Group Enterprise Architect

Who are we?

First Rail Holdings is part of FirstGroup, the largest rail operator in the UK and second largest bus operator in the UK outside London. FirstGroup operates services throughout the UK and Ireland, with over 30,000 employees providing services that make travel smoother and life easier. FirstGroup works hard to reduce its impact on the environment, introducing cleaner and more environmentally responsible methods of transport.

About the team

The First Group is a complex organisation of largely independent transport and associated businesses. We are currently looking for a Group Enterprise Architect to join the newly created Strategy and Architecture team reporting to the Group Director of Strategy and Architecture

About the job

The purpose of the role is to work with leaders and teams across different levels of the organisation, determining the needs of a range of business units and processes, to help translate them into business change and technology delivery initiatives.

The ideal candidate will have in-depth experience in business transformation having a significant technology component. This individual will be able to understand the complexities of the organization, processes, information, and technologies to design future-state architectural solutions that best meet the organisational needs.

Finally, a key purpose of the role is to help define and deliver the IT Governance framework across the group and its organisations, ensuring alignment to the business and technology strategies, corporate policies, mandatory regulatory requirements and ensuring that technology investment delivers value for IT.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• • understand the organisation's ecosystem and its interdependencies, including reference architectures
  • consult and support collaboration across the business organisations to ensure business, technology and data decisions are aligned with the business and technology strategies
  • guide the organisation to make appropriate business, technology and data decisions by recommending reuse, sustainability and scalability, to achieve value for money and reduce risk
  • identify priorities for change to enable delivery at pace, leading and influencing the delivery of cross-cutting capabilities that enable change
  • completing the impact assessment of proposed business changes, providing recommendations, scope statements, engaging with multiple teams to provide cost and benefit models for the generation of business cases for change.
  • help identify and structure tenders and contracts to consolidate suppliers, technologies, procure new services and tools. Taking an active role as required during the tender process to complete architectural evaluation of bids.
  • help define the IT Governance Framework establishing architectural principles, policies and standards. Help set up the multiple governance boards, chairing and/or attending as an active member according to the framework and governance structure.
  • develop enterprise architecture roadmaps from a business, technology and data perspective, including 'as is', 'to be' and transitional states
  • take a strategic view across all architectural domains, portfolios and programmes
  • coordinate activities of architects from different domains to ensure business change proposals, tenders, governance and delivery activities deliver complete and safe architectural solutions that meet the business requirements and deliver best value for it investment,
  • act autonomously and actively bringing forward ideas and recommendations to further the success of the organisation's Digital Transformation.
  • develop the architecture community, inspiring other architects, cosching and helping them and other teams understand how to meet organisational goals
  • carry out horizon scanning across industry, identifying emerging trends and their potential impact and opportunity for the organisation
  This is a hybrid role, with a mix of remote and office presence required

As a minimum, you will need to have:

• • Proven background as an Enterprise Architect, serving as an Enterprise Architect in an organisation with at least an equivalent of or greater scale as First Group
  • Experience in consulting environments or within the industry as Directors/Principal Architects.
  • Extensive management (matrix and direct) experience of architecture teams (solution and technical architects)
  • Having worked on large scale transformations. An extensive track record of shaping, designing and delivering components of major transformational change to provide long-lasting business value across organizations.
  • Comprehensive understanding of business architecture and how it links into IT. Evidence of strong business skills and knowledge of business models, business value streams, services and processes across the organisation.
  • Experience of business capability modelling, business motivation design and business operating models. Translating business visions, goals, objectives and high-level requirements into architectures.
  • Evidence of strong technology skills and knowledge across, data, digital solutions, security, infrastructure and service delivery.
  • Development and maintenance of architecture deliverables using recognized modelling standards.
  • Using leadership skills to develop and motivate people, including senior managers and executive members, to shape, define and design the delivery of solutions that address the most complex business challenges.
  • A high degree of logic and structured thinking coupled with advanced analysis and problem-solving techniques delivery focused view.
  • Being comfortable in the use of a wide range of standard methods and tools, including experience implementing Enterprise architecture tools
  • The outstanding ability to bring to life abstract and complex concepts, communicating them effectively to executive-level audiences.
  • Inquisitive mind, endless curiosity and passion for learning about customers, industries and new approaches to doing things. How end users perform their jobs. Industry challenges and solutions.
  • Demonstrated ability to communicate, present and influence credibly and effectively at all levels of a customer's technology organization: COO/CIO to business manager to administrator.
  Qualifications:
  • Educated to degree level (e.g. BSc Computer Science),
  • MBA desirable
  • TOGAF or other enterprise Architecture qualification

About the location

8th Floor, The Point, 37 North Wharf Road, London, E2 1AF

We all belong at First Rail Holding. FirstGroup's vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, across its group of businesses, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

We review all roles and job descriptions to ensure they are accessible and, where possible, we support and provide flexible working options; we recommend that you refer to each vacancy description for further details.

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