Cloud Integration & DevOps Architect – Strategy Lead in Birmingham

Group Digital is the engine behind internal business and technology services, data, and innovation that power the firm. It ensures secure, resilient, and standardised technology solutions that keep our operations running smoothly and enable colleagues to deliver exceptional client service. By driving our digital strategy, safeguarding against cyber threats, managing data responsibly, and providing tools for seamless collaboration, Group Digital positions the firm for the future. Through innovation and accelerated adoption of digital and AI capabilities, it supports growth and transformation, unlocking value for both colleagues and clients.

The role of the Integration Enterprise Architect is to develop the UK Firm’s integration & DevOps technology strategy, communicate this to the business and translate this into a roadmap that determines our investment priorities and transformation portfolio. The integration strategy needs to be promoted by the business, creating a seamless, end-to-end customer and employee experience by enabling the efficient creation and modification of effective and reusable integration components.

In particular, the strategy should promote the use of modern, Cloud-based technologies; Infrastructure as Code (IaC), support typical integration use cases; create an operating model that satisfies the demands of the business for integration design, development, testing and release; and establish an integration catalogue that supports the reuse of new technologies, whilst targeting legacy integrations for decommissioning.

The Integration & Dev Ops Enterprise Architect should also help to articulate, execute and govern the strategy, by communicating to solution architects and projects to design solutions that are fit for purpose and conform to our standards and patterns. You will need to maintain your core knowledge of integration platforms, wider technology trends and the KPMG technology ecosystem; build integration roadmaps and solutions; and govern relevant technology choices within the Firm.

• Maintain a high level of technical knowledge including current, emerging and future technology market trends and their impact on the business.
• Strong communication and ability to convey technical concepts to business stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain expert knowledge of KPMG's technology ecosystem, including the main applications and technologies that interact with integration technologies.
• If required, provide advice to and/or seek to learn from other Member Firms, client teams and/or clients that are seeking to implement or improve their use of Integration technologies.

• Build and maintain the Integration & DevOps technology roadmaps and architecture for KPMG assets, working with Capability CTOs, and business and technical SMEs where relevant.
• Create and update artefacts using architecture tooling such as ARIS and Alfabet. Ensure that Capability roadmaps are aligned to the integration & cloud strategies, and coherent with those of other Capabilities and technology domain roadmaps.
• Work with Capability CTOs, technical SMEs and specific projects to analyse and translate business requirements into technical requirements, ensuring that these are feasible.
• Ensure that Solution Architects produce designs that are fit for purpose, adhere to relevant standards and patterns, leverage reusable components, and are coherent with wider KPMG technology domains.
• Contribute to the selection of specific integration technologies.
• Influence business and technology stakeholders to adopt the right technology solutions.
• Chairing and running the Data & Integration Design Authority (DIDA).
• Support the design and implementation of operating models that improve the design and delivery of successful integration deployments.
• Escalate risks, issues and critical dependencies to the appropriate leaders as required to ensure the successful delivery of the strategy.

• Help to establish, and participate in, the technology assurance process, building reference models and ensuring that standards, patterns, and reusable components are enforced.
• Ensure that legacy technology is decommissioned to manage and reduce technical debt.
• Support the selection and implementation of enterprise architecture tools that help to accelerate and govern technology initiatives.

• Demonstrable expert knowledge of Azure Integration Services (AIS), including API Management, Logic Apps, Event Grid, Service Bus, Key Vault, and Blob Storage.
• Demonstrable knowledge of DevOps & IaC, including Azure DevOps, GitHub, Terraform, Azure Bicep/ARM, and Azure Policy.
• Knowledge of other leading Cloud-based integration platforms, e.g., AWS Integration Services, MuleSoft, Dell Boomi, Informatica.
• Knowledge of security aspects for integration and cloud.
• Good knowledge of integration and data architectures e.g., API management, service buses, adapters, ETL operations and batch transfers, integration, and data models, etc.
• Creation of Integration Patterns and use of architecture tooling.
• Integration monitoring and alerting, including ticket automation in ServiceNow.
• Significant experience in Integration platform implementation including acting as technical lead, and chairing a design authority.
• Design of complex Integration patterns and reusable components, e.g., based on SSO, JSON, SOAP, XML, SAML, SSL, Web Services, LDAP, JDBC, ODBC, REST, SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) and SFTP.

• Strong written and verbal communication.
• Stakeholder management, including the ability to explain technical concepts to a non-technical audience in a way that is relevant, easy to consume and compelling.
• Experience of working with Agile SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle Management) methods.
• Understanding of common business analysis techniques and approaches.
• A high level of general, technical knowledge including current, emerging and future technology market trends and their impact on business.
• Good understanding of project management concepts, including Gantt charts/plans, risks, assumptions, and dependencies, etc.
• Good interpersonal and leadership skills.
• Ability to leverage networks in KPMG, e.g., to tap into additional expertise if required.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity at the beginning of projects, with ability to provide clarity of direction despite this.

• Good knowledge of Business Architecture, including business and technology strategies, operating models, process models, business and technology capability models and taxonomies.
• Experience of leading offshore teams.
• Practical understanding of GDPR and ISO 27001.
• Qualified in ITIL and TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework).
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification/experience.