Enterprise Architect (chicago)

A large retail company is seeking an Enterprise Architect to spearhead the establishment and leadership of the Enterprise Community of Practice (ECOP) within the Architecture Governance workstream of the Enterprise Architecture practice. This role will lead the crowdsourcing of Enterprise Architecture Standards, Practices, Guidelines, Decision Trees, and Guardrails through collaborative efforts, fostering innovation and alignment with the company’s business objectives while shaping a scalable, agile, and sustainable IT architecture framework. This is a hybrid role with 3 days a week onsite in Lincolnshire office.

15+ years in IT and Enterprise Architecture with proven experience in architecture design and implementation

• 8+ years in IT governance, risk management, and compliance (or 10+ years in Technical Solutions Architecture, IT Services Architecture, or Technical Product Ownership)

• Proven ability to establish and lead Communities of Practice (CoP, CoE, or similar) focused on developing standards, practices, and patterns

• Expertise in multi-cloud architecture and governance (Azure, AWS, GCP), application design, and system integration

• Working knowledge of ITIL, COBIT, SAFe, DevSecOps, Lean Architecture, and Agile methodologies

• Experience implementing or improving SDLC and IT Service Management (ITSM) processes

• Strong understanding of Agile EA-as-a-Service or EA-as-a-Product frameworks

-Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to engage technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executives

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, IT, or related field - Retail or consumer-facing industry experience

• Background in technology roadmap development and strategic IT planning

• Experience mentoring architects and engineers in collaborative environments

• Familiarity with emerging technologies and their enterprise adoption