Enterprise Architect in Sheffield

Shape the future of Mencap’s technology landscape and help build a more inclusive future for people with a learning disability. At Mencap, we’re on a journey to transform how we use technology so we can deliver even greater impact for the people and families we support. As our Enterprise Architect, you will play a crucial role in shaping this future. This is your opportunity to lead the direction of our technology estate, ensuring it is modern, secure, connected, and ready to support Mencap’s ambitions as we work towards our 2030 strategy.

This role is a full time (37.5 hours per week), permanent role. This role is home based with some travel expected between our London and Peterborough offices.

About the Role

Sitting within our Enterprise Governance function and working closely with the Head of Enterprise Governance, you will be the strategic voice that helps Mencap make confident, future‑focused technology decisions. Your job is to:

• Set the architectural vision: defining the principles, guardrails and standards that shape a coherent, secure and sustainable technology landscape.
• Partner with delivery teams: providing early‑stage guidance, clarifying trade‑offs and helping teams land the right architectural decisions without dictating solutions.
• Strengthen governance: playing an active role in forums such as the Technical Design Authority, ensuring decisions are proportionate, risk‑aware and aligned to strategy.
• Champion simplification and modernisation: identifying opportunities to streamline our platforms, reduce technical debt and promote long‑term sustainability.
• Translate strategy into action: turning organisational and Digital Data and Technology strategy into clear, realistic architectural target states and roadmaps.

This is a highly influential senior role where you’ll shape technology across the whole organisation, enabling us to deliver better services, better insights, and better experiences for the people we support.

The Impact of the Role for Mencap

This role will:

• Help create a future‑proofed technology ecosystem that accelerates modernisation.
• Enable delivery teams to move faster, with greater clarity and with confidence.
• Support compliance, security and resilience across a heavily regulated environment.
• Reduce complexity and cost through intentional architecture and rationalisation.
• Strengthen Mencap’s capability to deliver high‑quality, person‑centred digital services.

This role directly impacts Mencap’s ambition to be a modern, digitally confident organisation that changes more lives, more powerfully, by 2030.

What YOU Will Bring to the Role

We’re looking for someone who can bring a blend of strategic thinking, technical depth and practical judgement. You will:

• Have significant experience in enterprise or senior architecture roles within complex organisations.
• Understand how architecture, data architecture and delivery teams operate best when their responsibilities are clearly separated.
• Be comfortable in agile, product‑led and DevOps environments where teams are empowered.
• Offer broad technical expertise across cloud platforms, SaaS ecosystems, integration patterns, non‑functional requirements and secure, resilient design.
• Be skilled at translating big‑picture strategy into clear architectural guardrails and standards.
• Communicate complex concepts to non‑technical audiences with ease and confidence.
• Constructively challenge proposals that introduce unnecessary risk, complexity or long‑term cost.
• Role‑model inclusive leadership, collaboration and Mencap’s values in every interaction.

If this sounds like you, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Join us in shaping Mencap’s future architecture, drive organisation‑wide transformation, and help build a digital landscape that enables better outcomes for people with a learning disability. Apply now, applications close on 31st March, with interviews to follow shortly afterwards.

Here at Mencap, we offer an impressive range of benefits designed to support and reward our employees to ensure that our teams feel valued and appreciated. Our benefits package offers 32 days of paid holiday (including bank holidays, pro rata), along with a range of perks such as discounts at leading high‑street retailers, access to health cash plans, interest‑free loans, and many more exciting offerings.

About Mencap

Our vision is for the UK to be the best place in the world for people with a learning disability to live happy and healthy lives. We’re here to support people with a learning disability, their families and their carers. We fight for a kinder, fairer and more inclusive society for people with a learning disability to live in. At Mencap, everyone works with people with a learning disability either providing support or advice, or alongside one another as colleagues. Belonging at Mencap is for everyone, every day, everywhere.

• Everyone is expected to treat people well and make Mencap an inclusive organisation.
• Every day we grow and learn. It’s okay to make mistakes but we learn from them and make changes.
• Everywhere people will feel respected, valued, and safe to be themselves.

We have Belonging network groups that meet online and are open to all colleagues. The groups include people who identify as Black and Asian, LGBTQIA+, disabled or with a long-term health condition, women, parents and carers, and their allies. We want to encourage everyone to apply to work at Mencap and we offer a variety of different contract types and working patterns. We’re not looking for specific experience. It is your personality and values that will make you a great colleague. We will train and develop you to succeed in the role you’re applying for.