Enterprise Architect - #188430

Enterprise Architect

Barbour House, South Shields

Company Description:

The Barbour story began in 1894 in South Shields in the North East of England. Founder John Barbour began supplying oilskins and other garments to protect the growing community of sailors, fishermen and dockers. Still family owned and now fifth generation, Barbour HQ remains in South Shields. Under the leadership of Chairman Dame Margaret Barbour, Barbour has grown into a lifestyle brand sold in over 55 countries worldwide including Europe, the US and Asia offering a wardrobe of stylish functional clothing, footwear and accessories inspired by the unique values of the British countryside. The iconic Barbour Bedale and Barbour Beaufort wax jackets continue to be made by hand in the factory in South Shields. In 2020, Barbour launched Wax for Life, an overarching name for all of Barbour’s wax services designed to encourage customers to extend the life of their wax garments. Wax for Life includes re-waxing and repairs (first introduced in 1921) and Barbour Re-Loved an upcycling circularity initiative. Each year over 70,000 wax garments are sent back to Barbour globally to be repaired, rewaxed or altered.

Position Overview:

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced, strategically minded Enterprise Architect to join our IT team here at our Head Office in South Shields. As Barbour undergoes a significant period of transformation, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the architecture that underpins our global operations. You will be responsible for establishing and leading the enterprise architecture discipline, defining both current-state and target-state architectures across our business systems, data, integrations and infrastructure. This role requires a blend of strategic thinking and hands-on capability to ensure our application landscape remains flexible, scalable and secure as we design and deliver our iconic products through wholesale, ecommerce and retail channels.

*The role is based at head office in South Shields and the expectation is 4 days in the office and 1 day of home-working.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Establish and lead the Enterprise Architecture practice, defining principles, frameworks and governance.
• Define current-state and future-state enterprise architecture across all domains.
• Create and maintain multi-year technology roadmaps to align IT initiatives with business growth.
• Chair the Enterprise Architecture Committee and govern key architectural decisions.
• Provide architectural oversight and support for major transformation programs, including ERP, PIM, PLM, cloud and ecommerce.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and IT teams to translate complex requirements into architectural recommendations.
• Define integration patterns, data flows and application interactions.
• Act as a trusted advisor to IT and business leadership while coaching delivery teams on architectural best practices.
• Promote consistency and reuse across technology platforms and support vendor evaluation processes.

Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering or an equivalent field.
• Significant experience of IT, with at least some years specifically in architecture roles preferably in an end user capacity.
• Proven experience working within a manufacturing, consumer goods, wholesale or distribution environment.
• Deep knowledge of ERP systems (Infor M3 CloudSuite is what we use) and integration systems (such as MuleSoft, Oracle SOA Suite, or IBM Websphere MQ).
• Experience designing architectures for PIM, PLM, EDI, ecommerce and data platforms.
• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture frameworks (TOGAF certification).
• Excellent communication and senior stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influencer at exec level.
• A confident and pragmatic leader with strong problem-solving skills and strategic thinking capabilities.
• Experience working with both Agile and Waterfall methodologies.

Benefits:

• Discretionary Company bonus scheme
• Staff discount
• Staff shop
• Healthcare cash plan
• 25 days holiday as standard increasing with length of service plus bank holidays
• Access to training and development activities to support your career development
• Free onsite parking
• Subsidised canteen
• Operate hybrid & flexible working
• 4pm finish on a Friday
• Wellbeing support
• Refer a friend bonus scheme
• Reward & Recognition Program
• Length of Service Rewards

Note: In the event that a sufficient volume of suitable applications are received, the post may close prior to the specified closing date. Please apply as soon as possible if interested.