Enterprise Architect

Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni-channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with our colleagues working in stores across several retail fascias in many markets around the world. JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 publicly quoted company since 2019 and continues to grow in the UK and internationally. We want to be the leading global omnichannel retailer in the sports and outdoor industry. To be a part of this successful company and help us to achieve this you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people-led, innovative and customer-focused organisation which provides operational excellence whilst identifying new areas of growth as part of our day to day objectives.

As an Enterprise Architect, you will be a key part of the Architecture function who will build strong relationships with both key business stakeholders and technology leaders to create and deliver an architecture and technology strategy to deliver against key business goals. You will lead the design and implementation of secure, scalable and efficient enterprise-grade systems across the Supply Chain and Merchandising functions, while ensuring alignment with business objectives and industry best practices – as such you will play a vital role in maximising the benefits that innovative technology can bring to the organisation.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Lead complex and technically challenging architectural transformations, co-ordinating between business stakeholders, project teams and technical teams across multiple domains.
• Provide assurance over solution designs to ensure alignment with target architectures, principles and standards while complying with all relevant regulatory requirements (eg. GDPR, PCI-DSS etc).
• Create and maintain target state and interim state architectures – including capability maps and roadmaps for delivery.
• Act as a liaison between technology and business teams ensuring systems align with organisational objectives and deliver measurable business value.
• Regularly review the current state architecture and identify risks and other key areas for improvement along with appropriate solutions.

What We're Looking For:

• A proven track record of leading the implementation of complex systems in an enterprise environment.
• Solid analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to assess business needs and align them with appropriate technical solutions.
• Experience working as a collaborative partner with senior business stakeholders driving technology initiatives that support business objectives.
• Ability to create clear and concise documentation along with architecture diagrams, capability maps, roadmaps and other architectural artefacts.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to adjust style to be appropriate for a wide range of both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Broad technical knowledge across a range of cloud platforms (AWS/GCP), infrastructure, data architecture and modern technologies like event streaming, AI and microservices.

The JD Group is a leading omnichannel retailer of Sports Fashion, Street & Premium Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with over 60,000 colleagues over 3,400 stores across several retail fascias in over 30 markets around the world. We are an equal opportunities employer who embraces and values differences. We recognise the importance of an inclusive workplace culture in which everyone can thrive irrespective of their background or identity. To be a part of this successful and continuously growing company, you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people first, a digital leader and customer focused organisation which provides operational excellence and is continuous with identifying new areas of growth into our day-to-day.

We know our employees work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits:

• Staff Discount on qualifying purchases across Group retail stores and online.
• Discounted Gym membership.
• Personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work.
• Access to Apprenticeships and accredited qualifications.

If you are interested in this position, then press the Apply Now button. Due to the high volumes of applications our opportunities attract, it takes time to review them all. If you don't hear back within two weeks of your application, please consider your application to have been unsuccessful on this occasion. Applications that meet the skills criteria will be contacted for a 1st stage meeting with the talent team. Shortlisted candidates will then be invited to interview with the hiring manager.