Chief Enterprise Architect

This is an exciting Chief Enterprise Architecture role at the heart of large-scale transformation. Through pragmatic IT architecture improvement, the Chief Enterprise Architect will support the delivery of our future organization as we look toward several exciting and high-profile transformation projects. Delivering an improved customer experience is at the very heart of the agenda of our substantive IT enabled change and digital transformation programme. The Chief Enterprise Architect will craft the technology vision and strategy and build a team to deliver this.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our IT leadership team and enable a radical improvement in the agility, quality, and responsiveness of the systems landscape at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The Role

• You will build and lead the University's IT architecture practice, managing a team of IT architects in a direct capacity and taking responsibility for the day-to-day running of the enterprise architecture (EA) practice.
• You will define, own and deliver the future technology vision, leading the development of a value proposition and execution of a communication plan for the practice. You will lead, prioritise, and develop the overall enterprise architecture approach for the University, and communicate architectural direction.
• You will assume responsibility for defining the advisory process, EA process, and architecture review and governance, and for leading the integration of such processes. You will promote the business value of EA as an enabler of strategy formulation and as support for technology innovation, which drives the University's top and bottom lines.

The Candidate 

• You will have a deep knowledge of business ecosystems, software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), service-oriented architecture (SOA), application programming interfaces (APIs), open data, microservices, and other existing/emerging technologies.
• With a proactive and solution-oriented approach, you will be organisationally astute, and able to balance the long-term "big picture" and short-term implications of individual decisions and organisation goals.
• With strong leadership skills, you will be a trusted and respected thought leader who can influence and persuade university and IT leaders. Accomplished at working with senior leadership, you will be comfortable ‘pushing back' in a professional and diplomatic manner, thinking, behaving, and acting in an innovative and consultative manner in order to drive the university's digital business strategies.

The University 

Manchester Metropolitan University  is a great university in a city of global significance, with origins tracing back to the Manchester Mechanics Institute and Manchester School of Design, which formed Manchester Polytechnic in 1970. The polytechnic gained University status and became Manchester Metropolitan University in 1992.

Working closely with our city, with businesses, with the community, and with national and international academic peers, we strive to be inventive and creative. We strive to generate great opportunities and empower our students and colleagues to make an impact on our city, our nation and beyond. We are committed to making higher education accessible and beneficial to individuals with the passion and ability to succeed.

With approximately 40,000 students and a global network of 320,000 alumni living in 170 countries, we're proud to be the UK's number 1 sustainable university. 91% of our graduates are employed or in further education approximately 15 months after graduation.