Architecture Practice Manager in London

We are seeking an experienced manager to lead our Solution Architecture practice. This role combines hands-on technical design work with leadership, governance, stakeholder management and team line management. You will be accountable for ensuring a coherent, scalable and high-quality architecture across complex, multi-stream initiatives, whilst aligning with European and global direction. You will play a critical role in shaping the long-term technical vision and ensuring that architecture enables business strategy, operational excellence and product innovation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the Solution Architecture Practice
• Lead and evolve the solution architecture practice across the organisation.
• Coordinate project-level solutions to create a single, coherent design for Toyota's connected data services.
• Ensure architecture processes are consistently followed, and outputs are of high and consistent quality.
• Contribute directly to complex, high-risk or strategically important initiatives.
• Establish and maintain policies, principles and practices for the selection and integration of architecture components.
• Technical Governance & Architecture Oversight
• Facilitate and lead technical governance forums including Solution Design Reviews and Architecture Review Boards.
• Ensure architectural decisions are transparent, traceable and aligned with enterprise standards.
• Maintain and continuously improve architecture templates, design artefacts and reusable reference materials.
• Develop and manage a structured architecture repository/library to support consistency and knowledge sharing.
• Strategy, Modelling & Roadmap
• Use modelling techniques (e.g. capability maps, system context models, data flows, integration landscapes) to improve stakeholder understanding of connected systems.
• Identify opportunities to improve performance through enhancements in Technology platforms, Information and data practices, Business processes & Organisational design and operating models.
• Stakeholder & Cross-Entity Architecture Alignment
• Maintain strong working relationships with other Toyota entities across Europe and globally within the architecture domain.
• Ensure EU connected systems integrate coherently into the broader European and global technology landscape.
• Promote collaboration, transparency and shared architectural vision across organisational boundaries.
• Team Line Management & Capability Development
• Provide operational direction, coaching and support to Solution Architects and related roles.
• Set clear quality, performance and capability targets aligned with business goals.
• Monitor individual and team performance, providing regular feedback and development guidance.
• Encourage continuous skill development aligned with both team capability needs and individual career goals.
• Adjust workload and capacity to balance delivery commitments with professional growth.

Here's what we need from you, the skills & experience we consider essential:

• Significant experience in Solution Architecture leadership within complex, distributed systems environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise integration, cloud-native architectures, APIs, data platforms and connected systems.
• Demonstrated experience balancing functional and non-functional requirements in large-scale environments.
• Experience establishing architecture governance frameworks and facilitating review boards.
• Proven ability to manage cross-functional stakeholders at senior levels.
• Experience leading and developing technical teams, including performance management.

Here are the things that would really make you stand out:

• Experience within automotive, IoT, connected vehicle or large-scale data ecosystems.
• Familiarity with global enterprise operating models and multi-entity alignment.
• Experience in a scale-up or high-growth technology organisation.

Leadership Profile:

• Strategic thinker with strong systems-level perspective.
• Pragmatic decision-maker comfortable managing complexity and ambiguity.
• Influential communicator capable of articulating architectural decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong people leader committed to building capability and fostering a high-performance culture.
• Committed to architectural integrity, transparency and continuous improvement.