SAP Architect, Data Architect and Integration Architect.

The Enterprise Architect Lead provides functional direction across the Architecture team. Direct line-management responsibilities remain with the managers defined in the approved reporting model.

Key responsibilities

Enterprise architecture direction

* Translate business strategy and transformation priorities into clear architecture principles and priorities.
* Maintain an enterprise-wide view of business capabilities, applications, data, integrations and technology platforms.
* Identify duplication, architectural risks, technical debt and opportunities to simplify the landscape.
* Ensure architecture decisions support long-term business value, scalability, security and operational sustainability.

Architecture leadership

* Provide functional leadership and direction to the Process, Technical Domain, SAP, Data and Integration Architects.
* Establish clear responsibilities and ways of working across the Architecture team.
* Align architecture decisions across domains and resolve cross-domain conflicts.
* Ensure architects work towards one enterprise target state rather than optimising individual platforms or projects.
* Support the professional development and capability growth of the architects.

Architecture governance

* Chair the Architecture Board and prepare decisions involving business and technology stakeholders.
* Define pragmatic architecture principles, guardrails and reusable patterns.
* Ensure material architecture decisions, exceptions, risks and dependencies are documented and transparent.
* Escalate decisions with significant business, financial or strategic impact to the appropriate leadership level.
* Keep governance lightweight and focused on enabling delivery rather than creating unnecessary approval steps.

Transformation and delivery support

* Provide architecture direction for strategic initiatives, including SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, the data platform and the integration platform.
* Ensure programme and project architectures align with enterprise target architecture.
* Support early design decisions to reduce rework, avoid unnecessary customisation and prevent fragmented solutions.
* Work closely with delivery teams, solution architects, product teams and external implementation partners.
* Review major solution proposals and ensure exceptions have clear justification, ownership and review dates.

Business and stakeholder collaboration

* Build effective relationships with business leaders, process owners, Tech leadership and delivery teams.
* Explain architecture decisions and trade-offs in clear business language.
* Ensure business stakeholders participate in decisions affecting processes, capabilities and strategic priorities.
* Balance enterprise-wide standardisation with justified business-specific requirements.
* Facilitate decisions when multiple business or technology domains are affected.

Capability and partner management

* Ensure external consultants provide expertise and capacity without taking permanent ownership of the architecture.
* Define clear deliverables and knowledge-transfer expectations for external architecture support.
* Assess internal architecture capabilities and identify development, recruitment or external-support needs.
* Reduce long-term dependency on external partners by building sustainable internal ownership.

Decision authority

The Enterprise Architect Lead is authorised to:

* Define enterprise architecture principles, standards and guardrails.
* Approve architecture decisions that remain within the agreed enterprise direction.
* Request remediation or escalation when solutions do not comply with agreed architecture.
* Convene the Architecture Board for significant cross-domain decisions.
* Recommend architecture investments, capability development and landscape-simplification initiatives.
* Business priorities, investment decisions and material exceptions remain subject to the appropriate business and technology governance.

Required experience

* Significant experience in enterprise, domain or solution architecture, including target architectures and transformation roadmaps.
* Experience with large-scale business and technology transformations.
* Strong understanding of enterprise applications, SAP, data platforms and integration architectures.
* Experience working across business processes, applications and technology domains.
* Proven ability to lead decisions involving multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
* Experience with architecture governance, decision management, implementation partners and consulting organisations.

Key capabilities

* Enterprise-wide and strategic thinking.
* Strong architecture judgement and the ability to make pragmatic trade-offs.
* Ability to connect business strategy, processes, data, applications and technology.
* Clear communication, facilitation and negotiation with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
* Ability to influence without relying on direct reporting authority.
* Strong ownership and the ability to create structure without unnecessary bureaucracy.

Success measures

* A clear enterprise target architecture and realistic transition roadmaps are established and maintained.
* Strategic programmes follow common architecture principles and guardrails.
* Cross-domain decisions are made within agreed timelines, with risks, dependencies and exceptions transparent.
* Application duplication, unnecessary customisation and point-to-point integration decrease over time.
* Internal architects increasingly own decisions initially supported by external consultants.
* Architecture-related rework and late design changes are reduced.