Enterprise Architect - AI & Digital Platforms

Role Purpose

The Enterprise Architect will be responsible for defining and governing the enterprise technology architecture across Apparel Group, ensuring alignment between business strategy, digital transformation initiatives, and technology investments. The role will serve as a strategic advisor to business and technology leadership, driving modernization, standardization, scalability, and innovation across the Group's retail, e-commerce, supply chain, customer, and corporate functions.

The Enterprise Architect will play a pivotal role in shaping the future-state architecture, enabling omnichannel retail capabilities, AI-driven innovation, enterprise data platforms, and cloud transformation while ensuring architectural governance and long-term sustainability.

Key Responsibilities

1. Define and maintain the Group's Enterprise Architecture strategy, target-state architecture, and multi-year technology roadmap aligned with business objectives and transformation priorities. 
2. Partner with business leaders, transformation teams, and technology stakeholders to translate strategic initiatives into scalable business and technology capabilities. 
3. Establish architecture principles, standards, frameworks, and governance processes to guide technology decision-making across the organization. 
4. Lead architecture reviews for major business initiatives, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards, security requirements, scalability needs, and long-term technology strategy. 
5. Drive application portfolio rationalization by identifying opportunities to consolidate systems, reduce technical debt, eliminate redundancies, and optimize technology investments. 
6. Define enterprise integration architecture and promote API-first, event-driven, and reusable integration patterns across business platforms. 
7. Collaborate with data and analytics teams to establish enterprise data architecture principles, governance frameworks, master data strategies, and AI-ready data foundations. 
8. Partner with digital, omnichannel, and customer experience teams to architect solutions that enhance customer engagement, loyalty, personalization, and retail operations. 
9. Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI, Generative AI, automation, cloud platforms, and intelligent retail solutions, and provide recommendations for adoption and business value realization. 
10. Develop technology reference architectures, capability maps, architecture blueprints, and future-state operating models for key business domains. 
11. Provide architectural leadership and guidance across ERP, POS, e-commerce, supply chain, merchandising, CRM, HR, finance, and corporate systems landscapes. 
12. Work closely with solution architects, product teams, project managers, and vendors to ensure successful implementation of architecture standards and transformation initiatives. 
13. Identify technology risks, architecture gaps, and dependencies, and proactively recommend mitigation plans to support business continuity and scalability.  
14. Drive cloud modernization and enterprise platform transformation initiatives to improve agility, performance, security, and cost optimization. 
15. Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership by providing strategic insights on technology trends, architecture investments, and digital transformation opportunities. 

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field. 
• Master's degree preferred. 
• 12+ years of experience in technology leadership, enterprise architecture, solution architecture, or digital transformation roles. 
• Minimum 5 years of experience in Enterprise Architecture or a senior architecture leadership capacity. 
• Experience in retail, consumer, omnichannel, e-commerce, or large multi-brand organizations is highly preferred. 
• Strong knowledge of enterprise architecture frameworks such as TOGAF. 
• Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP) and modern integration architectures. 
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale transformation programs and enterprise technology modernization initiatives. 

Preferred Expertise

• Retail ERP platforms (SAP S/4HANA, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics) 
• POS and store technology ecosystems 
• E-commerce and omnichannel platforms 
• CRM and loyalty platforms 
• Enterprise integration and API management 
• Data lakehouse and analytics platforms 
• AI, Generative AI, and intelligent automation solutions 
• Enterprise data governance and master data management 
• Supply chain and merchandising systems 

Key Competencies

• Enterprise Architecture & Technology Strategy 
• Business Capability Modeling 
• Digital Transformation Leadership 
• Retail & Omnichannel Domain Knowledge 
• Stakeholder Management & Executive Communication 
• Architecture Governance 
• Innovation & Emerging Technology Evaluation 
• Strategic Planning & Roadmap Development 
• Problem Solving & Decision Making 
• Influencing Without Authority 

Success Measures

• Alignment of technology investments with business strategy 
• Reduction in technology complexity and technical debt 
• Increased platform standardization and reusability 
• Successful delivery of transformation initiatives 
• Improved enterprise scalability, resilience, and agility 
• Adoption of architecture standards and governance practices 
• Enhanced business capabilities through digital and AI-driven solutions