Enterprise Architect Principal - Remote

Enterprise Architect (EA) Principal

The Enterprise Architect (EA) Principal is responsible for leading enterprise-wide system architecture focusing on the effectiveness, design and development of solutions for complex application problems and architecture. This role focuses on defining and verifying the stability, portability, security, or scalability of systems applications across the enterprise.

The position provides leadership direction and accountability for strategic application architecture plans, system design, and implementation. The Enterprise Architect Principal independently determines and develops architectural approaches and solutions, conducts business reviews, documents current systems in the portfolio, and recommends how to proceed with the applications (e.g., replace, retire, maintain, etc.).

This is a senior role in the architecture team and regularly works with senior leaders and stakeholders across the enterprise.

Core Responsibilities

• Leverages advanced technical skills to define principles that guide technology decisions for the enterprise and provides broad understanding of platforms and applications across all technologies
• Creates the architecture development and evaluates current architecture and provides recommendations and design solutions for the enterprise
• Evaluates existing systems to determine effectiveness, and suggests changes to meet organizational requirements
• Collaborates and guides engineers or software developers to select appropriate design solutions or ensure the compatibility of system components
• Communicates and partners with internal team members and senior stakeholders to understand specific system requirements and provides recommendations and technical guidance
• Defines and analyzes objectives, overall scope issues, and organizational impacts of systems
• Incorporates SOA principles into enterprise architecture design, including identifying opportunities for common services and service reuse
• Investigates system components suitability for specified business purposes and makes recommendations regarding the system use
• Participates in the research and maintains knowledge in emerging technologies and possible application to the business, focusing on two or more areas specific to the grocery/distribution industry
• Partners with fellow architects, engineers, and security to direct the development and operation of systems and can translate business needs into system development

Strategic Planning & Road-mapping

• Develops and maintains the multi-year enterprise architecture roadmap aligned to the organization's strategic goals, priorities, and digital transformation initiatives
• Leads the creation of the Current State (AS-IS) and Future State (TO-BE) architecture blueprints, identifying capability gaps and defining transition architectures with clear milestones
• Establishes and maintains the EA strategy framework using recognized methodologies (e.g., TOGAF to guide architectural planning and decision-making across domains
• Defines technology investment strategies by assessing build vs. buy vs. partner decisions, conducting market analysis, and delivering business-case justification for architectural recommendations
• Integrates business strategy with technology planning by engaging with business unit leaders to map strategic business capabilities to enabling technologies and architectural patterns
• Leads portfolio rationalization efforts, evaluating application landscapes against strategic objectives and recommending consolidation, modernization, or retirement to optimize the portfolio
• Proactively monitors industry trends, emerging technologies, and competitive intelligence relevant to the grocery/distribution sector to inform long-range architecture planning
• Facilitates EA governance forums and architecture review boards (ARBs) to ensure that project proposals and technology investments align with the approved roadmap and strategic direction

Technology Governance & Standards

• Defines, publishes, and enforces enterprise architecture standards, policies, and guardrails that govern technology selection, integration patterns, data management, and cloud usage across all business units
• Leads the Architecture Review Board (ARB) process, providing structured review, approval, and exception-handling for technology decisions, ensuring adherence to enterprise standards
• Develops and maintains technology reference architectures, reusable architecture patterns, and a curated technology radar to accelerate delivery and reduce redundancy across teams
• Governs the enterprise technology portfolio through lifecycle management, ensuring timely identification of obsolete or end-of-life technologies and driving remediation planning
• Establishes and oversees API governance frameworks, including design standards, versioning policies, and API catalog management to enable consistent, secure, and scalable integrations
• Collaborates with IT leadership to define enterprise-wide cloud governance policies, cost management…