Enterprise Architect

Enterprise Architect (Contract – Inside IR35)

Contract Type: Inside IR35 Contract

Location: Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh or Bristol (Hybrid Working)

Duration: 6–12 Months Initial Contract

Business Area: CTO – Insurance, Pensions & Investments (IP&I)

Overview

We are seeking an experienced Enterprise Architect to join the CTO Insurance, Pensions & Investments (IP&I) Architecture team, supporting a portfolio of strategic transformation initiatives across Financial Services.

The Enterprise Architect will provide architectural leadership across business and technology domains, developing target-state architectures, shaping solution designs, supporting delivery teams, and ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and governance.

Working within agreed architectural direction, the role will support the development, documentation, and assurance of end-to-end architectures across multiple domains, including applications, integration, cloud, infrastructure, data, security, and emerging technologies.

This is a hands-on architecture role requiring strong technical expertise, excellent stakeholder management skills, and experience operating within large-scale, regulated enterprise environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain enterprise and domain architecture artefacts, including capability maps, target-state architectures, transition-state models, and technology roadmaps.
• Produce architecture decision records (ADRs), solution assessments, and design documentation.
• Shape and assure solution architectures across multiple programmes and workstreams.
• Define architecture patterns, standards, principles, and guardrails aligned to enterprise strategy.
• Support Architecture Review Boards, Design Authorities, and governance processes.
• Identify architectural dependencies, technical risks, and mitigation strategies across business and technology domains.
• Partner with engineering, platform, delivery, security, and data teams to ensure solutions remain aligned to enterprise architecture objectives.
• Support the adoption of modern architectural practices including Architecture as Code, composable architectures, platform engineering, and automation.
• Contribute to future-state technology strategies and emerging technology roadmaps.
• Provide guidance on cloud adoption, integration strategies, resilience, security, and operational readiness.

Required Skills & Experience

Architecture

• Extensive experience operating as an Enterprise Architect within large-scale transformation programmes.
• Strong understanding of Enterprise Architecture frameworks such as TOGAF, ArchiMate, or equivalent.
• Proven experience working across multiple architecture disciplines:
• Enterprise Architecture
• Solution Architecture
• Data Architecture
• Integration Architecture
• Cloud Architecture
• Security Architecture

Technical Expertise

• AWS and/or Microsoft Azure
• Hybrid Cloud Architecture
• API-led Architecture and API Management
• Event-Driven Architecture
• Microservices and Distributed Systems
• Container Platforms (Kubernetes/OpenShift)
• Infrastructure and Hosting Architecture
• DevOps and Platform Engineering
• Security and Identity Architecture
• Resilience, Availability and Disaster Recovery Design
• Architecture as Code and Infrastructure as Code concepts

Financial Services Domain Knowledge

Experience in one or more of:

• Insurance
• Pensions
• Investments & Wealth Management
• Retail Banking
• Payments
• Cards
• Lending
• Capital Markets

Emerging Technologies

Knowledge or experience of:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Agentic AI
• Machine Learning
• Blockchain Technologies
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Stakeholder Engagement

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Experience influencing senior technology and business leaders.
• Ability to work across multiple delivery teams and business domains.
• Comfortable engaging with third-party suppliers and external partners.

Deliverables

• Enterprise Architecture Artefacts
• Future-State and North Star Architectures
• Technology Roadmaps
• Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
• Design Assurance Reviews
• Architecture Governance Submissions
• Risk and Dependency Assessments
• Transition-State Architecture Models

Essential Qualifications

• Proven Enterprise Architecture experience within complex enterprise environments.
• Strong cloud and integration architecture background.
• Experience working within regulated Financial Services organisations.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.

Desirable

• TOGAF Certification
• Cloud Certifications (AWS/Azure)
• Experience implementing Architecture as Code
• Experience supporting AI and emerging technology initiatives