Enterprise Architect

Overview

Working pattern: Hybrid working between the London head office and home.

As a Partner within the Technology & Change operating model, you will collaborate to drive value for customers and the business.

The Architecture function identifies the technical capabilities required for the Partnership to operate, adapt, and transform.

Reporting to the Enterprise Architect PL5 for Shared Capability, you will be empowered to take ownership of the John Lewis Financial Services (JLFS) technology strategy and navigate the Partnership\'s federated matrix and vendor ecosystem as a visible leader within the JLFS Technology Management community.

Responsibilities

• Design for Impact & Strategy: Architect, design, and support the implementation of sustainable, highly effective technology solutions.

Define architectural intent and technical guardrails (vendor, environmental, security, data, and technology considerations) aligned with the broader enterprise strategy.

• Guide Strategic Investments & Roadmapping: Act as a trusted technology advisor to validate investments, ensure a sound ROI, and own the capability maturity roadmaps for the Technology Reference Model.

Balance short-term benefits (e. g., MVPs and test-and-learns) with long-term strategic capabilities.

• Domain-Driven Design & System

Modeling: Champion Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles, refining enterprise domain models.

Work with Product and business teams to ensure technical boundaries reflect the evolving business landscape and design reusable patterns to accelerate delivery.

• Technology Governance & Risk: Optimise technology design governance balancing Partnership and regulatory requirements, while supporting pace of change and team autonomy.

Pragmatically reduce technical debt and balance technology and information risk.

• Collaborate & Influence

Outcomes: Guide technology outcomes within cross-functional teams, working with internal engineering, third-party SMEs, Product, and Business Partners to align architectural vision with delivery.

• Team Empowerment & Agility: Apply agile principles to empower teams, coach and develop an empowered architecture community, and support recruitment workflows when required.
• Market Insight & Innovation: Leverage internal and external networks to stay ahead of customer needs, market conditions, and emerging tech, feeding insights into enterprise strategy.

Essential skills / experience you’ll need

• Financial
• Services
• Tech

Experience: Direct experience or deep familiarity with the financial services technology domain (JLFS), including regulatory decision processes and compliance frameworks.

• Active Empathy & Culture

Building: Experience fostering mutual respect and psychological safety when navigating complex integrations, shifting team workflows, or managing external SME relationships.

• Team Coaching & Community

Growth: Background in coaching and developing engineering or architecture communities, promoting best practices, and participating in resource planning or talent recruitment.

• Domain-Driven Design (DDD) & Systems

Thinking: Ability to translate business strategies into technical capabilities, define domain boundaries, map domains to system architectures, and design reusable integration patterns.

• Commercial Acumen & Fin

Ops: Financial awareness to evaluate TCO against customer value, with a track record of ROI validation on large technology investments and forecasting vendor demand.

• Agile Roadmapping & Capability Planning: Proficiency in building and maintaining capability maturity roadmaps, balancing MVP delivery with long-term enterprise goals.
• Influence & Collaborative Leadership: Ability to lead through influence, build consensus among stakeholders, empower engineering teams, and collaborate with third-party SMEs.
• Risk, Resiliency & Governance Management: Define and enforce technology guardrails while managing technical debt and improving operational resilience.
• Analytical Capability & Adaptability: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with comfort in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and accurate architectural documentation.

Desirable skills / experience you may have

• Future-Focused Horizon Scanning: Experience benchmarking emerging technologies and applying trends to line-of-business strategies.
• Miscellaneous information
• Closing Date: July 15, 2026
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Job Level: Partnership Level 6
• Location: London Central Office, 1 Drummond Gate, London, SW1V 2QQ
• About the Partnership

We’re the largest employee-owned business in the UK and home of John Lewis and Waitrose.

We’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world.

We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify, and we remain focused on retail excellence.

We encourage flexible working and support work-life balance.

We are committed to ownership, collaboration, and respect.

Some roles may require pre-employment vetting (e. g., DBS checks) and financial probity checks.

We recommend applying early if you are interested.

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