Enterprise Architect Lead

Job Location: hybrid in Bucharest

Recruitment process:

• HR screening
• 2 X Technical Discussion

Role purpose

The role ensures that business processes, applications, SAP, data, integration and technology platforms evolve as one coherent landscape.

The role provides permanent architecture ownership, supports the major transformation programmes and ensures that architecture remains actively managed after individual implementations are completed.

Reporting relationships

Reports to: Director Tech

Functional leadership: Process Architect, Technical Domain Architects, SAP Architect, Data Architect and Integration Architect.

The Enterprise Architect Lead provides functional direction across the Architecture team. Direct line-management responsibilities remain with the managers defined in the approved reporting model.

Key responsibilities

Enterprise architecture direction

• Translate business strategy and transformation priorities into clear architecture principles and priorities.
• Maintain an enterprise-wide view of business capabilities, applications, data, integrations and technology platforms.
• Identify duplication, architectural risks, technical debt and opportunities to simplify the landscape.
• Ensure architecture decisions support long-term business value, scalability, security and operational sustainability.

Architecture leadership

• Provide functional leadership and direction to the Process, Technical Domain, SAP, Data and Integration Architects.
• Establish clear responsibilities and ways of working across the Architecture team.
• Align architecture decisions across domains and resolve cross-domain conflicts.
• Ensure architects work towards one enterprise target state rather than optimising individual platforms or projects.
• Support the professional development and capability growth of the architects.

Architecture governance

• Chair the Architecture Board and prepare decisions involving business and technology stakeholders.
• Define pragmatic architecture principles, guardrails and reusable patterns.
• Ensure material architecture decisions, exceptions, risks and dependencies are documented and transparent.
• Escalate decisions with significant business, financial or strategic impact to the appropriate leadership level.
• Keep governance lightweight and focused on enabling delivery rather than creating unnecessary approval steps.

Transformation and delivery support

• Provide architecture direction for strategic initiatives, including SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, the data platform and the integration platform.
• Ensure programme and project architectures align with enterprise target architecture.
• Support early design decisions to reduce rework, avoid unnecessary customisation and prevent fragmented solutions.
• Work closely with delivery teams, solution architects, product teams and external implementation partners.
• Review major solution proposals and ensure exceptions have clear justification, ownership and review dates.

Business and stakeholder collaboration

• Build effective relationships with business leaders, process owners, Tech leadership and delivery teams.
• Explain architecture decisions and trade-offs in clear business language.
• Ensure business stakeholders participate in decisions affecting processes, capabilities and strategic priorities.
• Balance enterprise-wide standardisation with justified business-specific requirements.
• Facilitate decisions when multiple business or technology domains are affected.

Capability and partner management

• Ensure external consultants provide expertise and capacity without taking permanent ownership of the architecture.
• Define clear deliverables and knowledge-transfer expectations for external architecture support.
• Assess internal architecture capabilities and identify development, recruitment or external-support needs.
• Reduce long-term dependency on external partners by building sustainable internal ownership.

Decision authority

The Enterprise Architect Lead is authorised to:

• Define enterprise architecture principles, standards and guardrails.
• Approve architecture decisions that remain within the agreed enterprise direction.
• Request remediation or escalation when solutions do not comply with agreed architecture.
• Convene the Architecture Board for significant cross-domain decisions.
• Recommend architecture investments, capability development and landscape-simplification initiatives.
• Business priorities, investment decisions and material exceptions remain subject to the appropriate business and technology governance.

Required experience

• Significant experience in enterprise, domain or solution architecture, including target architectures and transformation roadmaps.
• Experience with large-scale business and technology transformations.
• Strong understanding of enterprise applications, SAP, data platforms and integration architectures.
• Experience working across business processes, applications and technology domains.
• Proven ability to lead decisions involving multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
• Experience with architecture governance, decision management, implementation partners and consulting organisations.

Key capabilities

• Enterprise-wide and strategic thinking.
• Strong architecture judgement and the ability to make pragmatic trade-offs.
• Ability to connect business strategy, processes, data, applications and technology.
• Clear communication, facilitation and negotiation with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to influence without relying on direct reporting authority.
• Strong ownership and the ability to create structure without unnecessary bureaucracy.

Success measures

• A clear enterprise target architecture and realistic transition roadmaps are established and maintained.
• Strategic programmes follow common architecture principles and guardrails.
• Cross-domain decisions are made within agreed timelines, with risks, dependencies and exceptions transparent.
• Application duplication, unnecessary customisation and point-to-point integration decrease over time.
• Internal architects increasingly own decisions initially supported by external consultants.
• Architecture-related rework and late design changes are reduced.