Head of Enterprise Architecture

Since Aspen was founded in 2002, we have become a leading, diversified specialty insurance and reinsurance company. We respond thoughtfully and creatively to find the best outcomes for our clients and business partners through carefully-tailored solutions. We believe the way we work is just as important as the work we do, and we are guided by our core values of respect, honesty, trust and professionalism. Aspen is a great place to develop your career offering an exciting and challenging environment where achievement is rewarded.

The Role: As Head of Enterprise Architecture, you will report to the Chief Data and Analytics Officer for the management of the architecture and design authority function and oversee definition of and adherence to the architecture strategy. You will also be critical to the decision making across the business to identify, recommend, develop, implement, and support cost-effective business application, integration and data solutions. Our Aspen Values are expected to be reflected in the delivery and performance of every role.

• Strategy and Planning: Contribute to business strategy development and prioritise operational deliverables and activities of team to support delivery of overall business targets. Manage tactical planning and provide support to others to achieve positive results for the business in line with strategy. Work with/mentor enterprise and other architects to develop and maintain current and future state business, application and data architectures. Develop and maintain business capability and technical capability models. Develop and maintain aspirational architecture road maps for the enterprise, covering areas such as architecture principles, capabilities, processes, information models and IT solution landscape. Participate in efforts to redesign or modify the enterprise information architecture as part of, or in coordination with, business improvement initiatives. Build close working relationships with Operations Leadership helping to drive their digitalization journey. Oversight and continuous partnership with Application, infrastructure and analytics leaders on the implementation of the solutions which are driven by your teams designs. Develop, communicate and deploy Architecture and Technology Governance templates and processes. Chair and facilitate our Aspen Architecture Board and the Technology Architecture Forum and take necessary steps to ensure the quality of submissions to these forums. Facilitate the development of a corporate data policy or information management strategy that outlines the appropriate data ownership, stewardship and audit requirements.
• Technical Performance: Support the Application and Engineering Delivery Leads with the design inputs for solutions, security and infrastructure. Oversee architecture activity and deliverables to ensure that the architecture function provides a prompt, high quality service to the rest of the organisation. Participate in all data integration and enterprise information management (EIM) programs and projects. Provide vision and support actions to ensure innovation and competitiveness in terms of products, services, technologies, processes, etc. Ability to appropriately execute code reviews.
• People Management: Line manage through your leadership team the Solution and Data architects. Manage, resource, motivate, develop and focus the team(s) to ensure the required standards of performance. Manage appointment, dismissal, performance management and reward of the team(s). Establish clear accountabilities and authority levels for direct reports and build a strong culture of accountability and performance.

• Extensive experience of working in the Architecture domain with a proven track record of successful support and delivery.
• Significant experience in a decision right on delivery model.
• Proven experience of designing and implementing IT solutions including business applications, integration and data platforms.
• Experience of working with or in a London Market Insurance, Reinsurance or Services organisation.
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of operational IT services and delivery principles.
• Extensive experience in data integration and ETL techniques.
• Extensive experience of the Microsoft database technology stack: SQL Server, T-SQL, SSIS, SSRS.
• Knowledge of a range of different architecture processes and frameworks.
• Familiarity with insurance processes, data and technology.
• Familiarity with cloud technology platforms such as Azure, AWS, Google.
• Understanding of latest market development and innovations within the Global Insurance sector.

At Aspen we know that having a diverse and inclusive workforce is good for our people, good for our business and good for the environments in which we operate. We therefore welcome applications from people which allows us to draw on diverse cultures, perspectives, skills and experiences.