What is an Enterprise Architect? It is often one of the most misunderstood and changing roles in architecture.
Much of the job is intangible: getting the business and technology leadership to agree on where they are going and what they will stop doing to get there. Or as we call it at Konvergent, consensus building.
It rarely shows up in a technology list, which is exactly why it is so easy to fake on a CV. Before you can successfully recruit an Enterprise Architect, you must first be sure you need one, and then be sure you are looking at one.
These are the four enterprise architecture roles we see most often, what each one does, and where organisations tend to get them wrong when they hire.
Also seen as: Senior Enterprise Architect, Strategic Architect
The Enterprise Architect connects business strategy to technology change across the whole organisation. They build the target state and the roadmap across business, application, data and technology architecture. They also help leadership decide where to invest, what to retire, and in what order.
The key thing to look for is tangible evidence of achievement: what their architecture actually did for the companies they worked for. Saying they produced a reference architecture is worthless on its own. So is an application portfolio management exercise, unless they can tell you it reduced the application estate from 347 to 209 and what that saved. A modern Enterprise Architect should also be able to show a close relationship with the engineering and delivery functions, not just with leadership. Frameworks such as TOGAF and tools such as LeanIX, Ardoq or Bizzdesign may appear, but neither is evidence on its own.
Most CVs with Enterprise Architect as the title belong to someone who works at enterprise level in one domain, or to an Enterprise Solution Architect. Look at the technologies. If one domain dominates, you know which of our other pages they belong on. Also ask yourself whether you need an Enterprise Architect at all. Most organisations with a small architecture function would be far better off hiring an Enterprise Solution Architect.
Also seen as: Senior Solution Architect (Enterprise), Portfolio Architect
The Enterprise Solution Architect sits between Enterprise and Solution Architecture. They work across a portfolio of related solutions, or a whole business area, and they make sure individual projects move towards the enterprise target state rather than away from it.
Look for roadmaps and target states for a business area, several related solutions delivered over time, and architecture governance. The breadth of technology is greater than a Solution Architect’s, but they are still close enough to delivery to name the technologies.
Many candidates who call themselves Enterprise Architects are really here, because of the number of technologies in their CV. That is not a criticism. Right now, most organisations with a small architecture function that think they want an Enterprise Architect would be far better off hiring an Enterprise Solution Architect. They will still set the direction, and they will stay close enough to delivery to make sure it happens.
Also seen as: Enterprise Architecture Director, Head of Architecture, EA Practice Lead
The Head of Enterprise Architecture leads the architecture function. They decide how architecture works in the organisation, who is in the team, and how architecture governance helps delivery rather than slowing it down. Increasingly, they are also the person who has to prove the function is worth what it costs.
Look for architecture functions they built, grew or turned round, and architects they hired and developed. You should see an architecture operating model and governance that delivery teams actually used, and a direct line to the CIO or CTO. The best will be able to show how they measured the value of architecture in terms the business cared about.
Being the best architect in the team does not make someone the right person to lead it. Some very strong Enterprise Architects have never had to build a team, defend a budget or show a return on it. Equally, some Heads of Architecture have drifted so far into management that they could no longer produce a roadmap themselves. Ask them to show you both.
Also seen as: Chief Enterprise Architect, Chief Technology Architect
Chief Architect means very different things in different organisations. In a large enterprise, it is usually the most senior architect, sitting alongside or above the Head of Enterprise Architecture, and the final authority on architecture decisions. In a software company or a systems integrator, it is usually the most senior technical architect for a product or a client, which is a very different job.
Check which kind it is. The enterprise kind will show strategy, investment and executive influence across the whole organisation. The technical kind will show product architecture, engineering standards and deep technical leadership, often with a development background.
Both are senior and valuable, but they are not interchangeable. A Chief Architect from a software vendor can be an outstanding technologist and still have never produced an enterprise roadmap. Look at what the organisation was, not just the title.
If you are hiring for an enterprise architecture role and are not sure which of these you actually need, please get in touch. It is surprisingly common for the job description to describe one of these roles while the job title asks for another.
Ben Clark
bclark@konvergent.co.uk
