Lead Enterprise Architect

RWE Americas, LLC
To start as soon as possible, full time, permanent

Functional area: IT / Digital
Remuneration: Exempt

In your role as Director, IT/OT Strategy & Portfolio Management – Enterprise Architect, you will play a critical role in shaping and guiding the technological roadmap and architecture of RWE Americas. This requires a visionary approach to structuring and planning IT/OT systems, business processes, data flows, and technologies, ensuring alignment with business strategies and objectives and implementation of technology standards. You will work collaboratively across the organization to ensure seamless integration, optimize technology investments, and foster innovation. You will do this by representing RWE Americas  interest in the Global Architecture Board (GAB), steering the demand management process and prioritizing in-house developed products and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications, while defining technology standards in alignment with business requirements.

Role Responsibilities:

• Architecture Leadership
  • Define RWE Americas  IT/OT technology standards, set up architecture principles and guidelines, and safeguard the implementation of guidelines within the application landscape
  • Taking design decisions on all levels, driving the transition toward DevOps methodologies, while applying management best practices for commercial off-the-shelf applications
  • Create and manage future-state architecture blueprints that enable digital transformation initiatives, operational efficiency, and enterprise scalability
  • Evaluate the enterprise technology portfolio to identify standardization and consolidation opportunities, reduce redundancy, and optimize cost
  • Lead complex enterprise-scale initiatives such as, IT/OT convergence, OT modernization, Data & AI Transformation, etc.
  • Develop and maintain enterprise-wide technology standards, reusable design patterns, and architectural guidelines to ensure consistency and reusability
  • Conduct innovation sensing and competitive benchmarking to inform adoption of innovative solutions, including AI / ML, autonomous operations, etc..
  • Work closely with business departments to understand business needs and provide architectural solutions supporting those requirements (e.g., architecture reviews, business capability mapping)
  • Maintain comprehensive documentation of architectural frameworks, provide regular reports on progress and changes, as well as consultation on creating and updating technical design documents
• Governance
  • Oversee architecture governance processes, including architecture review boards, demand intake committees, compliance audits, and design approval gates
  • Represent enterprise architecture in steering committees, governance forums, and executive strategy sessions to influence funding and investment decisions
  • Align IT/OT technological strategies in collaboration with the Strategy Manager and execute group-level architecture decisions, ensuring all architectural elements support and enhance strategic objectives
  • Steer the demand intake process in collaboration with the Portfolio Manager and the team leads of Digital Solutions, prioritizing in-house developed products and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications
  • Lead RWE Americas Architect guild in partnership business domain Solution Architects to own overall enterprise architecture target roadmap, architectural initiatives, and new software request (NSR) processes
• Organizational Influence
  • Act as the primary architecture advisor to senior leadership and executives, presenting strategic options, technology investment plans, and risk analyses
  • Engage with external vendors and Group IT to influence product roadmaps, negotiate strategic capabilities, pilot POCs, and align solutions with enterprise requirements

Job Requirements and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related field of study
• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related field of study (or equivalent) preferred
• Additional applicable certifications (TOGAF, Zachman) are a strong plus
• Minimum of 11 years of