Lead Enterprise Datacenter Architect

Role:
Lead Enterprise Datacenter Architect

Location:
Onsite NJ Metro

Role summary Executive-facing architect to lead the Cloud Assessment & Data Center Strategy program for an investment-management client. Own discovery options analysis roadmap; orchestrate cross-tower delivery (Compute, Storage, VDI, Network, Security, Identity and Access Management, BCDR) and ensure regulatory/security overlays remain first-class across designs and recommendations.

• Design and evolve the Enterprise Architecture across business, applications, data, integration, infrastructure, VDI, IP Telephony, cloud, and security domains, ensuring a scalable, integrated, and future-ready digital landscape, with AI capabilities embedded where they add business value.
• Drive simplification, standardization, and modernization of the enterprise technology landscape by leading application rationalization, legacy modernization, platform and tool standardization, cloud adoption, and integration across entities, improving cost efficiency, resilience, and delivery speed.
• Define and govern enterprise roadmaps and migration plans from the current heterogeneous environment to the target state, balancing business priorities, delivery constraints, security, and risk.
• Provide enterprise-wide architectural governance and leadership, translating business and digital requirements into coherent solutions, overseeing demand prioritization, ensuring compatibility and alignment across initiatives, and resolving cross-domain or systemic issues.
• Support strategic decision-making by maintaining clear architecture visibility (principles, standards, repositories, and roadmaps), producing executive-level architecture artifacts, and advising senior leadership on emerging technologies and their business impact.

• Translate business and digital requirements into enterprise-wide architectural solutions and technology choices.
• Conduct architecture assessments to ensure continuous alignment between business strategy, digital & IT strategy, and transformation objectives.
• Govern compatibility and integration across applications, data, and platforms; identify structural gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Monitor enterprise architecture health and intervene to resolve systemic or cross-domain issues.
• Collaborate closely with business, digital, IT, security, and AI stakeholders to ensure alignment and execution.
• Define and maintain enterprise architecture principles, standards, policies, and reference architectures.
• Produce clear, high-quality architecture artifacts (e.g., diagrams, blueprints, roadmaps, heatmaps) for both executive and delivery audiences.
• Provide architectural leadership and hands‑on guidance for major digital & IT programs.
• Lead the implementation and ongoing maintenance of an Enterprise Architecture repository/tool to ensure transparency, traceability, and decision support.

• Minimum of 15+ years of overall IT experience, with 6+ years in Enterprise Architecture leading role.
• Demonstrated ability to apply cross-domain technical experience to enterprise-level architecture design, analysis, and decision-making.

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline is required.
• A Master's degree such as an MBA with a focus on Information Systems or a relevant technical field is strongly preferred and demonstrates the ability to align technical strategy with broader business objectives.

• Mastery of frameworks like TOGAF 9/10 or Zachman is highly preferred to lead standardized architecture development.
• Advanced certifications in VMware (VCAP);
  Azure Cloud Architecture (e.g., AZ-305) or Nutanix Multi‑Cloud (e.g., NCAP) are essential for managing modern unified private cloud and DR strategies like NC2 on Azure.
• Certifications in ITIL (Master/Expert level), COBIT, or Lean Six Sigma are a plus for ensuring operational excellence and compliance with ISO/NIST frameworks.
• Formal training or certifications in AI/Machine Learning (for anomaly detection in security) and Data Governance (for multi‑tier storage lifecycle…