Enterprise Architect

Enterprise Architect — Infrastructure & Technology Solutions

Location: Chicago and surrounding Cook County communities, Illinois
Work Arrangement: Availability for onsite assessments, meetings, and implementation activities, with travel to Springfield and other Illinois locations as required.
Salary Range: $130,000–$180,000 annually, depending on experience, qualifications, and relevant enterprise architecture expertise.

Position Summary

Global Enterprise Services, LLC is seeking an Enterprise Architect to support a range of enterprise IT and infrastructure initiatives in Illinois. The architect will work with business stakeholders, technical teams, and technology providers to assess existing environments, identify requirements, develop solution architectures, and oversee technology implementations.

Responsibilities may include site surveys, architecture discovery, infrastructure assessments, solution design, implementation planning, and technical oversight. The ideal candidate combines broad enterprise IT expertise with knowledge of Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) infrastructure or experience supporting agencies or customers of comparable size and complexity.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct site surveys and technical assessments to document existing infrastructure, connectivity, equipment, capacity, and site readiness.
• Lead architecture discovery sessions with business stakeholders, technical teams, and service providers to understand requirements, constraints, and dependencies.
• Assess current technology environments, identify gaps and risks, and recommend improvements.
• Develop solution architectures spanning infrastructure, networking, cloud services, identity, security, applications, and systems integration.
• Produce architecture diagrams, technical specifications, design documentation, and implementation roadmaps.
• Align proposed solutions with applicable organizational standards, technology governance requirements, security policies, and operational needs.
• Evaluate technology options and vendor solutions for technical fit, interoperability, scalability, supportability, and cost.
• Define technical prerequisites, implementation dependencies, acceptance criteria, and operational readiness requirements.
• Provide technical oversight during implementation, coordinating with project managers, engineers, vendors, and support teams.
• Review implementation plans and proposed changes to identify architectural impacts and resolve technical issues.
• Support testing, deployment, migration, and cutover planning; validate that implemented solutions meet approved designs and requirements.
• Guide transition to operations through documentation, knowledge transfer, and support readiness reviews.
• Communicate technical recommendations, tradeoffs, risks, and progress to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Eight or more years of progressive enterprise IT experience, including at least three years in enterprise, infrastructure, or solution architecture.
• Experience conducting site surveys, technical discovery, infrastructure assessments, and requirements gathering.
• Demonstrated ability to develop architecture designs and provide technical oversight through implementation.
• Experience supporting Illinois DoIT infrastructure or enterprise IT environments for agencies or customers of comparable size and complexity.
• Working knowledge of enterprise architecture standards, technology governance, security requirements, and infrastructure service delivery practices.
• Broad knowledge of enterprise IT, including:
  • Data center infrastructure, servers, virtualization, storage, and backup.
  • LAN/WAN connectivity, wireless networks, firewalls, DNS, and load balancing.
  • Cloud platforms and integration between cloud and on-premises environments.
  • Directory services, identity and access management, and access controls.
  • Monitoring, high availability, business continuity, and disaster recovery.
  • Application dependencies, systems integration, and data flows.
• Ability to translate business and operational needs into practical technical solutions.
• Strong documentation, communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder coordination skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting Illinois public-sector technology initiatives.
• Familiarity with Chicago-area or Cook County public-sector IT environments.
• Experience coordinating technology implementations across multiple sites, agencies, or service providers.
• Experience with infrastructure modernization, cloud migration, network upgrades, or data center initiatives.
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture frameworks such as TOGAF and service management practices such as ITIL.
• Experience contributing technical scope, requirements, and acceptance criteria to statements of work.
• Relevant architecture, cloud, networking, or security certifications.

Background Screening

Must successfully complete applicable customer-required background checks, which may include fingerprint-based screening, and meet requirements for access to customer facilities, systems, and data.

Representative Deliverables

Deliverables will vary by assignment and may include:

• Site survey reports and infrastructure inventories.
• Current-state architecture and discovery documentation.
• Requirements, gap assessments, and technical risk findings.
• Solution designs and architecture diagrams.
• Technology recommendations and implementation roadmaps.
• Technical implementation reviews and acceptance recommendations.
• Operational documentation and knowledge transfer materials.