Director, Enterprise Architecture

Axian Telecom is seeking a visionary and structured
Director, Enterprise Architecture & Business Engagement
to lead the alignment of business needs with IT strategy and ensure the development of a cohesive, scalable, and future-ready enterprise architecture across all operating companies. Reporting to the Group CIO, this role is the strategic link between business stakeholders and technology delivery teams. The Director will own the IT architecture blueprint, drive architecture governance, and orchestrate business demand across all domains (consumer, enterprise, finance, HR, operations, etc.) to guide IT investment decisions and platform evolution.

Mission:

To define and govern the enterprise IT architecture and ensure strategic alignment between business priorities and technology investments. This role will lead business engagement at the Group level, shape multi-domain transformation roadmaps, and provide architectural direction to ensure interoperability, agility, and long-term value across all IT and digital initiatives.

Essential duties and responsibilities include:

Enterprise Architecture Governance

• Define and continuously update the group-wide enterprise architecture framework, covering business, application, data, integration, and technology domains.
• Develop and enforce architecture principles, standards, and reference models to guide IT decisions across OPCOs and functions.
• Ensure modular, scalable, and secure architecture aligned with business growth, regulatory needs, and innovation goals.

Strategic Business Engagement

• Lead structured engagement with Group functions (Finance, Commercial, Enterprise, HR, etc.) to understand their strategic objectives and translate them into IT initiatives.
• Act as the voice of the business in IT forums and the voice of IT in business forums, ensuring a continuous two-way alignment.
• Facilitate business capability modeling to identify technology enablers for business transformation.

Transformation Roadmaps & Demand Shaping

• Co-develop multi-year transformation roadmaps with business stakeholders and validate alignment with AXIS strategy.
• Prioritize IT investment portfolios across domains and countries in collaboration with Finance and Group CIO.
• Structure and govern the demand intake process to ensure feasibility, strategic fit, and capacity alignment.

Innovation & AI Architecture Enablement

• Work with the Group AI and Data teams to integrate AI requirements into enterprise design (e.g., AI services, data pipelines, model consumption).
• Evaluate emerging technologies (e.g., blockchain, digital identity, open APIs) and assess their fit within the enterprise architecture.
• Ensure AI, analytics, and automation capabilities are architecturally supported and consistently reused.

Collaboration & Interlock

• Maintain strong coordination with the Director of Digital Platforms & Delivery to ensure that execution is compliant with architecture standards and strategic intent.
• Align with Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and ITSM teams to ensure architectural decisions account for performance, resilience, and risk.

Architecture Compliance & Risk Management

• Conduct architecture reviews and ensure compliance of new solutions with enterprise standards.
• Maintain the technology roadmap, application inventory, and system interdependency maps.
• Identify and mitigate architectural risks, technical debt, and obsolescence across the group.

Team Leadership

• Lead a high-performing team of business architects, solution architects, and business engagement managers.
• Promote knowledge sharing and cross-domain collaboration across business and technical teams.
• Build architectural maturity across OPCOs and ensure consistency in business engagement practices.

Qualification, Skills, Knowledge & Competencies:

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• Certification in enterprise architecture frameworks (TOGAF, Zachman) is preferred.

Experience

• 12+ years of IT or architecture experience with at least 5 years in an enterprise-level leadership role.
• Strong experience in business-IT alignment, architecture governance, and multi-domain transformation programs.
• Telecom or digital services industry experience is a strong advantage.
• Demonstrated ability to drive architecture-led planning and support complex transformation across functions.

Certifications

• TOGAF or similar enterprise architecture certification preferred.
• PMP or Agile certifications are a plus.

Skills

• Deep understanding of enterprise architecture layers (business, application, data, integration, infrastructure).
• Strong business acumen and ability to translate strategic goals into architectural initiatives.
• Skilled in portfolio planning, demand management, and roadmap development.
• Excellent stakeholder management and facilitation skills.

Language

• Fluency in English is mandatory.
• French proficiency is highly desirable.

Other Competencies

• Strategic thinker with strong analytical and planning skills.
• Structured communicator and influencer at senior levels.
• Passionate about simplification, reuse, and long-term sustainability of IT systems.
• Able to navigate ambiguity and build consensus in complex environments.