Head of Enterprise IT Architecture

Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life-changing science to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

We are looking for a Head of Enterprise IT Architecture to lead, coordinate and develop the IT architectural strategy, governance and standards across the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

This is a senior leadership role within the Informatics and Digital Solutions (IDS) function, with responsibility for ensuring that technical designs and digital infrastructure align with institutional objectives and are robust, scalable, secure and interoperable. You will chair the Technical Design Authority and coordinate enterprise, domain and solution architecture across research, operational and infrastructure domains.

You will play a key role in managing complexity and technical debt while supporting sustainable innovation and promoting architectural best practice and design coherence across the Institute.

As Head of Enterprise IT Architecture, you will provide strategic leadership for architecture across a complex and diverse technology environment.

You will lead and coordinate technical leads across enterprise applications, web, scientific compute, databases and infrastructure, and chair the Design Authority, providing strategic oversight of technical design assurance and architectural governance.

You will develop and maintain architecture principles, standards and technology roadmaps to guide institutional investment and delivery, including ownership of a comprehensive and up-to-date mapping of IDS systems and applications. You will review and approve key solution designs, ensuring alignment with agreed architectural standards and strategic goals.

Working with senior scientific, operational and technology leaders, you will ensure that IT architecture meets stakeholder requirements. You will guide the selection and adoption of new technologies, taking account of security, scalability and long-term sustainability, and lead technical risk management relating particularly to system design, integration and obsolescence.

You will oversee the simplification and rationalisation of the existing technology estate to reduce technical debt and improve efficiency, while promoting interoperability, data integrity and architectural reusability across the technology portfolio. You will represent the Institute in external architecture and digital infrastructure forums and help enhance strategic partnerships, including with organisations such as UKRI and EMBL-EBI.

A significant part of the role will be navigating architectural transformation across a complex, heterogeneous technical landscape: balancing standardisation with scientific flexibility and innovation, addressing long-standing technical debt, resolving divergent priorities and embedding effective governance without inhibiting agility or scientific discovery.

You will bring significant leadership experience in IT solution architecture within a complex technology environment, combined with the ability to work effectively with senior scientific, operational and technology stakeholders.

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