Director, Head of Strategy and Architecture, Digital Engineering Services and Solutions in London

Do you want your voice heard and your actions to count? Discover your opportunity with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial groups. Across the globe, we’re 150,000 colleagues, striving to make a difference for every client, organization, and community we serve. We stand for our values, building long-term relationships, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world.

With a vision to be the world’s most trusted financial group, it’s part of our culture to put people first, listen to new and diverse ideas and collaborate toward greater innovation, speed and agility. This means investing in talent, technologies, and tools that empower you to own your career. Join MUFG, where being inspired is expected and making a meaningful impact is rewarded.

NUMBER OF DIRECT REPORTS

Between 9 – 15 indirect (dotted line) reports, direct reports TBC.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

The Head of Strategy and Architecture, Digital Engineering Services & Solutions (DES) is responsible for articulating, developing, leading and driving the strategic direction and technical architecture of the Digital Engineering Services & Solutions department. The role will cover Digital Engineering Services & Solutions incorporating Infrastructure and Service Management across EMEA Bank and International Securities and the countries that those entities operate in (15 plus).

The role will be accountable for leading and driving the department’s strategic plans ensuring alignment and integration with MUFG’s strategic goals, including Medium Term Business Plans (MTBP) across the Business and Technology. The role will establish and design robust technical roadmaps to support a drive and transformation to a modern and digital technology architecture across the department, working closely with the various functions in the department to define a path to reach business needs.

To enable this the role holder will have proven capability of designing modern, digital architecture and strategy fit for immediate and future technology advancements. The Head of Strategy and Architecture, Digital Engineering Services and Solutions will play a pivotal role in driving transformation, identifying emerging technologies and leveraging them to gain competitive advantage. The role holder will have extensive proven experience of establishing, creating and driving delivery of strategic digital transformation in global organisations.

The role holder will have indirect leadership of a team of Strategy and Architect leads, fostering a culture of technical enterprise architectural and engineering excellence. The role holder will have proven experience of leading and influencing both directly and indirectly in global organisations. This is a senior leadership position and an integral part of the Digital Engineering Solutions and Services Leadership team. The role will require proven experience of influencing and communicating with C level and Board level executives.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the design, development, operation and management of the departments strategy and architectural roadmaps ensuring alignment with business requirements and strategic goals.
• Develop the departments short, medium and long term strategic goals and objectives, including defining the vision and mission.
• Collaborate with business units, operational teams, application owners and enterprise architecture to shape, document and execute the Digital Engineering Services and Solutions department strategy.
• Maintain a clear architecture vision for the Digital Engineering Services and Solutions department that represents the 3 – 5 year roadmap for the department and organisation highlighting the key milestones required to achieve this.
• Articulate and align Senior Stakeholders on the department’s strategic direction, communicating progress towards the milestones.
• Develop appropriate strategic measures to monitor progress against the strategic objectives ensuring they are visible to relevant stakeholders.
• Establish clear measurable goals aligned with the strategy to analyse department progress and KPI’S.
• Champion adoption of the department’s strategic roadmaps across the business.
• Continuously review the department’s strategy to ensure its validity and appropriateness for MUFG to achieve its business goals. Identifying opportunities to develop and refine the departments strategy.
• Work with Digital Engineering Services and Solution Pillar Leads to define roadmaps and feed into the wider department’s strategy.
• Contribute to and align with the Enterprise Architecture.
• Represent Digital Engineering Services and Solutions department at the Architectural Review Board with authority to approve designs on the department’s behalf.
• Lead a team of Strategy Leads and Architects to provide technical strategy and roadmaps on behalf of Digital Engineering Services and Solutions to shape the departments landscape.
• Regularly assessing and improving the departments technology landscape, including identifying opportunities for innovation and optimisation.
• Interpret relevant regulatory, requirements and security, design and technical best practices and translate these to business aligned Digital Engineering requirements.
• Work closely with industry partners, vendors and the wider technology ecosystems to leverage external expertise and best practices.
• Conduct market research and competitive analysis to identify emerging technologies and trends.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential:

• 10 years plus in technology strategy definition and business case development. Experience in applying strategic frameworks and tools for analysing strategic problems and developing strategies.
• Extensive experience in Senior Strategy within Technology, Infrastructure and Operations (Service Management). (10 years plus)
• Proven capability of designing modern, digital architecture and strategy fit for immediate and future technology advancements.
• Extensive proven experience of establishing, creating and driving delivery of strategic digital transformation in global organisations.
• Proven experience in developing and implementing long term technology strategy and roadmaps specifically around Operations (Service Management) and Infrastructure that aligns with business goals.
• Proven track record of collaborating with senior stakeholders and influencing at C-Suite level to develop and gain support for a clear and compelling Technological vision, strategy and roadmap (10 years plus).
• Strong strategic thinking and visionary skills with the ability to co-develop and drive the department’s technical vision, strategy and roadmap development aligned with the company’s overall business strategy and translate actionable strategic plans.
• Extensive experience in IT strategy and enterprise architecture frameworks and tools. (10 years plus)
• Extensive experience of strategic management with executive leadership.
• Proven experience of directly managing a Team of Strategy Leads and Architects leading the development of the team and driving the service forward (10 years plus).
• Proven ability in identifying and solving complex technical problems, translating technical issues into non-technical terms and providing clear strategic direction to teams.
• Experience working on complex digital transformation programmes; working and presenting across different levels of architecture abstraction; and working with multi-disciplinary teams.

EDUCATION / QUALIFICATIONS/ TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

Functional / Technical Competencies:

• Deep knowledge of Financial Services technologies, including Cloud, Platforms, Telecommunications & Networks, Digital Workplace, Data Management and Artificial Intelligence including GenAI.
• Proven experience in enterprise architecture, IT Strategy and IT Transformation at scale.
• Strong understanding of business models, operational processes and the application of technology to drive transformation.
• Setting roadmap, KPIs.
• Experience of working and delivering strategy within agile environment and product and platform models.

Education / Qualifications:

• Industry technology strategy qualification.
• Industry technology strategy certifications like ITIL 4 Strategic Leader or the Professional Certificate in IT Strategy and Planning.
• Certified in TOGAF, SAFe, and/or AWS/Azure/GCP and other enterprise platforms.
• Familiarity with applying key frameworks such as APQC Process Classification Framework, Zachman Framework, ITIL and Scaled Agile Framework.
• Excellent general knowledge of IT Infrastructure (hardware, software, database, networking and cloud technologies) and Technology Operations (Service Management).

PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Exceptional written competency and communication skills.
• Excellent analytical, strategic planning and problem solving skills.
• Strong leadership and people management skills, able to inspire and lead high performing teams.
• A calm approach, with the ability to perform well in a pressurised environment.
• Ability to drive and lead strategically.
• Results driven with a strong sense of accountability for delivery.
• Customer centric mindset.
• Creative and innovative approach and advantage.
• A proactive, motivated approach.

We are open to considering flexible working requests in line with organisational requirements. MUFG is committed to embracing diversity and building an inclusive culture where all employees are valued, respected and their opinions count. We support the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion in recruitment and employment, and oppose all forms of discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender reassignment, religion or belief and marriage or civil partnership. We make our recruitment decisions in a non-discriminatory manner in accordance with our commitment to identifying the right skills for the right role and our obligations under the law.