Enterprise Platform Architect- Hosting and Resiliency

Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of global food retailer Ahold Delhaize, is part of the U. S. family of brands, which includes five leading omnichannel grocery brands - Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. Our associates support the brands with a wide range of services, including Finance, Legal, Sustainability, Commercial, Digital and E-commerce, Technology and more.

Primary Purpose

As the Hosting and Resiliency Enterprise Platform Architect, you will lead IT architecture's strategic design and governance across our on-premises data centers, Azure Cloud, mainframe, and SaaS deployments. Your role will be pivotal in modernizing our IT landscape and driving impactful transformations through effective collaboration with infrastructure teams, business leaders, and IT engineers.

In this technology-focused role, you will craft visionary roadmaps, establish reference architectures, and set the strategic architectural direction. Your scope will include cloud deployments, multi-cloud strategy, computing, storage, archiving, backup, and recovery (including ransomware protection), as well as data center and cloud facility management. A strong security mindset will be essential to ensure that all architectural decisions and implementations prioritize protecting our data and systems.

This position demands a balanced blend of technical expertise and leadership qualities. Strategic thinking, decisive action, and a passion for innovation are essential to ensure the architecture function effectively bridges business needs with technological advancements.

Our flexible/ hybrid work schedule includes 3 in-person days at one of our core locations and 2 remote days. Our core office locations include:
Salisbury, NC, Chicago, IL, Quincy, MA, Mauldin, SC, Carlisle, PA, Hyattsville, MD, & Scarborough, ME.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Enterprise Architect II is a senior-level role that involves leading IT architecture's strategic design and governance across technology platforms. This role defines and drives technology roadmaps, influences enterprise strategy, and fosters innovation. In this role, behavioral skills such as leadership, decision-making, and strategic thinking are critical to success.

Enterprise Platform Architects are specialists within our Technology Enablement Platform, focusing on technology-driven domains. As domain experts, they develop standards, patterns, and decision frameworks that guide architectural and engineering practices. Their primary mission is to equip the architecture and engineering community with deep technical expertise, establish technical standards, and ensure the organization builds resilient, stable, predictable, and scalable solutions that support and enhance operational excellence.

Leadership:

• Lead cross-functional IT teams to establish a high-performing, service-driven culture focused on architecture excellence.
• Mentor junior and mid-level architects, driving the development of next-generation IT talent within the organization.
• Act as a change agent, challenging the status quo to improve business performance, productivity, and innovation.

• Design enterprise-level architecture solutions that are commercially viable, scalable, and aligned with long-term business strategies.
• Steer the overall architecture governance, ensuring solutions adhere to enterprise standards, market trends, and security compliance.

• Define and manage architecture roadmaps for technology platforms, ensuring alignment with global IT strategies and enterprise goals.
• Provide strategic input to senior leadership on IT investments and portfolio management, ensuring architecture roadmaps are fully integrated with business objectives.

• Define and Maintain Standards:
  Develop and maintain architecture standards, reference models, guidelines, and patterns relevant to your area of responsibility. Collaborate with the architecture governance team to ensure these standards remain current and aligned with organizational needs.
• Decision Frameworks:
  Create decision frameworks, including use cases and decision trees, to guide the selection of appropriate patterns and standards across various scenarios.

• Implementation Guides:
  Develop comprehensive implementation guides or detailed user manuals to instruct the architecture community on the correct application of standards and patterns. These guides-sometimes referred to as "how-to" or "survival guides"-serve as practical resources to support solution design and implementation.

• Architectural Governance:
  Lead the architectural governance process to ensure all solutions adhere to security, privacy, and regulatory requirements, aligning with organizational standards and best practices.
• Risk Awareness and Mitigation:
  Champion a culture of risk awareness and proactive mitigation, embedding security and compliance considerations into every architecture decision.

• Stay abreast of emerging technology trends and integrate them into the IT roadmap.
• Work with third-party vendors to align their innovation roadmaps with the organization's strategy.

• Align architectural decisions with financial budgets, ensuring that total cost of ownership (TCO) is controlled and minimized- measuring the impact of architecture decision on CapEx and Run Cost (OpEx)
• Ensure technical debt is managed, informing the software lifecycle process including Gartner TIME and 6Rs.

• Extensive experience in IT architecture leadership, strategy development, and governance.
• Strong influence and decision-making skills with proven success in guiding complex IT transformations.
• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science or related fields; advanced certifications (e. g. , TOGAF, ITIL) are preferred.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical guidance and leadership to development teams.
• Demonstrated experience translating business requirements into architectural deliverables and technical specifications.

• MSc Computer Science/Information Management, Post graduate degree is preferred.

• Agile Methodology and/or Scrum,
• Consultancy Skills,
• Agile Architecture,
• ArchiMate Modeling, Experience with BiZZdesign EA Tool