Enterprise Discovery Architect

Requirements

• Plan and lead client technology discovery engagements.
  
• Define the objectives, scope, stakeholders, agenda and expected outputs for discovery sessions.
  
• Design and facilitate workshops involving business leaders, technology teams, operational stakeholders, security specialists, product teams and third-party suppliers.
  
• Establish a structured discovery approach appropriate to the client, programme and level of maturity.
  
• Ensure that discovery activities remain focused on business outcomes rather than becoming technology-led discussions.
  
• Identify where further specialist input, evidence or technical investigation is required.
  
• Coordinate contributions from VE3 subject-matter experts across cloud, applications, data, integration, cybersecurity, AI and delivery.
  

• Engage confidently with CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, CISOs, programme directors, enterprise architects, business leaders and operational teams.
  
• Facilitate discussions involving stakeholders with different priorities, perspectives and levels of technical understanding.
  
• Ask diagnostic, open and follow-up questions to identify root causes rather than accepting stated requirements at face value.
  
• Challenge assumptions constructively and professionally.
  
• Identify areas where stakeholder views, requirements or priorities conflict.
  
• Create a shared understanding of the current position, desired outcomes and decisions required.
  
• Ensure that quieter or less senior stakeholders have appropriate opportunities to contribute.
  
• Summarise and play back findings during workshops to confirm accuracy and alignment.
  
• Maintain control of workshop scope, timing and outcomes.
  

• Assess the client’s current business and technology environment.
  
• Review applications, platforms, infrastructure, cloud services, data, integrations, identity, security and operational processes.
  
• Identify technology dependencies, duplication, fragmentation, technical debt and architectural constraints.
  
• Assess existing technology strategies, standards, roadmaps and investment commitments.
  
• Understand existing delivery models, support arrangements, supplier relationships and internal capabilities.
  
• Identify gaps in documentation, governance, ownership and decision-making.
  
• Evaluate the impact of legacy systems and unsupported or obsolete technologies.
  
• Assess non-functional considerations, including resilience, scalability, availability, performance, security and maintainability.
  

• Understand the business drivers behind the proposed technology initiative.
  
• Identify expected outcomes, benefits, success measures and critical business capabilities.
  
• Map business needs to technology capabilities and enabling services.
  
• Identify user, customer and operational pain points.
  
• Explore current manual processes, workarounds and areas of inefficiency.
  
• Assess whether stated requirements reflect genuine business needs or predetermined solution preferences.
  
• Support capability mapping, value-stream analysis and operating-model discussions where appropriate.
  

• Develop clear and proportionate architecture outputs based on discovery findings.
  
• Produce current-state and target-state architecture views.
  
• Develop context diagrams, ecosystem maps, application landscapes, integration maps and data-flow diagrams.
  
• Define high-level architecture principles and design considerations.
  
• Identify potential technology options and assess their relative advantages, risks and constraints.
  
• Develop transition architectures and phased transformation approaches.
  
• Ensure recommendations consider business, data, application, integration, infrastructure, security and operational architecture.
  
• Avoid premature product selection or detailed solution design where discovery evidence is insufficient.
  
• Clearly distinguish confirmed requirements, assumptions, recommendations and areas requiring further analysis.
  

• Translate discovery findings into strategic technology recommendations.
  
• Develop prioritised roadmaps covering immediate improvements, medium-term modernisation and longer-term transformation.
  
• Separate tactical quick wins from strategic architecture changes.
  
• Identify delivery workstreams, dependencies, sequencing and decision points.
  
• Define practical next steps that can progress into architecture, procurement, proof-of-concept or implementation phases.
  
• Support clients in understanding the implications of different investment and delivery options.
  
• Consider technology choices in the context of cost, complexity, delivery risk, organisational readiness and long-term sustainability.
  

• Identify architectural, technical, delivery, security, commercial and operational risks.
  
• Maintain structured records of risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies and decisions.
  
• Support the establishment of appropriate architecture governance.
  
• Define areas requiring technical assurance or specialist review.
  
• Present options in a balanced and evidence-based manner.
  
• Help clients understand trade-offs between speed, cost, risk, flexibility and technical quality.
  
• Support decision-making without overstating certainty where evidence remains incomplete.
  

• Support VE3 account, consulting and delivery teams during early-stage client engagements.
  
• Participate in client qualification and solution-shaping discussions.
  
• Help define discovery scopes, statements of work and engagement approaches.
  
• Contribute to proposals, presentations and tender responses.
  
• Develop high-level delivery approaches, workstream structures and indicative resource requirements.
  
• Support effort, timeline and cost estimation based on discovery findings.
  
• Identify opportunities where VE3 capabilities can address client needs.
  
• Ensure that recommendations remain client-led and are not shaped solely around predetermined VE3 services or products.
  

• Discovery reports
  
• Executive summaries
  
• Current-state assessments
  
• Technology landscape reviews
  
• Business capability maps
  
• Stakeholder and user-needs summaries
  
• Current-state architecture diagrams
  
• Target-state architecture diagrams
  
• Integration and data-flow views
  
• Architecture principles
  
• Technology option assessments
  
• Risk and dependency registers
  
• Prioritised opportunity backlogs
  
• Transformation roadmaps
  
• Delivery workstream definitions
  
• Indicative delivery plans
  
• High-level resource models
  
• Recommendations for subsequent phases
  

• Enterprise and solution architecture
  
• Cloud platforms, including Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud
  
• Hybrid and multi-cloud environments
  
• Enterprise applications
  
• ERP, CRM and line-of-business platforms
  
• Custom application development
  
• Legacy application modernisation
  
• SaaS, COTS and low-code platforms
  
• API management and systems integration
  
• Event-driven and service-oriented architecture
  
• Data platforms, analytics and business intelligence
  
• Data governance, quality, lineage and master data
  
• Artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation
  
• Identity and access management
  
• Cybersecurity, privacy and compliance
  
• DevOps, DevSecOps and platform engineering
  
• Containers, Kubernetes and infrastructure as code
  
• Enterprise service management and support models
  
• Observability, monitoring and operational resilience
  
• Digital workplace and collaboration platforms
  
• Technology operating models and governance
  

• Significant experience in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, technology consulting or digital transformation.
  
• Demonstrable experience leading technology discovery or assessment engagements.
  
• Experience planning and facilitating workshops with senior business and technology stakeholders.
  
• Experience working across multiple architecture domains rather than within a single technology specialism.
  
• Experience assessing complex and fragmented technology environments.
  
• Experience developing current-state and target-state architecture.
  
• Experience translating business objectives into technology capabilities and architecture recommendations.
  
• Experience producing technology strategies, roadmaps and option assessments.
  
• Experience presenting findings and recommendations to senior leadership.
  
• Experience working in environments where requirements are incomplete, ambiguous or contested.
  
• Experience collaborating with specialist architects, engineers, security teams, data teams and delivery leads.
  
• Experience contributing to proposals, statements of work, bids or pre-sales activities.
  
• Strong written communication and client-facing documentation skills.
  

• Broad understanding of modern enterprise technology.
  
• Strong enterprise and solution architecture capability.
  
• Ability to connect business, data, application, integration, infrastructure and security considerations.
  
• Ability to develop clear architecture models without unnecessary complexity.
  
• Understanding of cloud adoption, modernisation and migration approaches.
  
• Understanding of technical debt, legacy constraints and transition architecture.
  
• Ability to evaluate technology options objectively.
  
• Understanding of non-functional requirements and operational considerations.
  
• Ability to identify when a specialist architect or technical expert is required.
  

• Strong questioning, listening and analytical skills.
  
• Ability to identify root causes, dependencies and hidden constraints.
  
• Ability to structure complex and ambiguous information.
  
• Ability to distinguish business needs from preferred technology solutions.
  
• Ability to synthesise large amounts of information quickly.
  
• Ability to create a clear narrative from conflicting stakeholder inputs.
  
• Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking capability.
  
• Commercial awareness and understanding of how recommendations affect cost, risk and delivery.
  

• Strong facilitation and presentation skills.
  
• Ability to establish authority and credibility in senior client environments.
  
• Ability to manage difficult, dominant or conflicting stakeholders.
  
• Ability to keep workshops focused and outcome-driven.
  
• Ability to adapt facilitation style to different audiences.
  
• Ability to explain complex technology concepts in accessible language.
  
• Ability to manage time, scope and expectations effectively.
  
• Ability to summarise decisions and actions clearly.
  

• Excellent verbal and written English.
  
• Strong executive communication skills.
  
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences.
  
• Ability to produce concise, high-quality client deliverables.
  
• Ability to present recommendations without overstating certainty.
  
• Ability to challenge constructively while maintaining positive stakeholder relationships.
  

• Experience working for a technology consultancy, systems integrator or professional-services organisation.
  
• Experience in regulated or public-sector environments.
  
• Experience with UK government, healthcare, financial services, utilities, education, housing or other complex enterprise environments.
  
• Experience with formal enterprise architecture practices or frameworks.
  
• Experience supporting procurement, tendering or technology partner selection.
  
• Experience with service design, product discovery or business architecture.
  
• Experience developing business cases or investment options.
  
• Experience supporting major cloud, ERP, CRM, data, integration or cybersecurity transformation programmes.
  
• Experience assessing AI readiness, data maturity or automation opportunities.
  
• Experience working with delivery teams through the transition from discovery into implementation.
  

• TOGAF
  
• BCS Enterprise and Solution Architecture
  
• ArchiMate
  
• AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud architecture certifications
  
• ITIL
  
• SAFe
  
• Scrum or Agile certifications
  
• Business analysis or service-design qualifications
  
• Security architecture or cloud-security certifications
  

• The successful candidate will be:
  
• Confident but not overbearing
  
• Curious and analytical
  
• Comfortable with uncertainty
  
• Structured and methodical
  
• Commercially aware
  
• Client-focused
  
• Pragmatic rather than theoretical
  
• Able to challenge respectfully
  
• Comfortable working across multiple technology domains
  
• Able to build trust quickly
  
• Able to remain neutral when assessing technology options
  
• Able to operate independently while collaborating effectively with wider teams
  
• Honest about areas requiring specialist expertise
  
• Focused on producing actionable outcomes rather than documentation for its own sake