Director, Architecture

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The Director, Architecture is part of a forward-thinking team that leverages innovative technology, data-driven insights, and personalized learning pathways to create a truly life-changing educational experience.  The Director, Architecture will use their proven expertise to drive technology strategy and delivering micro-service and event-based architecture to lead our Solutions Architecture team.  The Director will be a strategic and innovative thinker who can align technology solutions with business goals, drive innovation, and set the vision for long-term technology transformation.  They will play a key role in shaping our technology landscape, leading architecture governance, and collaborating with senior leadership to ensure the architecture supports our business’s strategic objectives. 

The Director will become an expert in the various domains that Ed Tech supports:  Pre (enrollment), Intake, Learn, Assess, and Post (graduation or completion).  This role will be able to delicately balance when and where to dive deep and provide technical guidance versus provide heads-up, strategic leadership.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develops, implements, and evolves an enterprise-wide architecture strategy that supports business agility, operational excellence, and growth.

• Leads the creation of a technology strategy that aligns with business goals and supports the development of scalable, reusable, and robust systems.

• Defines and champions the adoption of SOA principles and standards, ensuring the architecture is modular, flexible, scalable, secure, and capable of quickly supporting new services and business capabilities.

• In partnership with the Head of Enterprise Architecture, establishes and leads the architecture governance framework, ensuring alignment with business objectives and compliance with industry standards.

• Conducts regular architecture reviews to validate technical design, promote best practices, and manage architecture compliance across the organization.

• Collaborates closely with executives, department heads, and technical leaders to guide technology investments and influence long-term technology direction.

• Designs and oversees the implementation of SOA to enable flexible, scalable, and reusable services that enhance interoperability and integration across systems.

• Partners with the Director of Enterprise Services & Innovation to identify and lead the development of core services and ensure effective integration within a distributed systems environment.

• Defines and enforces best practices for API design, data management, and service orchestration, ensuring secure and efficient service delivery.

• Drives technology innovation by identifying and implementing emerging technologies and trends.

• Partners with Product, Engineering, Infrastructure, and Security teams to develop a roadmap that includes modernization initiatives, system upgrades, and technology consolidation.

• Guides enterprise-wide initiatives for digital transformation, including framework adoption, standards enforcement, API management, data analytics, and automation, to increase operational efficiency and business agility.

• Builds, mentors, and manages a team of architects and technical experts, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.

• Leads cross-functional teams in designing and implementing technology solutions that meet both technical and business requirements.

• Collaborates with IT, product, and business teams to ensure alignment and integration of technology initiatives across the enterprise.

• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong people and management skills to interact with staff, colleagues, cross-functional teams, and third parties.

• Ability to drive a culture of quality and personal accountability through development and delivery teams.

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