Enterprise Architects design the “big picture” of how an organisation’s processes, information, applications, and technology fit together to support its strategy. They create and maintain the target architecture and roadmaps across business, data, applications, and infrastructure, ensuring that new projects and platforms fit into a coherent, secure, and cost-effective whole rather than becoming isolated silos. Working with executives, product, IT, and domain architects, they translate strategy into capabilities, standards, and reference architectures, guiding investment decisions and major change programs so the organisation can evolve quickly without losing control or creating crippling technical and operational complexity.
Why In Demand
Rising complexity of digital estates – With dozens (or hundreds) of systems, clouds, and SaaS tools, organisations need EAs to bring order, define standards, and avoid costly chaos and duplication.
Continuous transformation pressure – Mergers, new business models, and digital initiatives require someone to align change programmes with a clear target architecture and roadmap.
Need to link strategy, process, data, and tech – Enterprise Architects connect business capabilities and operating models to concrete system and data designs, ensuring technology truly enables strategy.
Cost, risk, and compliance pressures – EAs help rationalise portfolios, retire legacy, and embed security, privacy, and regulatory requirements across the architecture, reducing long-term risk and spend.
Demand for agility at scale – Modern organisations want to innovate quickly without losing control; Enterprise Architects set the patterns, platforms, and guardrails that let many teams move fast in a consistent way.
Problems Solved
Enterprise Architects solve the problem of fragmented, overlapping, and misaligned systems that make it hard for organisations to execute their strategy. Without them, companies accumulate a patchwork of applications, data silos, and integration hacks that are expensive to run, slow to change, risky from a security/compliance perspective, and confusing for both users and IT. Enterprise Architects step back from individual projects to design the end-to-end “enterprise blueprint” across business capabilities, processes, applications, data, and infrastructure, then guide major initiatives to move the organisation toward a coherent, scalable, and future-proof target state.
- Reduce complexity and duplication – They map the application and technology landscape, identify overlaps and gaps, and define consolidation and rationalisation strategies that lower cost and simplify operations.
- Align change with strategy – They translate business strategy into capabilities, target architectures, and roadmaps, ensuring projects and investments clearly support strategic priorities rather than local optimisations.
- Enable interoperability and data flow – They define integration patterns, standards, and reference architectures that break down system and data silos, enabling end-to-end processes and better analytics/AI.
- Control risk, security, and compliance – They embed security, privacy, and regulatory requirements into architectural principles and designs, reducing the likelihood of breaches, audit findings, and fragile workarounds.
- Support agility at scale – They provide shared platforms, patterns, and guardrails so multiple teams can innovate and deliver independently while still fitting into a coherent enterprise design.
- Optimise long-term cost and ROI – They assess total cost of ownership, technical debt, and lifecycle implications of technology choices, guiding build/buy/retire decisions to maximise value over time.
Skills Needed
| Skill Category | Skills (with importance /10) |
|---|---|
| Technical | EA frameworks & modelling (TOGAF, ArchiMate, UML) (10), Application & integration architecture (APIs, events, microservices) (9), Cloud & infrastructure architecture (on-prem, hybrid, multi-cloud) (8), Security-by-design literacy (identity, encryption, zero-trust) (7), Hands-on coding in production systems (2) |
| Digital & Data | Data & information architecture (domains, MDM, canonical models) (9), Integrating SaaS, legacy and cloud platforms (8), Process digitisation & automation tech (BPM, low-code, RPA) (7), EA/CMDB tooling & repositories usage (7), Building advanced ML/AI models personally (2) |
| Problem-Solving | Systems thinking across processes, apps, data & tech (10), Decomposing complex environments into clear views (9), Trade-off analysis (cost, risk, agility, complexity) (9), Structural root-cause analysis of architecture issues (8), Formal optimisation/operations research techniques (3) |
| Analytics | Portfolio & application rationalisation analysis (9), TCO and cost–benefit assessment of solutions (8), Architecture health metrics (complexity, reuse, tech debt) (7), Using operational/performance data to refine designs (7), Advanced statistics & experimental design (2) |
| Communication | Visual architecture storytelling (diagrams, maps, views) (10), Explaining complex designs in simple language (10), Writing clear principles, standards & guardrails (9), Facilitating workshops and design sessions (8), External speaking / conference presentations (4) |
| Collaboration | Working with solution, domain, data & infra architects (10), Partnering with business process & capability owners (9), Coordinating across programmes and project teams (9), Negotiating between teams with conflicting needs (8), Day-to-day line management of large dev teams (3) |
| Leadership | Owning the enterprise architecture vision & roadmap (10), Influencing direction without formal authority (10), Leading architecture boards / design authorities (9), Coaching architects and senior engineers (8), Detailed task-level micromanagement (2) |
| Business | Understanding business capabilities, value streams & operating model (10), Knowledge of core E2E processes (order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, etc.) (9), Cost & benefit awareness in architecture choices (7), Industry/domain regulation & trend awareness (7), Designing detailed pricing or sales motions (2) |
| Strategic | Defining target-state architectures across business, data, apps & tech (10), Planning transition roadmaps & milestones (9), Aligning architecture with corporate strategy & OKRs (9), Evaluating and positioning emerging technologies/vendors (8), Day-to-day product growth hacking & campaigns (1) |
| Customers | Understanding internal user journeys & pain points (8), Considering external customer experience in design choices (8), Translating CX goals into architectural requirements (7), Reading NPS/CSAT and feeding into roadmaps (6), Running frontline sales/support organisations directly (2) |
| Stakeholders | Stakeholder mapping & concern analysis across business/IT (10), Managing executive expectations on scope, risk & pace (9), Building consensus among conflicting stakeholders (9), Presenting options & recommendations to boards/steerco (8), Direct negotiation with regulators/media (3) |
| Adaptability | Learning new technologies, patterns & domains quickly (9), Adjusting roadmaps as strategy, risk or constraints change (9), Working effectively with ambiguity & incomplete information (8), Switching between big-picture and detailed design views (8) |
| Governance | Designing architecture governance models & forums (10), Defining & maintaining standards and reference architectures (10), Risk & compliance awareness in architectural decisions (8), Ensuring documentation, traceability & auditability (8), Personally drafting detailed legal contracts/policies (2) |
