Director, Portfolio Architect – Data & Analytics Platform Technology in London

Reporting to the Enterprise Architect, this is the 2nd most senior architecture role in a major line of business. An expert in the architecture of a large product group or ecosystem, the Portfolio Architect proactively and holistically guides its evolution and implementation. These solutions collectively enable the future-state business capabilities and drive the organization’s targeted business outcomes.

Accountable for ensuring the future orientation of the ecosystem aligns with and informs the Line of Business Strategy and Enterprise Architecture, this role maintains the target state architecture and roadmap for the product group/ecosystem and guides the work of solution designers in its implementation.

The Portfolio Architects guide and approve designs developed by Solution Architects and bring forward architecturally significant decisions/solutions to the Architecture Review Council for approval. They understand the business strategy, the unit’s enterprise architecture strategy and translate both into system changes required for achievement.

This role collaborates with the Enterprise Architect and Line of Business leaders on the development of the Line of Business IT Strategy. Success in this role requires a strong partnership with the Enterprise Architect and senior business and IT leaders in the Line of Business, and for the incumbent to balance the need for strategic technology advancement with delivery pressures.

The successful candidate will provide technology leadership and innovation focused on the Data and Analytics Platform Technology portfolio. This portfolio develops and maintains the strategy and roadmap for delivering and evangelising state of the art Data and Analytics capabilities that are critical to a successful digital transformation. This is an enterprise level role that will be responsible for the technology strategy, solutioning oversight, and governance to architectural standards.

What you will do:

• Accountable to ensure high quality delivery of leading-edge solutions that meet time and cost requirements that align with business unit (BU) and enterprise architecture principles and design standards.
• Proactively identify areas (i.e. trendspotting) and opportunities to use technology to enhance customer experience and/or organisational efficiency.
• Research and recommend opportunities to leverage technology and keep up with the industry to support the strategy.
• Directs technology research and sponsors line of business (LOB) initiatives (early-stage development/prototype) in support of BU strategy.
• Support development of business strategies by producing Data and Analytics platform capability model, technology roadmaps, architectural standards and patterns to achieve business plans.
• Provides leadership in managing IT risk (e.g.: security, disaster recovery, technology solution quality, etc.) and control requirements.
• Drive a high-performance culture for practitioner Solution Architects and influence this culture within IT.
• Ensure leaders, employees and vendors work together to drive performance and that high expectations are achieved within the values of the organisation.

What you will bring:

• Bachelor Computer Science / Software Engineering or equivalent degree.
• 10+ years of demonstrated experience in IT environments with a preference for significant complexity, highly regulated, and/or financial services.
• 5+ progressive leadership experience related to both projects and teams in Data and Analytics organisation.
• Prior experience working in an Architect capacity and exposure to Architecture governance preferred, TOGAF certification is a plus.
• Expertise in the following domains: Data Integration (Batch and Real Time), Data Storage (Data Warehouse and Data Lake), Master Data Management (MDM), Advanced Analytics (BI and AI/ML).
• Experience with modernising Data and Analytics capabilities using leading Cloud technologies (e.g. Azure, AWS, GCP, Informatica, Snowflake and Databricks).
• Experience in defining Data standards, establishing Data governance and Data lineage and implementing Data masking and tokenisation techniques.
• Familiarity with Data security fundamentals in a Cloud environment and knowing how to safeguard Data in transit and at rest.
• Good understanding of use cases which are appropriate for various technologies e.g. ETL, Event Streaming, Relational Databases or Non-relational Databases.
• Exposure to Strategy/Delivery and having a Product mindset desired.
• Experience with Agile delivery methodologies and maintaining Architecture runways.
• Enthusiasm for hands-on work to support innovative prototypes and guide development teams.
• Knowledge of emerging technology trends (e.g. Data Mesh, Responsible AI, MLOps) and best practices for improving operational efficiency.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain collaborative relationships across multiple geographies and business functions.
• Demonstrate customer centric approach to problem solving, ability to make decisions without escalating to senior leaders, striving for service excellence and outward focus.
• Operational risk expertise related to working in complex shared environments.
• Led or supported business process changes related to technology.
• Experience motivating highly skilled groups of individuals toward teamwork and a common purpose; integrating efforts across units; monitoring and assessing results.
• Relationship-building across multiple geographies, business functions, and degrees of technical knowledge.
• Deep understanding of financial services industry, preferably with insurance experience, a strong asset.
• Strong communication skills with ability to engage independently with different levels of the organisation and tailor communication based on audience (e.g. technology executive, business stakeholder, technical SME).
• Ability to challenge; understanding how to persuade and influence.