Enterprise Architect - TA099

1. Supports Formulation of Strategy and Guides Execution

Works with Business and Leadership Stakeholders to Develop Strategy

• Proactively identifies and helps the organization respond to disruptive forces. Understands the business’s economic and financial levers that are susceptible to digital transformation to effectively guide investment decisions.
• Leads the analysis of business and operating models, market trends and the technology industry to determine their potential impact on the enterprise’s business strategy, direction, and architecture.
• Provides perspective on the readiness of the organization to change and innovate through scenario planning techniques, and supports formulation of business strategy.
• Uses planning-driven, design-driven and learning-driven approaches to construct future- and current-state business models.

Connects Strategy to Execution

• Facilitates business and IT alignment, connecting strategy to execution, through a collaborative, supportive and consultative manner, driving the organization’s digital business strategies and balancing innovation and growth.
• Translates and guides execution of business strategy to achieve the organization’s targeted business outcomes by leading the development of an implementation roadmap for the enterprise architecture.
• Constructs technology-enabled business and operating models and provides viable options and visibility into execution issues.

2. Builds and Maintains Relationships

Builds the EA Value Proposition and Structures Business Engagement

• Builds the EA value proposition, contributing to positioning the EA practice as an internal management consultancy, offering services and skills to support the development and execution of business strategy.
• Develops a portfolio of consulting services, designed to meet business and stakeholder needs, and delivers in an agile and time-boxed way.
• Determines the relationship between people, processes, information, technology and other components of the enterprise operating model, and their relationships to one another and to the external environment.

Enables Value-Based Messaging and Manages Cross-Functional Relationships

• Provides consultative advice, adapted to stakeholder context, to business leaders and organizational stakeholders who seek actionable recommendations to make investment decisions about the next business and operating model of their organization, using technology to make that change happen.
• Leads and facilitates interaction with business leaders, product managers and product owners in a business-driven conversation over the risks and implications of the product decision to the line of business, business unit and greater enterprise.
• Leads a collaborative community of architects and works with a strategic committee to guide transformation and resolve any conflicts IT delivery and enterprise business outcomes.

3. Orchestrates the Delivery of Business Outcomes

Develops the Business Architecture

• Positions the EA practice at the intersection of business and IT. Ensures that the EA practice is designed and enabled to formulate, translate and execute business strategy.
• Works with business architects and business leaders to identify key drivers and targeted business outcomes to ensure useful business context.
• Develops diagnostic and action-oriented deliverables that help guide investment decisions in support of executing business strategy.

Brings Alignment Across Business and IT

• Leads analysis of the business’ future-state capabilities and future (and current) IT environment to detect critical gaps and opportunities and recommend solutions for improvement to drive the business towards its targeted outcomes.
• Identifies organizational requirements for the resources, structures and cultural changes necessary to support the enterprise architecture.
• Works with the CIO and IT leaders to find the right EA organizational design to drive business outcomes. This may include being part of fusion teams and supporting federated initiatives.
• Ensures that the EA organizational design process leads to a more efficient and effective business and IT operating model, significantly improved results (e.g., profitability, customer service, internal operations), and EA resources empowered and committed to the integration of business and IT.

4. Facilitates Innovation

Collects, Analyzes, Reviews and Refines Innovations, Trends, Disruptions, Opportunities or Ideas

• Assesses disruptive forces affecting the organization and identifies technology-enabled innovation opportunities that enable business strategy.
• Contextualizes trends based on technological, political, economic, social/cultural, trust/ethics, regulatory/legal, and environmental (TPESTRE) trends to enhance their strategic decision making.
• Scans emerging technologies and the business ecosystem for major disruptive technology and nontechnology trends (trendspotting) that affect business.
• Provides practical advice and best practices to take advantage of new, or emerging, opportunities and successfully deliver the expected business outcomes.

Develops, Tracks and Manages Execution of Innovations, Trends, Disruptions, Opportunities or Ideas

• Details potential competitive threats from digital enterprises that are generally considered outside of your traditional realm of competition.
• Tracks and applies innovative technologies, anchoring them in the business and operating model to assess their potential, and uses agile and lean approaches to evolve and manage innovation.
• Runs pilots to create new products and services and integrate the best of these into steady-state operations for the organization.

5. Plans and Manages the IT Portfolio

Supports Portfolio Modernization and Develops Roadmaps

• Maintains the alignment, integration and coordination of architecture activities across different programs, projects and products as they evolve over time.
• Presents gap analyses and/or IT investment roadmaps that reflect the status of the existing IT landscape, namely, its ability to contribute to future-state business capabilities around ecosystems and digital platforms.
• Leads analysis of the IT environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement.
• Leads the development of an implementation plan for the enterprise architecture based on business requirements and the varying IT strategies for project-driven or product-driven delivery teams.

Supports Solutions Design and Delivery

• Develops and applies minimal viable architectures, which can include a set of standards, reference architecture patterns, principles and guardrails, through the EA governance model, which is informed by the business strategy and corporate governance. Clarifies accountability and provides the focal point for agile, effective and efficient decision making.
• Facilitates a collaborative relationship across architecture community, product management and product delivery teams by providing freedom-in-a-box for decision making, with the minimal viable architecture forming the boundaries of the box.
• Collaborates with delivery teams to ensure consistency with the enterprise architecture, as well as to leverage shared technologies, tools and processes that impact speed to value and time to market.
• Collaborates with infrastructure teams to ensure consistency with the enterprise architecture, as well as to identify when it is necessary to modify the enterprise architecture.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, system analysis or a related study, or equivalent experience.
• Eight or more years of business experience in strategic and operations planning and/or business analysis or experience as an enterprise architecture consultant.
• Eight or more years of experience in at least three disciplines, such as business, information, solution or technical architecture, application development, middleware, information analysis, database management or operations in a multi-tier environment.
• Knowledge of business ecosystems, SaaS, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), SOA, APIs, open data, microservices, event-driven IT and predictive analytics.
• Understanding of business models, operating models, financial models, cost-benefit analysis, budgeting and risk management.
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture tools, related graphical models, and frameworks.
• Insight into information management practices, system development life cycle management, IT services management, agile and lean methodologies, infrastructure and operations, and EA and ITIL frameworks.
• Understanding of various operating models such as project-centric and product-centric and also different types of agile principles, methodologies and frameworks, especially those designed to be scaled at the enterprise level.
• Awareness of existing, new and emerging technologies, and processing environments.
• Effective leadership skills with exceptional soft and interpersonal skills, including teamwork, facilitation and negotiation.
• Strong consulting skills such as targeted communications, engagement management, stakeholder management and business development.
• Mastery of all components of enterprise architecture, business & IT principles and processes.
• Excellent analytical, planning and organizational skills.
• Organizationally savvy, with situational and contextual intelligence of the political climate of the enterprise and how to navigate obstacles and politics.
• Balances the long-term (“big picture”) and short-term implications of individual decisions and organizational goals.
• Estimates the financial impact of EA alternatives and applies in multiple solutions to business problems.
• Rapidly comprehends the functions and capabilities of new technologies.
• Ability to work, behave and act in an innovative consulting manner to drive the organization’s digital business strategies.
• Understands and speaks the language of the business. Excellent written, verbal, communication and presentation skills with the ability to articulate new ideas and concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent interpersonal skills in areas such as teamwork, facilitation and negotiation.
• Strong leadership skills. Skilled at influencing, guiding and facilitating stakeholders and peers with decision making.
• Excellent analytical and technical skills.
• Excellent planning and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work well with others and be respected as a leader.
• Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and IT development teams.
• Technology neutral: remains unbiased toward any specific technology or vendor choice, and is more interested in results than personal preferences.
• Displays intellectual curiosity and integrity.
• Motivated and driven by achieving long-term business outcomes.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment and lead cross-functional teams.
• English is a must.