Enterprise Architecture, director in East London

This is a pivotal role in shaping our data landscape, ensuring alignment with business objectives, and driving innovation through effective data management practices. You will lead a team of skilled data architects, collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders, and define the strategic direction for data initiatives.

What you will do:

• Data Strategy Development: Develop and articulate a comprehensive data strategy that aligns with the organisation's vision, mission, and long-term goals. Collaborate with senior leadership, including the Chief Data Officer (CDO), to define data-related priorities and roadmaps. Understand disruptive forces and the business's economic & financial levers that affect transformation, to effectively guide technology investment decisions. Facilitate business and IT alignment through a collaborative, supportive and consultative manner. Formulate, translate, advocate and support strategy to achieve the organisation's targeted business outcomes. Lead the analysis of business and operating models, market trends and the technology industry to determine their potential impact on the enterprise's business strategy, direction and architecture. Provide perspective on the readiness of the organisation to change and innovate.
• Data Architecture Leadership: Own and drive the future state data architecture, ensuring scalability, flexibility, and adherence to industry best practices. Establish and maintain data architecture standards, guidelines, and principles across the organisation. Work closely with technology teams to implement architectural changes and enhancements.
• Data Modeling and Design: Ensure that data modeling (conceptual, logical, physical) is of high quality and consistency. Lead the development and maintenance of logical data models (LDMs) and associated physical models. Collaborate with development teams to ensure understanding and adherence to architectural and modeling standards.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Partner with the Data Management team to drive the group's data strategy. Collaborate with business units to extract greater value from data assets. Engage with key stakeholders to identify technical opportunities for enhancing data product delivery. Provide consultative advice to business leaders and organisational stakeholders with actionable recommendations to make investment decisions about the next business and operating model of their organisation, using technology to make that change happen. Lead and facilitate interaction with business leaders, product managers and product owners in a business-driven conversation over the risks and implications of product decisions.
• Plan and Manage the IT Portfolio: Work closely with the project management office (PMO) to ensure the execution of plans corresponds with the promised outcomes throughout the project or product lifecycle. Present gap analysis and/or IT investment roadmaps that reflect the status of the existing data estate. Lead analysis of the data environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement. Lead the development of an implementation plan for the architecture based on business requirements and the varying IT strategies.
• Team Leadership: Build and lead a federated team of Data Architects within the function and across the organisation. Guide and mentor team members, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous learning.
• Quality Assurance: Ensure the quality of data designs proposed by the team. Uphold data management principles and best practices.
• Future-Proofing: Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and regulatory changes related to data management. Contribute to the organisation's data architecture vision. Facilitate Innovation. Scan for major disruptive technology and non-technology trends (trendspotting) that affect business. Contextualise technology trends based on social, economic, political and other non-technology trends. Identify technology-enabled innovation opportunities that enable business strategy and deliver expected business outcomes.

What we're looking for:

• Masters or bachelor's degree in business, computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, system analysis or a related field of study, or equivalent experience.
• Ten or more years of experience in data architecture with a proven track record of designing and implementing complex data solutions.
• Ten or more years of business experience in strategic and operations planning and/or business analysis.
• Certifications required: TOGAF, Certified Architect (CA), Zachmann, SAFE agile.

Skills:

• Knowledge of business ecosystems, SaaS, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), SOA, APIs, open data, microservices, event-driven IT and predictive analytics.
• Familiarity with information management practices, system development life cycle management, IT services management, agile and lean methodologies, infrastructure and operations, and EA and ITIL frameworks.
• Proficiency with data warehousing solutions (e.g., Google BigQuery, Snowflake).
• Expertise in data modeling tools and techniques (e.g., SAP PowerDesigner, EA Sparx).
• Strong knowledge of SQL and NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra).
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
• Experience with data integration and ETL tools (e.g., Talend, Informatica).
• Excellent analytical and technical skills.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills.
• Knowledge of all components of holistic enterprise architecture.

What we offer:

Colt is a growing business that is investing in its people. We offer skill development, learning pathways and accreditation to help our people perform at their best, regardless of role and location. In addition to offering competitive salaries and incentive plans, a range of benefits and local rewards packages are offered to staff. Colt recognises the importance of a work-life balance. Some benefit examples are:

• Flexible working and relaxed dress code
• Two days annually to spend on volunteering opportunities
• Access to Online-learning Platform
• Business mentoring
• Option of parking slots in the Colt Campus
• Lunch vouchers