Principal Domain Architect - People & Resourcing in Birmingham

Location: Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Reading

Capability: Corporate Services

Experience Level: Senior Manager

Type: Full Time or Part Time

Business Area: Technology

Contract type: Permanent

Joining KPMG means joining a talented team of exceptional colleagues who bring innovative thoughts and a natural curiosity to the work they do each day. No one type of person succeeds at KPMG; a diverse business requires diverse personalities, characters, and perspectives. There really is a place for you here.

The People and Resourcing Enterprise Architect will develop the UK Firm’s technology strategy for the people and resourcing domain and translate it into a coherent roadmap that guides investment priorities and the transformation portfolio. The role will promote a seamless end-to-end experience across the employee lifecycle, including workforce planning, talent attraction, recruitment, onboarding, learning, performance, reward, mobility, resource management and offboarding. It will shape modern, cloud-based and data-led capabilities, promote reusable technology components and integration patterns, and establish operating models that support effective design, delivery, testing, release and continuous improvement.

The role will also govern standards and patterns, identify opportunities to simplify and decommission legacy technology, and guide solution architects and delivery teams so that solutions are fit for purpose and aligned with KPMG architecture standards. You will need to maintain your core knowledge of HR platforms, people and resourcing capabilities, wider technology trends and the KPMG technology ecosystem; build HR and people technology roadmaps and solutions; and govern relevant technology choices within the Firm. You will ensure that technology decisions improve employee experience, workforce effectiveness, data quality, interoperability, resilience and business value.

Core knowledge

• Maintain a high level of technical knowledge, including current, emerging and future technology market trends and their impact on the business.
• Maintain expert knowledge of HR platforms and people and resourcing capabilities, including workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, learning, performance, reward, talent, mobility, resource management, employee engagement and offboarding.
• Develop and maintain expert knowledge of KPMG’s technology ecosystem, including the main applications, data sources, identity services, reporting tools, platforms, technologies and integration patterns that interact with and support HR and people technologies.
• Provide architectural leadership across business, application, data, integration, security, cloud and technology portfolio architecture for the people and resourcing domain.
• Promote standardisation, reuse, interoperability, upgradeability, common data models and effective management of technical debt.
• Where required, provide advice to, and learn from, other Member Firms, client teams and clients seeking to implement or improve their use of HR applications and people and resourcing capabilities.
• Maintain awareness of emerging workforce, HR technology, AI and automation trends and assess their relevance, business value, ethical implications and implementation requirements for KPMG.

Roadmaps and Solutions

• Help to establish and participate in the technology assurance process, building reference models, architecture standards, design patterns and reusable components and ensuring that they are enforced and consistently applied.
• Chair or support design authorities where required.
• Ensure that legacy technology is decommissioned to manage and reduce technical debt, including identifying opportunities to simplify the application landscape and consolidate overlapping capabilities.
• Ensure architecture decisions address privacy, security, accessibility, responsible AI, records management, data residency and regulatory obligations.
• Support the selection and implementation of enterprise architecture tools that help to accelerate and govern technology initiatives and document capabilities, applications, data, roadmaps, risks, dependencies and decisions.
• Expert knowledge of SAP SuccessFactors, including Employee Central, Recruiting, Compensation, Learning and Performance, and SuccessFactors Integration Centre.
• Understanding of SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud, Qualtrics and OpenText.
• Good knowledge of HR processes, including attraction and engagement, assessment and selection, offer management and onboarding, and performance and succession management.
• Significant experience in HR platform implementation.
• Experience designing complex integrations between HR platforms and other enterprise solutions using technologies and standards such as SSO, JSON, SOAP, XML, SAML, SSL, web services, LDAP, JDBC, ODBC, REST, SAP Cloud Platform and SFTP.

Essential — People and Resourcing Enterprise Architecture

• Strong knowledge of the people and resourcing lifecycle, including workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, learning, performance, reward, talent, mobility, resource management, employee engagement and offboarding.
• Expert knowledge of enterprise architecture across business, application, data, integration, security, cloud and technology portfolio domains.
• Significant experience shaping and assuring complex people technology solutions, including experience acting as an enterprise, solution, technical or platform architecture lead.
• Experience developing people technology strategies, target architectures and roadmaps aligned with business and workforce priorities.
• Strong understanding of workforce data architecture, master data, data quality, reporting, analytics, privacy and security.
• Good understanding of architecture governance, including design review, security and privacy assessment, service acceptance, upgradeability and release governance.
• Good understanding of architectural risk, technical debt and legacy decommissioning.
• Experience assessing cloud, automation and AI capabilities for people and resourcing use cases, including responsible AI and appropriate human oversight.

Essential — Other

• Experience working with Agile software development lifecycle methods.
• Understanding of common business analysis techniques and approaches.
• Ability to explain technical concepts to a non-technical audience in a relevant, accessible and compelling way.
• 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 and plans, risks, assumptions and dependencies.
• Good oral and written communication skills.
• Good interpersonal and leadership skills.
• Ability to leverage KPMG networks to access additional expertise where required.
• Comfort working with ambiguity at the beginning of projects, with the ability to provide clarity of direction.
• Ability to collaborate across business, technology, data, security, risk, legal and people functions.
• Relevant enterprise architecture, technology strategy or architecture governance qualifications, or demonstrable equivalent experience.
• Good knowledge of ServiceNow HR.
• Good knowledge of other HR applications, such as Amberjack.
• Good knowledge of business architecture, including business and technology strategies, operating models, process models, business and technology capability models and taxonomies.
• Good knowledge and experience of modelling languages, including UML, ArchiMate and BPMN.
• Experience using enterprise architecture tooling, preferably Software AG Alfabet.
• Experience leading offshore or matrix teams.
• Practical understanding of GDPR, ISO 27001, accessibility and responsible AI principles.

Corporate Services operates as a £multi-million business within our business and, through our combined efforts, we enable the firm to serve our people, our clients and wider society. The internal expertise, advice, support and services we provide to our client-facing business are fundamental to the success of our firm. Through collaboration, agility, fresh thinking and innovation, we help our people across the firm to work in a way that’s smarter and more sustainable.

We’re a cross-functional team, bringing together technically knowledgeable experts across a wide range of critical activities to help grow, run and protect our business. Our areas span Corporate Affairs and Marketing, Digital, Finance and Commercial, People and Resourcing, and Risk and Legal. Digital is the firm's primary provider of internal business and technology services, data, and innovation. We deliver secure, resilient, and standardised technology solutions that ensure our operations run seamlessly and empower colleagues to provide exceptional client service.

Our mission is to propel KPMG into the future. We drive our digital strategy, safeguard against cyber threats, manage data responsibly, and provide cutting-edge tools for seamless collaboration. Through innovation and accelerated adoption of digital and AI capabilities, we support growth and transformation, unlocking significant value for both our colleagues and clients.

With offices across the UK, we are part of a global network of firms providing Audit, Tax & Law, Consulting, and Technology Services to diverse clients. They provide us with a strong sense of identity, ensuring we can grow stronger. They bind us together, across our different backgrounds and cultures, and are common to each of us.

Explore more about why Our Values matter. From role sharing and flexible start and finish times to home working, we'll try and support the flexible work patterns that best suit you. We’re committed to creating an inclusive environment where all colleagues thrive and reach their full potential, whatever their identity or background. We're a member of the Business Disability Forum so please get in touch if you'd like to discuss any adjustments that you might need in the application process - and if you are successful beyond this. We're a recognised leader in the Government's scheme. We offer a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for all experienced professional opportunities.