Director Enterprise Technology Architecture

Position Summary

McGill University is seeking a Director Enterprise Technology Architecture, reporting to the Senior Director, IT Governance & Strategic Planning (GSP) to lead the enterprise technology architecture strategy and roadmap, leading enterprise-wide architecture integration, architecture principles, standards, business capabilities and governance processes while promoting innovation, business value realization, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth.

The Director of Enterprise Architecture will play a strategic role between business strategy and technology directions guiding the organization over the long term, from broad enterprise visions to solution-level decisions.

This role serves as a trusted and strategic advisor to business and technology leaders, ensuring that technology investments and transformation initiatives, are delivered toward a coherent target sate. This role is part of a transformation context: redefining the architecture operating model to increase the autonomy of delivery teams and establish the standards to support the growth and changes.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Enterprise Architecture

• Influence enterprise technology portfolio and investment planning by assessing strategic alignment, architectural fit, enterprise reuse opportunities, dependencies, technical debt implications, and long-term sustainability of proposed investments.
• Develop and evolve the organization's business and enterprise architecture strategy, ensuring alignment with the institution vision, strategic priorities, and operational objectives.
• Translate institutional strategy into target-state architectures, strategic architecture priorities, and actionable transformation roadmaps.
• Develop integrated business and technology roadmaps that guide organizational transformation, investment planning, and modernization priorities.
• Advise senior leadership on technology investments, enterprise capabilities, architectural implications, and transformation opportunities.
• Shape architecture direction for strategic domains such as AI, data, application modernization, platforms, integration, and emerging technologies.
• Guide application and platform rationalization to reduce redundancy, complexity, technical debt, and operational costs.
• Establish and evolve enterprise business capability and value-chain models to support strategic planning, investment prioritization, and transformation.
• Define enterprise reference architectures and target-state architecture that provide strategic direction for technology capabilities, platforms, and solution design.
• Communicate enterprise architecture direction, outcomes, and value to executive leadership and key stakeholders.

Business and Technology Alignment

• Act as a strategic partner between business and technology leadership, ensuring technology priorities and architecture decisions support institutional objectives.
• Engage business and technology leaders to understand strategic needs, emerging priorities, and transformation opportunities, and translate them into architecture requirements and priorities.
• Facilitate cross-functional alignment on business capabilities, technology direction, dependencies, and architectural trade-offs.
• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to align initiatives and investment priorities with enterprise roadmaps and target-state architecture.
• Provide architecture guidance to programs and delivery teams, ensuring business intent is effectively translated into scalable and sustainable technology solutions.
• Identify and resolve gaps or conflicts between business priorities, technology strategies, and enterprise architecture direction.

Governance and Leadership

• Establish and lead enterprise-wide architecture governance to drive consistent adoption of standards, patterns, decision frameworks, reference architectures, to enable strategic technology direction across business and technology domains.
• Chair the Architecture Review Boards and other governance forums, ensuring effective architectural decision-making and cross-functional alignment.
• Ensure strategic initiatives, programs, and solutions align with enterprise architecture standards, target-state architectures, and approved technology direction.
• Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, market developments, and architectural best practices to inform enterprise architecture direction and decision-making.
• Build strong relationships with executives, business leaders, delivery teams, and technology stakeholders to strengthen architecture influence and organizational alignment.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, architectural discipline, and continuous improvement.
• Lead, mentor, and develop architecture practitioners while strengthening enterprise architecture capabilities, practices, and competencies across the organization.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Master’s degree in business administration (MBA) or relevant post-graduate studies in business is considered an asset.
• Knowledge of the standard market architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF, ArchiMate, BIZBOK or equivalent) are considered strong assets.

Experience

• Minimum 15 years of experience in technology, business architecture, enterprise architecture, strategy, business transformation, including at least 5 years in a senior leadership role with team-management responsibilities;
• Extensive experience developing and implementing enterprise architecture frameworks, business capability models, operating models, and strategic technology roadmaps.
• Advanced proficiency across enterprise, business, and solution architecture, with the ability to operate effectively at every level while maintaining a strategic perspective.
• Experience applying architecture principles and governance to complex organizational challenges.
• Strong understanding of business process management, organizational design, capability-based planning, and information management.
• Experience working across multiple business functions and technology domains.
• Proven ability to influence senior executives and facilitate decision-making among diverse stakeholder groups.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating emerging technologies, including AI, and translating their potential business value into actionable technology transformation recommendations.