Head, IT Enterprise Architecture

NCBA Group is a financial institution founded in 2019, operating in the banking and financial services sector in Kenya.

The primary focus of the Head of Enterprise Architecture is recommending the right technology design, standards, and tools for NCBA group (and its subsidiaries) at the enterprise level by defining system and application architecture and providing vision, problem anticipation, and problem-solving ability. The role creates strategies and policies to meet overall business goals, oversees architecture implementation, and advises adjustments to top management. Enterprise Architecture provides and communicates recommended long-term technology roadmaps to guide investment decisions, maximize ROI, identify standard technologies, and appropriately map them to the Technology Reference Model. The role’s focus is Business Solutions, Application, Data, Infrastructure, and Security Architecture.

1. Establishing Architecture related policies, standards, and procedures to ensure the technology is secure, supported, stable
2. Document and formalize Architecture strategy, principles, and framework
3. Review the use of standard and non-standard technologies, and mitigate risks
4. Record, review, and monitor technical debt at the enterprise level
5. Develop Technology benefits realization Framework to evaluate technology impact and business mapping/alignment.
6. Lead the group wide Change Advisory Board (CAB) and provide governance for IT Change management process
7. Document current state architecture, and define future state architecture for all services
8. Develop and document milestones necessary to eliminate technology gaps and address known issues to achieve the target architecture/state for all critical services.
9. Maintain a holistic view of NCBA information and technology assets. incorporating IT service, application, software, license, infrastructure inventory
10. Legacy management across the technology landscape & development of plans to manage obsolescence.
11. Develop relationships between business, vendor, ownership, and costs across the technology landscape
12. Partner with business and technology subject experts to translate business requirements into technological solutions.
13. Drive adoption of technology-driven initiatives such as cloud, Microservices adoption, DevOpsAPI Banking, and Integration modernization.
14. Participate in digital strategy decisions and provide digital business model consulting within IT teams.
15. Coordinate, review, and approve projects to comply with architectural standards, policies, and guidelines.
16. Help business leaders and their teams think through technology investment decisions’ technology, business, and operational implications.
17. Monitor and analyze industry, technology, and market trends to determine their potential impact or application for the organization.
18. Undertake application portfolio optimization & rationalization across the NCBA Group
19. Propose enterprise technology optimization through Application and Infrastructure retirement and consolidation
20. License and data storage optimization
21. Project rationalization, eliminating redundancies, and reducing vendor support costs.
22. Robust performance management for direct reports. Regular feedback and objective end of year evaluations
23. Work closely with internal teams, stakeholders across NCBA group and its subsidiaries to execute the Architecture vision
24. Coordinate and manage a team of resources and support vendors within the group to execute the architecture roadmap
25. Facilitate training and skilling of the team across all Architectural domains.

1. Information technology / Computer Science-related undergraduate degree.
2. A Master’s degree in Information Technology or an MBA will be an added advantage.
3. Training and certification in IT Service Management e.g., ITIL, COBIT, ISO
4. IT Architecture Training and Certification e.g., TOGAF
5. Infrastructure and Cloud related certification and training
6. Business Continuity training
7. 10 years’ experience in a banking environment.
8. Knowledge of financial industry regulations and practices.
9. 5 years’ experience in a managerial role, overseeing IT Infrastructure, Applications, Data, and Security.
10. Strong leadership skills
11. Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and reporting skills
12. Excellent communication skills and high level of interpersonal skills