Job Title: Chief Enterprise Architect (CEA)
Location: Deerfield, IL (Hybrid)
Duration: 12 Months

Role Overview

The Chief Enterprise Architect (CEA) is a senior IT leader responsible for translating enterprise strategy into executable business and technology outcomes. This role ensures alignment between business objectives and IT strategy, driving long-term technology evolution, simplification, and cost optimization across the enterprise.

The CEA plays a critical role in shaping the organization’s future-state architecture, enabling scalability, innovation, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage.

Key Success Metrics

• Strong alignment between enterprise and IT strategy
• Ownership and governance of rolling 5-year technology roadmaps
• Simplified and optimized technology landscape
• Reduction in architectural complexity, technical debt, and IT costs
• High-performing, outcome-driven architecture community

Core Responsibilities

1. Leadership & Architecture Community

• Lead and develop the enterprise architecture community with clear governance and mission
• Establish and enforce architectural principles focused on:
  • Enterprise-wide reuse
  • Simplification and scalability
  • Speed and agility
  • Risk management
• Promote a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement

2. Strategy & Execution

• Partner with CIO and executive leadership to translate strategy into:
  • Target operating models
  • Capability roadmaps
  • Investment priorities
• Define and maintain:
  • Current-state and target-state architecture landscapes
  • Enterprise-wide process and IT ecosystem
• Develop sequenced, executable roadmaps aligned to business priorities
• Identify dependencies, risks, and optimization opportunities across domains
• Ensure alignment across:
  • Business capabilities and value streams
  • Product portfolios and platforms
  • Technology standards and delivery teams

3. Governance & Innovation

• Lead technology governance and architecture review processes
• Sponsor the Technical Assessment Council (TAC) for evaluating new technologies
• Drive reuse-first approach before introducing new tools or platforms
• Oversee:
  • Solution architecture validation
  • Technical debt reduction strategies
  • Modernization initiatives
• Ensure continuous improvement of CMDB accuracy and completeness
• Promote innovation through targeted experiments tied to business outcomes
• Scale successful innovations into enterprise capabilities

4. Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a trusted advisor to:
  • CIO and IT Leadership
  • Business and Functional Leaders
  • Finance, Strategy, and Transformation teams
• Influence executive decision-making with data-driven insights
• Balance strategic vision with practical execution

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Engineering, or related field
• 15+ years in enterprise architecture, IT strategy, or digital transformation
• Proven track record delivering multi-year transformation roadmaps
• Experience leading architecture in complex, global environments

Core Competencies

• Enterprise architecture design (business + technology)
• Technology roadmap planning and business case development
• Expertise in modern technologies:
  • Cloud platforms
  • SaaS ecosystems
  • Data & AI
  • Platform-based architectures
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management

Leadership Profile

• Enterprise-first, outcome-driven mindset
• Influential and credible with senior executives
• Strategic thinker with strong execution focus
• Commercially aware and pragmatic
• Proven ability to build teams, trust, and cross-functional alignment

CIO Perspective

The CEA ensures the organization invests in the right technologies, builds coherent architectures, and evolves the IT landscape to:

• Maximize enterprise-wide capability leverage
• Reduce operating costs
• Stay ahead of emerging technology trends
• Drive sustainable competitive advantage