Enterprise Architect – ST

Who We Are  

SwitchThink Solutions is a fast-growing technology company supporting our parent organization, Desert Financial Credit Union, and more than 175 external credit unions nationwide. Our solutions are built on the Correlation Keystone Platform and complemented by managed services, cloud hosting, disaster recovery, business intelligence, and AI offerings.   

Our clients trust us. We have maintained zero customer churn for eight years and consistently earn strong client advocacy, with an NPS of 84. Our employees are equally committed, bringing a collaborative, team-oriented mindset and a shared passion for excellence. Backed by the financial strength of Desert Financial Credit Union, we offer stability alongside meaningful growth opportunities. 

What you will do here:

The Enterprise Architect leads the design of enterprise-scale solutions across complex business ecosystems, with particular emphasis on business applications, integrations, data flows, and the technology capabilities that support critical operations. This role partners with business and technology leaders to understand strategic objectives, simplify complex environments, and translate business needs into clear current-state assessments, target-state architectures, standards, and roadmaps. 

As a trusted technical advisor and hands-on architecture leader, the Enterprise Architect serves as the technical point of direction for large, multi-year, and multi-domain initiatives. The role is accountable for architecture from discovery and planning through detailed design, working in concert with engineers and delivery teams to build solutions and transition them successfully to operations for ongoing support. The Enterprise Architect also establishes architecture governance, reference architectures, technology standards, roadmaps, lifecycle direction, and exception-management practices that promote secure, resilient, scalable, and maintainable outcomes.

• Partner with business and technology leaders to connect enterprise priorities, business capabilities, operating processes, and constraints to current-state assessments, target-state architectures, sequenced roadmaps, and technology investment priorities.
• Identify opportunities to simplify the application portfolio, reduce duplication and technical debt, and improve enterprise value.
• Lead the planning and development of secure, scalable, and resilient architectures spanning business capabilities, applications, integrations, APIs, enterprise data and information flows, cloud and infrastructure services, security, identity, and operational dependencies.
• Ensure data ownership, quality, lineage, interoperability, retention, and appropriate use are addressed as part of enterprise design.
• Define and maintain enterprise architecture principles, standards, reference architectures, integration patterns, technology roadmaps, lifecycle positions, and exception-management practices.
• Establish clear architecture decision rights, engagement expectations, and reusable practices that enable consistent decisions across architecture and delivery teams.
• Serve as the technical leader and architecture decision owner for large, multi-year, and multi-domain initiatives, aligning business stakeholders, architects, engineers, vendors, and operational teams around a coherent design, measurable business outcomes, and clear architecture success criteria.
• Evaluate enterprise technologies, platforms, vendor solutions, sourcing approaches, and modernization options for strategic fit, interoperability, total cost of ownership, risk, supportability, vendor viability, and long-term business value.
• Facilitate architecture governance and design reviews; document decisions, dependencies, risks, and exceptions; ensure solutions align with enterprise standards and regulatory, security, resilience, and data-governance requirements; and strengthen architecture capability by coaching architects and engineers, sharing reusable practices, and promoting consistent architecture methods across teams.
• Work alongside engineers and delivery teams to refine and build the approved design, validate architectural intent during implementation, and enable a complete transition to operations with appropriate documentation, support models, and lifecycle ownership.

What you will need:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems or related field (preferred) OR equivalent combination of education and experience required.
• Advanced degree (Master's in a technical discipline, or MBA) preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, application architecture, integration architecture, or related enterprise technology roles required.
• 5+ years leading architecture for large enterprise or transformation initiatives spanning multiple business capabilities, applications, integrations, technology domains, and delivery teams required.
• 5+ years working as a trusted technical advisor to business and technology executives, with demonstrated ability to facilitate discovery, navigate ambiguity, influence across organizational boundaries, and communicate complex architectural tradeoffs in clear business terms required.
• 1+ years experience in financial services, banking, or credit unions, or another regulated enterprise environment preferred.
• Prior experience developing enterprise architecture roadmaps, reference architectures, technology standards, and governance practices within a complex enterprise or consulting environment preferred.
• Enterprise Architecture & Systems Design
• • Broad architecture expertise across business capabilities, enterprise applications, integrations, APIs, data flows, cloud and infrastructure services, security, identity, and operational dependencies.
• • Ability to assess complex current-state ecosystems and produce clear conceptual, logical, and solution architecture designs.
• • Strong command of integration patterns, interoperability, platform boundaries, nonfunctional requirements, and technology lifecycle planning.
• • Ability to connect business capability maps, process needs, data movement, and technology components into cohesive target-state architectures required.

Business Partnership & Technical Leadership

• Structured discovery that converts ambiguous business strategies, processes, and requirements into actionable architectural direction.
• Executive-level communication that explains options, dependencies, value, cost, and risk without unnecessary technical complexity.
• Facilitation of architecture workshops, design reviews, and decision forums involving business leaders, architects, engineers, vendors, and operations.
• Ability to lead through influence and serve as the technical point of direction for large, multi-year, and multi-domain initiatives required.

Architecture Governance & Risk

• Development and application of architecture principles, reference architectures, standards, roadmaps, technology lifecycle positions, and exception processes.
• Evaluation of architectural decisions against security, regulatory, privacy, resilience, capacity, supportability, and data-governance requirements.
• Clear documentation of decisions, assumptions, dependencies, risks, tradeoffs, and technical debt required.

Delivery & Execution

• Accountability for architecture from discovery and planning through detailed design, implementation guidance, validation, and transition to operations.
• Effective collaboration with engineers and delivery teams to convert architectural intent into buildable designs and production-ready solutions.
• Creation of reusable patterns, architecture artifacts, decision records, operational documentation, and support-transition requirements required.
• Advanced proficiency with enterprise architecture methods and modeling techniques, including capability, application, integration, information-flow, deployment, and transition-state views; experience with architecture repositories or modeling tools is preferred required.
• TOGAF certification, or a comparable enterprise architecture framework credential preferred.
• Current cloud or solution architecture certification from a major enterprise technology provider preferred.

Job Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Job Type: Hybrid

We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.

For additional information about our organization, careers, and benefits visit: http://www.desertfinancial.com/careers.

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