Principal Enterprise Architect (Data & Customer)

Business Unit: Chief Technology Office (CTO), COO

Salary range: Competitive

Location: UK Hybrid with travel to Newcastle and Glasgow Hub when required

Contract type: Permanent

Be the voice we need. Live a life more Virgin.

Our Team

The Enterprise Architecture function is ‘horizontal’ across the bank, it cuts across all business domains and has an overall objective to transform and set the technology direction for the bank.

Provide technology Thought Leadership to the bank by setting clear direction through the Technology Strategy, Enterprise and Domain Principles, and Reference Architectures.

Enable agility by right-sizing governance with a focus on scalable, secure, resilient design which is aligned to the Strategic principles and patterns.

Drive innovation, simplification, and growth to support VM’s ambitions by enabling key building blocks and supporting simplification of the Technology estate, cost optimisation, and enhancing data use, with a focus on delivery of exceptional Customer and Colleague experience.

Interact with and influence senior management stakeholders across technology and the broader business to ensure changes are governed appropriately and follow the agreed processes, requiring excellent negotiation skills.

Demonstrate strong leadership to ensure that your enterprise architecture domain is clearly defined, is relevant and connected to business needs, is aspiration but realistic and that investments move the technology landscape towards the target architecture.

Empower colleagues to make architectural decisions through coherent, reusable reference materials, early engagement, and ongoing collaboration.

We are looking for Data and Customer Principal Enterprise Architect to champion, drive and embed the strategic architecture for the Bank.

What you’ll be doing

• Providing enterprise architecture experience and knowledge across the bank for your given domain, Data and Customer.
• Providing thought leadership on technology strategy, architectural accelerators, market opportunities, governance and continuous improvements to drive better, more informed decision making.
• Defining and publishing approved technology strategies, principles, reference architectures and roadmaps.
• Developing transformational plans that articulate the sequence and timing of activities required to deliver on the strategic priorities of the business.
• Leading and motivating colleagues through strategic and focussed coaching and development activities in line with the People Leader and Performance Management Framework.
• Being a leader in Enterprise Architecture, proactively inputting into and influencing Technology Strategy, investment decisions, people plans and delivery plans. Providing architecture consultancy and delivering insight to help shape the change agenda.
• Representing Virgin Money externally with partners and suppliers, across the industry, maintaining a network of contacts.

We need you to have

• Significant working experience in enterprise architecture across an enterprise organisation.
• Respect as a highly skilled data and customer technology leader across large enterprise programmes.
• Strong track record in influencing, writing and presenting material for senior stakeholders and executives.
• Experience as a ‘Trusted advisor’ with expertise in both technical and business data architecture supporting business leaders to explore complex change topics that don’t have an obvious starting point and to formulate an answer on how to respond and deliver.
• Strong communication & stakeholder management skills.
• Extensive experience with IT and Business architecture best practices and knowledge of both business and IT strategy.
• Significant IT background across a broad spectrum of modern digital and data technologies.
• Knowledge of Architecture frameworks and approaches.

Red Hot Rewards

• Generous holidays - 38.5 days annual leave (including bank holidays and prorated if part-time) plus the option to buy more.
• Up to five extra paid well-being days per year.
• 20 weeks paid, gender-neutral family leave (52 weeks in total) for expectant parents and those looking to adopt.
• Market-leading pension.
• Free private medical cover, income protection and life assurance.
• Flexible benefits include Cycle to Work, wellness and health assessments, and critical illness.
• And there’s no waiting around, you’ll enjoy these benefits from day one.

Feeling insatiably curious about this role? If we’re lucky to receive a lot of interest, we may close the advert early and would hate you to miss out.

We’re all about helping you Live a Life More Virgin, so happy to talk flexible working with you.

Say hello to Virgin Money

We’re making great strides towards achieving our ambition of becoming the UK’s best digital bank. As a full-service digital bank with a heritage stretching back over 180 years, we’re a workforce to be reckoned with. We’re putting the full power of our experience behind disruptive ideas that reinvent the role a bank plays in people’s lives. We’re customer obsessed and work tirelessly to create positive experiences for our millions of customers and deliver on our purpose, ‘Making You Happier About Money.’ Our customer centric culture means that we’re able to do banking differently and by innovating and working together we can make a real difference. Join us and Live a Life More Virgin that empowers you with choice and flexibility in how you work.

Be yourself at Virgin Money

Our purpose is to make people happier about money, this means seeing and feeling the world as our customers do by creating a workforce that reflects the rich diversity of our customers and communities. We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture where colleagues feel safe and inspired to contribute, speak up and be heard.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we’re committed to removing any obstacles to inclusion. If you need any reasonable adjustments or support making your application, contact our Talent Acquisition team.

Now the legal bit

Living A Life More Virgin allows our colleagues to be based anywhere in the UK (if the role allows it), but we’ll need you to confirm you have the right to work in the UK. If you’re successful in securing a role with us, there are some checks you need to complete before starting. These include credit and criminal record checks and three years' worth of satisfactory references. If the role is part of the Senior Manager Regime and Certification Regime, it requires enhanced pre-employment checks – we’ll ask for six years of regulatory references, and once in the role, you’ll be subject to periodic employment checks.

Advert close date is Friday 4th April.