Director of Architecture

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Title

Director of Omnichannel Architecture

Working Hours:

40 Hours

Reporting to:

Chief Technology Officer

Location:

Bury

Department:

Group Technology

Role overview:

Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading global omnichannel retailer of Sports Fashion and Outdoor brands. The Group now has over 3,000 stores across 38 territories with a strong presence in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. In addition, we operate over 200 JD Gyms nationwide.

With a strong presence in multiple markets and channels, we are committed to providing exceptional customer experiences across all. The Director of Omnichannel Architecture will play a critical role in designing and implementing this seamless and integrated omnichannel experience that can be serviced by one unified Tech team (currently decentralised across departments).

Role objectives and KPIs:

This role will play a pivotal part in executing the Technology strategy alongside the rest of the Technology leadership team. Key responsibilities include development and execution of a comprehensive omnichannel architecture strategy, driving best practice architecture throughout the function, increasing & improving documentation and working closely with Security teams to drive improvements.

Impact will be measured on business outcomes including customer satisfaction, cost optimisation and operational efficiency.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement Omnichannel Architecture Strategy: Formulate and implement a Group-led Architecture strategy that supports a seamless omnichannel experience. This includes defining an enterprise architecture operating model that enables a high performing architecture discipline, environment, and processes to apply across respective group businesses.
• Build unified Omnichannel Architecture team: Unify Digital Tech and Core IT architecture teams, standardize operating processes, and foster best practice.. Assess current team capability, and define roadmap to develop talent and address skill gaps.
• Plan & manage the Tech portfolio: Absorb and understand the target group strategy to define the key enterprise architecture vision and a roadmap to activate against through business partnering across the respective tech functional teams. Deliver gap analyses that reflect the status of the existing landscape, namely its ability to contribute to future-state business capabilities around ecosystems and digital platforms.
• Facilitate Innovation: Assess disruptive forces impacting the organization and identify technology-enabled innovation opportunities that enable business strategy. Run technology experiments to create new products and services and integrate the best of these into steady-state operations for the organization.
• Business partner: P osition the Architecture practice at the intersection of the business and Tech to ensure the function is designed and enabled to help formulate, translate, and execute business strategy. Work closely with commercial leads in the business to understand & fulfil internal customer requirements.
• Team Leadership: Lead and develop a high-performing Architecture team. Foster a culture of continuous learning and development, and ensure the team has the necessary skills and capabilities to execute the strategy.
• Cyber & Security: Ensure Tech Architecture is robust and secure. Work closely with the CISO to ensure security improvements are designed and integrated.
• Budget Management: Develop and manage the annual budget for the Architecture function. Allocate resources effectively to support strategic initiatives and operational excellence.

Competencies:

• Leadership: Demonstrated leadership strength with a proven track record of leading complex multidisciplinary teams in new endeavours and delivering solutions
• Strategy expertise: Demonstrated acumen for strategic business and technology planning and execution, including policy development and maintenance
• Demonstrated delivery success: demonstrated experience in execution of a business-led strategy for large scale enterprise retail/consumer business
• Knowledge of all components of Architecture, business and IT principles, and processes: familiarity with information management practices, system development life cycle management, infrastructure and operations, and EA and ITIL frameworks, software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), SOA, APIs, open data, microservices, event-driven IT and predictive analytics. Translate among the languages used by executive business, IT, and quant stakeholders
• Ways of working: Understanding of the different types of agile principles, methodologies, and frameworks, especially those designed to be scaled at enterprise level.
• Stakeholder management: Collaborate effectively with other senior leaders (e.g., CDO, CISO, Director of Engineering, etc.) to define and execute expectations and responsibilities for the Architecture function
• Communication: Ability to create consistent value-oriented storylines for better understanding and execution of the Architecture strategy. Comfort with public speaking and conveying complex information to diverse audiences.
• Influence and emotional intelligence: Ability to assert ideas and persuade others to gain support across the organization. Explain technology concepts to business leaders and business concepts to technology teams
• Change management: Adapt and respond positively to organisational change and ambiguity, making positive use of the opportunity change management creates. Composed in the face of opposition to architectural principles, governance, and standards.

Education and Experience:

• A bachelor's or master's degree in business administration, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), computer science, data science, information systems, or a related field; or equivalent work experience. Academic qualifications or professional training in legal and regulatory areas are also desirable.
• 10+ years of business experience, ideally in business management, legal, financial, or information / IT management - recently at or near the Director level. Broad business experience internally and within the vertical industry is desired.
• 5+ years of progressive leadership experience in leading cross-functional teams, multidisciplinary environments, and enterprise-wide business, information, or technical architecture programs
• Experience in integrating complex cross-corporate processes and information strategies and/or designing strategic metrics and scorecards. Strategy and management consulting experience is desirable.

Disclaimer:

The information about this job description given above has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.