Head of IT Architecture

Dit ga jij doen

Millions of customers rely on Odido every day. Behind every connection, interaction and digital service sits an increasingly complex IT & Network Technology landscape. Keeping that landscape resilient today while making the right technology choices for tomorrow requires more than architecture on paper.

It requires direction.

As Head of IT Architecture, you own the architectural direction for our entire IT estate. From understanding where we are today to defining where we need to be, and, importantly, how we get there. You connect business ambition with technology strategy, bring coherence across platforms and domains and create principles that help teams make better technology decisions every day.

But architecture at Odido is not an ivory tower. Technology should enable the business, accelerate where it can and create opportunities we may not yet be using to their full potential. You challenge the business with what technology can make possible, while equally challenging technology teams to understand what the business needs.

You report directly to our CIO and become the overall point of leadership for Architecture and Design across IT. Your impact reaches far beyond the Architecture team: you influence engineers, architects, technology leaders, vendors and business stakeholders across Odido.

What you’ll do

You own the IT Architecture strategy across the complete IT estate. You ensure we have a clear view of our current architecture, define the target state and create the practical stepping stones that move us towards it.

That means translating our IT 2030 strategy into an estate-wide technology strategy and reference architecture, while ensuring change across platforms and domains remains aligned with agreed architectural principles, policies and patterns.

You will:

• Own our current and target IT architecture. Create clarity on where we are today, where we are going and the architectural choices needed to get there.
• Set architectural direction. Define and maintain the principles, patterns and guardrails used by Enterprise, Solution, Domain and Platform Architects across Odido.
• Lead Architecture across IT. Lead, coach and develop a diverse team of architects with different levels of experience and expertise, while creating alignment with the wider architecture community across IT.
• Connect business and technology strategy. Understand Odido’s wider business ambitions and translate them into technology capabilities and architectural roadmaps. Equally, identify where existing or emerging technology can create new business opportunities or help us move faster.
• Safeguard architectural governance. Challenge deviations, identify gaps and ensure solutions remain aligned with our architectural direction without allowing governance to become an unnecessary barrier to progress.
• Lead Security & Risk within IT.Ensure we understand what needs to be delivered across security, risk, regulatory and data requirements, embed these principles into architectural decision-making and hold teams accountable for delivering against them. You lead the relevant Security & Risk teams within IT and ensure these topics are addressed by design, not added afterwards.
• Influence across boundaries. Build strong relationships with technology and business leaders and make complex architectural choices understandable to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Look ahead. Follow developments across telecom, digital technology, data, AI and security and understand what we should adopt, evolve, defer or retire.

And sometimes, your job is to say, “not like this.”

But equally important is knowing when the answer should change.

You’ll constantly balance architectural quality with business priorities, speed, cost pressure, risk and regulatory requirements. The technically most elegant solution is not automatically the right solution for Odido. You can make that trade-off objectively, adjust direction when circumstances change and move forward without becoming emotionally attached to a particular architectural outcome.

You’ll navigate different opinions across domains, platforms, engineering teams, vendors and business stakeholders. Sometimes you will need to hold the architectural line. At other times, you will need to adapt to it.

Your success comes from creating alignment and making the right decision for Odido, not from winning the argument.

Leadership that reaches beyond your team

This is a substantial leadership role.

You lead a lean Architecture organization consisting of Enterprise Architects and End-to-End Solution Architects, while also providing direction to a broader matrix of architects across other parts of IT. Your influence therefore extends con