An architecture Centre of Excellence (CoE) inside a major European financial institution runs the bank-level enterprise architecture and process governance for IT. This role exists to simplify and standardise architecture and IT strategy processes across multiple architecture tribes, with a strong focus on enterprise architecture and process management to meet audit and permanent control requirements.
The mission
You will work inside the CoE Architecture to align local architecture practices with group guidelines and to reduce friction between architecture teams and business domains. The CoE coordinates several architecture workgroups and validation committees, including ODDA and Arc Guild meetings, to validate decisions that affect IT strategy and solution design.
On a day-to-day basis you will own the process backlog, propose concrete process and tooling changes, and steer implementation and roll-out activities. You will act as the link between architects, validation bodies and audit/permanent control teams, ensuring traceability of decisions, follow-up of actions, and that expectations from audits are systematically addressed.
Your responsibilities
- Drive measurable simplification of architecture and IT strategy processes, reducing handoffs and approval time across architecture tribes.
- Own and prioritise the CoE process improvement backlog, delivering documented proposals and acceptance criteria for each change.
- Enable architects through process tooling and templates, improving day-to-day efficiency and consistency of architecture outputs.
- Coordinate validation committees (ODDA, Arc Guild, IT VC), publish agendas and decision records, and ensure traceability of actions and decisions.
- Ensure compliance with audit and permanent control expectations by embedding required controls into the architecture process and documentation.
- Lead communication, change management and support during roll-out, and provide frontline support for process questions.
Your profile
Essential skills
- Minimum 5 years enterprise architecture experience, preferably within financial services, with strong governance experience.
- Minimum 5 years experience in process management, able to document, model and improve multi-team processes.
- Proven ability to work with validation bodies and audit/permanent control stakeholders to translate controls into process requirements.
- Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, able to influence senior architects and IT decision makers.
- Practical experience with process tooling and producing traceable decision records.
Preferred skills
- Experience in architecture governance and organising validation committees.
- Familiarity with architecture or process tooling and automation for architects.
- Project management experience or certification is an advantage.
Languages
- French: B2 (good)
- Dutch: B2 (good)
- English: B2 (good)
Education
- Bachelor or Master degree, or equivalent professional experience