The Head of Enterprise Architecture is accountable for defining, governing, and evolving Dis-Chem’s enterprise architecture to ensure technology investment is coherent, secure, resilient, and aligned to business strategy. The role operates as the enterprise design authority, providing clear architectural direction and fast, decisive governance through a well-run Architecture Review Board (ARB). The focus is on clarity, reuse, and simplification, enabling delivery rather than constraining it.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
- 10+ years’ experience in enterprise or solution architecture roles
- Proven experience operating enterprise-scale architecture governance
- TOGAF certification
Responsibilities
Enterprise Architecture Direction & Coherence
- Define and maintain a clear enterprise architecture vision, principles, and target-state roadmaps across application, data, integration, and infrastructure domains. Ensure architectural direction supports business strategy while reducing fragmentation, duplication, and unmanaged technical debt.
Architecture Governance & Decision Authority (ARB)
- Establish, chair, and govern the Architecture Review Board as the primary forum for architectural Provide clear, timely, and enforceable decisions, patterns, and guardrails. Act as final authority on standards, patterns, and exceptions, with defined escalation to the Group CIO for material risk, cost, or regulatory trade-offs.
Early Enablement & Delivery Alignment
- Embed architecture governance early in initiative shaping, vendor selection, and quarterly planning. Prevent late-stage rework by providing early guidance, clear patterns, and pragmatic guardrails that accelerate delivery rather than delay it.
Simplification, Reuse & Risk Reduction
- Drive standardisation, reuse, and rationalisation across platforms and actively reduce duplication, complexity, and architectural risk while improving long-term sustainability, resilience, and cost efficiency.
Stakeholder Confidence & Influence
- Partner closely with the Group CIO, Platform Heads, Information Security, and business leadership to influence decisions without owning Build confidence through clarity, consistency, and decisiveness in architectural guidance.
Traceability, Transparency & Accountability
- Ensure architecture decisions are documented, traceable, and consumable by delivery teams. Maintain visibility of architectural risks, exceptions, and trade-offs, enabling informed executive decision-making.
Decision Rights
- Final authority on enterprise architecture standards, patterns, and exceptions
- Chair and owner of the Architecture Review Board mandate and operating model
- Escalation authority to the Group CIO for unresolved strategic, risk, or regulatory trade-offs
Competencies
- Broad enterprise technology understanding across platforms, data, integration, and infrastructure
- Strong conceptual, analytical, and decision-making capability
- Ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct delivery ownership
- Governance mindset balanced with delivery pragmatism
- Clear executive communication and facilitation skills
- Lead, coach, and develop Tribes and Chapter Leads and their teams
- Set performance expectations and conduct performance reviews
- Manage team capacity, workload allocation, and capability development
- Support recruitment, succession planning, and organisational design
Key Performance Indicators
- Adoption of architecture standards and approved patterns across platforms
- Reduction in duplication, technical debt, and late-stage architectural rework
- Quality, clarity, and turnaround time of architecture and ARB decisions
- Stakeholder confidence in architecture guidance and governance
- Embed a security-first, secure-by-design culture through awareness, accountability, and leadership engagement
- Contribution to culture and leadership outcomes through employee engagement, values alignment, and leadership behaviours