Our Latest Vacancies

Chief Architect - IT

£65,000 - £75,000
Surrey
SG/15982

Redhill, RH1

£65,000 - £75,000 basic salary

Performance related bonus (between 10% - 18%), generous financial services pension scheme, BUPA, 30 days holiday and lots more.

 

Our client, is a large Retail and Commercial Bank based in the UK who operate globally working across current accounts, Credit Cards, Insurance, Loans, Mortgages and Savings and Investments.  They are looking for an experienced IT Chief Architect to report directly into the CIO, to be responsible for the design, creation, maintenance and management of IT architecture models and their lower level components.

 

The Chief Architect is required to maintain up-to-date documentation/schematics of the technology estate suitable for consumption and discussion with all levels of stakeholder from Director through technologist.

 

The Chief Architect is expected to continually ensure value, security and quality from the IT assets whilst proactively avoiding technology obsolescence and risk. The Chief Architect should ensure that the respective business, application, data and technology perspectives are all in line with the organisation’s technology and governance strategies, policies and standards.

 

Chief Architect – Primary Responsibilities:

 

Recommend, implement and maintain activities related to the design and continual improvement of the technology estate:

  • IT/technology architecture models
  • Mapping of services to individual hardware components at a Configuration Item level

 

Manage the local IT/technology architecture activities to ensure:

  • Adherence to Group standards
  • Proactive identification and resolution of technology obsolescence and risk
  • Simplicity and security by designs
  • The best value-based decision making
  • The business is not constrained by technology
  • Relevant emerging technology advances are always considered
  • Research overall IT solutions on the market for particular technical requirements and business needs
  • Support the CIO in the creation and maintenance of an IT Strategy that aligns and underpins the business goals and objectives in a sustainable and cost-effective way
  • Conduct and/or actively participate in meetings related to potential technology solutions with stakeholders and/or supplier partners
  • Collaborate with all relevant parties in order to review the objectives and constraints of each solution and determine the optimal one from a technology perspective
  • Define the technology solution at a high level, brokering Group approval where required
  • Identify implementation risks and analyse potential impact on the enterprise and on the achievement of defined business objectives

 

Chief Architect – Candidate Competencies:

 

  • Demonstrable experience of, and a willingness to, work at all levels of the architecture spectrum (enterprise, solutions and technical) and in all of the modelling levels (business, application, data and technology)
  • A broad understanding of current and emerging technologies and their relative application in solving business problems (e.g. Cloud, AI, robotics, programming languages, storage management, networks, web-based services, IT infrastructure, IT application methodology and tools, information consumer, provider and brokering applications)
  • Practical experience of adapting and implementing architecture disciplines using good practice processes, such as TOGAF, adapted to meet the needs of the organisation
  • Demonstrable and solid experience of programme, project, data, change and value management
  • Excellent understanding of asset management, service level agreements and migration planning

 

Experience Required:

 

  • Three years’ practical experience in a similar role with demonstrable experience of successfully delivering IT architecture practices that support business goals
  • Proven experience and ability in dealing with staff at all levels of a similar sized organisation or larger
  • Excellent written and verbal communications skills
  • Excellent emotional intelligence, influencing and collaboration skills
  • Have previously worked in a formal structured environment such as financial services, insurance or similar regulated industry
  • Demonstrated initiative and commitment for results and the ability to set priorities and manage multiple initiatives
  • Ability to adjust to changing priorities while multitasking effectively
  • Solid work ethic with attention to detail and commitment to results
  • Flexible and adaptable; able to work in ambiguous situations
  • Confident and effective problem solver and decision maker
  • Previous experience working in a complex IT environment comprising of both internal and external IT providers with shared Group company infrastructure and services
  • Good with numbers and able to build solid business cases with defined return on investment
  • Desirable qualifications: TOGAF 9 (or equivalent) Foundation or Certified, PRINCE 2, ITIL

 

In return, our client can offer outstanding career opportunity, a generous basic salary as well as a competitive benefits package which includes a performance related bonus of between 10% - 18%, a good pension scheme, life assurance, share options and lots more!

 

Sound interesting? Apply today or call 01883 330336 for a confidential discussion.

 

Due to the large numbers of responses we receive, despite our best efforts it is not possible to respond to every application. Therefore only short-listed candidates will be contacted for this particular role and if you haven’t heard from us within 7 days please assume you have been unsuccessful on this occasion. Please feel free however to apply for further roles and we will certainly keep your details on file and contact you with suitable vacancies. YourRecruit Ltd does not discriminate on the grounds of age, race, gender or disability and complies with all relevant UK legislation.