Head of Technology and Enterprise Architecture

We are currently recruiting a Head of Technology and Enterprise Architecture for a Permanent contract. 
This role is hybrid, both working from home and in any of our offices. 

We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly between home and the hub to suit their needs and preferences, in line with our hybrid working policy.

Colleagues are able to work their hours flexibly, in line with core business hours and requirements. We also offer formalised flexible working agreements.  

The starting salary is £82,935 if based in our Oxford or Edinburgh office, or £90,060 if based in our London office.

To apply, please send a CV and cover letter to HRsupport@actuaries.org.uk by the closing date of Friday 27 March.

Purpose of the job

This role exists to lead the enterprise technology and data architecture of the IFoA.

The post-holder is accountable for the reliability, security and performance of the organisation’s live technology services, alongside the integrity and future-readiness of the enterprise architecture, covering:

• Operational service reliability and resilience
• Technology risk and cyber security
• Enterprise systems architecture
• Data architecture and information integrity
• Cloud and infrastructure strategy
• Strategic supplier oversight

Working under the strategic direction of the Director of Business Transformation, this role provides the architectural leadership required to translate organisational and product strategy into secure, scalable and future-ready technology capability.

Dimensions

Accountable for the organisation’s enterprise technology estate and associated budgets (c. £3-4m per annum, including infrastructure, enterprise platforms and digital systems).

The estate includes:

• CRM and member platforms
• Examination and assessment systems
• Finance systems
• Website and digital platforms
• Virtual learning environment
• Data platforms and reporting architecture
• Cloud infrastructure and connectivity
• Identity and security services

The role leads the internal technology function and oversees strategic supplier relationships across all enterprise platforms.

Principal accountabilities

1. Enterprise Technology Strategy & Architecture

• Define and maintain the enterprise technology strategy aligned to organisational and product priorities
• Design and govern the target-state enterprise architecture
• Establish and enforce architectural principles and standards
• Manage technical debt and lifecycle planning
• Lead architectural due diligence within major procurements

The post-holder must be capable of articulating and defending current-state architecture, target-state architecture and transition roadmaps at senior leadership level.

This is a hands-on leadership role: setting architectural direction, assuring major designs, and personally leading architecture on the organisation’s highest-risk and most strategically significant programmes.

2. Systems Architecture Leadership

Accountable for coherent enterprise application architecture across all domains.

This includes:

• Application landscape design
• Integration architecture (API-led, event-driven or equivalent patterns)
• Identity and access architecture
• Security architecture
• Cloud-first infrastructure design
• Non-functional design (resilience, scalability, availability)

The role requires strong technical judgement and the confidence to interrogate vendor architecture rigorously, prevent system duplication and ensure long-term flexibility.

This is not a coordination role; it requires genuine architectural depth.

3. Data Architecture & Information Integrity

Data architecture is a core component of this role.

The post-holder is accountable for:

• Establishing and governing a common data model across the qualification and member lifecycle
• Defining master data ownership and stewardship
• Ensuring consistent data definitions across systems
• Designing and embedding data governance and quality frameworks
• Aligning operational systems with reporting platforms
• Ensuring trusted, auditable and regulator-ready reporting

The organisation must operate on a single source of truth. This role ensures that principle is technically designed, governed and sustained.

4. Operational Reliability, Infrastructure & Security

• Own operational service performance across all enterprise platforms
• Provide executive oversight of the outsourced 6DG service desk and technical support arrangements, holding the provider to account for service performance, incident resolution, security compliance and continuous improvement.
• Ensure major incidents are managed decisively and transparently, with robust root cause analysis, remediation and continuous improvement.
• Lead cloud-first infrastructure strategy
• Define and maintain the organisation’s cyber security posture, ensuring compliance with relevant security standards, regulatory expectations and emerging risk landscapes.
• Lead technical risk identification, mitigation and reporting to Audit & Risk Committee
• Own disaster recovery, resilience testing and business continuity alignment

Ensure clear operational ownership structures are in place beneath this role, enabling effective day-to-day service management while retaining senior accountability for risk and performance.

5. Demand & Investment Governance

• Partner with Product and Business Transformation to align technology investment with strategic priorities
• Ensure all change initiatives conform to architectural standards
• Govern architectural approval of new systems and platforms
• Prevent uncontrolled system proliferation and technical fragmentation

6. Supplier & Commercial Leadership

• Lead strategic technology procurements
• Negotiate and manage major enterprise contracts
• Hold suppliers accountable for roadmap alignment, security and performance
• Assess long-term technical viability and flexibility of vendor platforms

7. Leadership

• Lead and develop the internal technology function
• Build architectural maturity across the organisation
• Build a culture of technical discipline, accountability and strategic alignment
• Establish clear separation between operational delivery and architectural governance, ensuring routine operational activity is effectively managed while senior technical focus remains on risk, resilience and long-term coherence.

Main contacts

Regular engagement with:

• Director of Business Transformation
• Directors and Senior Leaders
• Product and Domain Leads
• Finance and Governance teams
• Audit & Risk Committee
• Technology Committee
• IFoA Board and Council
  

Decisions

The post-holder has authority over:

• Enterprise architecture standards
• Technology strategy and target state
• Approval of new enterprise systems
• Allocation of technology investment within agreed budgets
• Security and resilience posture
• Major supplier selection and contract negotiation

The role is accountable for the architectural coherence and operational stability of the technology estate.

Complexity

This role operates at the meeting point of:

• Strategic transformation
• Regulatory and reputational risk
• Legacy estate management
• Multi-vendor technical ecosystems
• Data integrity and reporting confidence

The post-holder must translate strategic ambition into coherent architectural design while maintaining operational reliability.

Impact

Strong performance in this role will:

• Enable confident delivery of qualification and member transformation
• Improve data trust and reporting integrity
• Reduce duplication and technical debt
• Accelerate product and service innovation
• Protect organisational reputation

Poor architectural decisions would create long-term structural constraint; strong decisions create durable strategic advantage.

Knowledge and experience

Essential:

• Significant experience in enterprise systems architecture
• Demonstrable experience in data architecture and governance
• Strong understanding of enterprise data modelling and master data strategy
• Experience leading cloud-based enterprise environments
• Deep understanding of integration patterns and API design
• Experience managing multi-vendor enterprise estates
• Commercial and procurement leadership experience
• Experience operating at senior leadership level

Technical credibility must include demonstrable experience of:

• Enterprise application landscape design
• Data model governance and stewardship
• Integration architecture
• Identity and security frameworks
• Reporting and data platform alignment
• Technical roadmap development

Desirable:

• Experience in regulated, education, or membership environments
• Experience working within product-oriented operating models
• Familiarity with ITIL, Agile and DevOps practices

Additional information

• UK-based with hybrid working
• Typically one day per week in London, Oxford or Edinburgh
• Occasional travel required

This is a leadership role at a pivotal moment of transformation, with responsibility for shaping the organisation’s long-term technology and data foundations. It requires the ability to stabilise and strengthen live services while simultaneously designing future-state capability.

Alternative format and adjustments

Please email the HR Team if you require:

• any information regarding our vacancies in an alternative format
• any adjustments to support you to fully participate in any part of the application and recruitment process

Any information shared will be used only to enable us to make reasonable adjustments to support candidates to participate in the recruitment process. It will not inform selection decisions.

You can reach us at HRsupport@actuaries.org.uk.