Enterprise Architect; AI Governance

Overview

Enterprise Architect (EA) Consultant (EA Operations & EA Office Stand-Up) – Scope Of Work. Seeking a leased employee EA Consultant to lead the tactical execution of enterprise architecture (solutions guidance, standards enforcement, architectural runway) while designing and standing up the EA Office—integrated with PMO and BRM—within a unified Strategy & Governance department. Establish shared services for intake orchestration, AI and data architecture enablement, and financial analytics, and co-own process automation and AI enablement for project managers and shared services specialists.

Location:

Sacramento, CA, US.

• Tactical EA (≈50%)
• Solution Architecture & Guidance:
  Produce solution intents, architecture decision records (ADRs), and reference architectures aligned to enterprise standards.
• Standards & Patterns:
  Curate cloud, data, integration, security, and AI/ML patterns (e.g., Azure reference implementations, data mesh vs. warehouse).
• Architecture Governance:
  Chair/coordinate Architecture Review Board (ARB); manage exceptions, waivers, and technical debt logs.
• Road mapping:
  Maintain capability maps and technology roadmaps; ensure fit to business strategy and PMO portfolio plans.
• Risk & Compliance:
  Embed security/privacy by design; align with regulatory and data governance requirements.
• Vendor/Tool Evaluation:
  Conduct comparative assessments; ensure interoperability and cost-effectiveness.
• Asset Management:
  Optimize and maintain the CMDB.
• Change Management:
  Participate in Change Management Review Boards to assess and validate.
• Software Purchase Evaluation:
  Evaluate software purchase requests and approve or decline based on SMUD policies including security and inventory review.
• Project Technology:
  Evaluate and validate software proposed in overall solutions for specific projects.
• Architecture Design and Strategy:
  Develop and maintain enterprise architecture frameworks, including business capability maps, technology roadmaps, and IT standards.
• System Integration:
  Evaluate and integrate IT systems, ensuring interoperability and scalability across applications and platforms.
• Stakeholder
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Work with senior management, technical specialists, and business units to align IT solutions with organizational strategy.
• Technology Assessment:
  Research emerging technologies, recommend architecture changes, and advise on system strategies.
• Documentation and Communication:
  Create and maintain architectural models, transition plans, and business cases for IT investments.
• Technology Lifecycle Governance:
  Manage acquisition request intake, processing, risk management, cybersecurity, procurement, and end-of-life (EOL).
• Enterprise Technology Standards:
  Establish governance to define, develop, and enforce enterprise standards.

• Operating Model:
  Define mission, scope, decision rights (RACI), engagement model with PMO/BRM, and service catalog (e.g., solution reviews, standards stewardship).
• Processes:
  Establish demand-to-delivery lifecycle: intake → triage → architecture initiation → design reviews → ARB → delivery checkpoints → benefits traceability.
• Org & Roles:
  Define EA lead, domain architects (data, app, infrastructure, security), architecture analysts, and integrate shared services.
• Tooling:
  Implement common tooling (e.g., repository for artifacts, ADRs, patterns; Power BI dashboards; Power Automate workflows; M365 Copilot for documentation).
• Metrics & Reporting:
  Develop dashboards to monitor architectural compliance, reuse rates, cycle times, risk posture, and benefit realization.
• Change Management:
  Communicate charter, develop playbooks, onboarding, and training; facilitate adoption across business units.

• Shared Services Capability Build-Out
• Intake & Triage (Business Analyst):
  Standardize request forms, categorization, priority scoring, and routing; automate workflows.
• AI/Data (AI & Data Analyst):
  Establish data architecture guardrails, metadata management, data lineage, Master Data Management (MDM), migration frameworks; define AI use-case registry, risk controls, model governance, and prompt libraries.
• Value Analytics:
  Enable…