The Firm

The organisation is going through an exciting period of change focused on back-office transformation and supporting the firm's 2030 vision which focuses on taking us from a £300M+ to £500M business over the next few years. Technology has and will continue to play a pivotal role in this Journey as we grow our business globally and through new services and products. We're looking for a hands-on Head of Architecture who can help design and implement a modern, scalable, resilient and highly performant architecture.

Overview of the Role

The Head of Architecture will report directly to the CIO and be responsible for leading a community of architects across the firm to define and deliver a target architecture focused on business enablement, simplification, total cost of ownership and technical resilience.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop, own and maintain the target architecture for the firm ensuring the target architecture delivers the capabilities, cost and resilience desired.
• Working with the CTO, develop and maintain a technology roadmap that modernises and simplifies the estate, improves the security posture, addresses technical debt and workarounds and delivers an improved TCO.
• Develop an architecture that is open and flexible in order to respond to the "unknown" in the longer-term strategy.
• Validate the current state baseline and identify opportunities to improve and optimise existing architecture leveraging more out of the box/platform native capabilities.
• Implement Architectural governance across the firm ensuring architectural choices are assessed/debated and any material architectural decisions are made in line with the target architecture.
• Implement an enterprise architecture capability that provides architectural direction, guidance, principles and standards to the firm and sits at the centre of making any material architectural decisions.
• Implement the OD for the architecture function including the creation of a community of practice that you will lead which brings together architects from other teams (Platform, Cyber, Business) to work towards a common architectural vision/set of principles.
• Develop the goals and objectives for the architectural community of practice.
• Develop/execute sourcing strategy for architecture ensuring we strike the right balance between pace, agility, flexibility of resourcing and retaining/maintaining IP and a knowledge and understanding of our platforms, products and broader estate.
• Working with the CTO, develop out of the box architectures/playbooks for potential acquisitions, spinoff's, joint ventures and global offices accelerating execution and avoiding workarounds and complexity around support and maintenance.
• Accountable for making the final decision/recommendation on material architectural choices/decisions.

Skills/Experience

• Deep technical expertise gained through 15+ years in Technology and covering the full tech stack.
• Breadth of architectural knowledge and experience across Business, Application, Integration, Data, Technical Infrastructure and Security architecture domains.
• First-hand experience of developing target architectures based on strategic business direction, current technology estate and industry & technology drivers.
• Proven track record of improving Total Cost of Ownership & Total Cost of Change through architectural optimisation, modernisation and other levers.
• Strong story telling capabilities to be able to take the organisation on a journey where simplification and the decommissioning of products and services may impact end-users.
• Be able to discuss technology with senior business people in their language (i.e. sell the Target Architecture vision) and discuss business priorities with technologists in their language (i.e. communicate the business vision and its implications).
• The ability to motivate, inspire and direct architects who don't report to you but form part of a community of practice. Equally important is the ability to execute through this community of practice.
• The impact, gravitas and confidence to say "no" to things to stop the further proliferation of technology and ensure we are working on the things that have the largest strategic impact.
• Experience of identifying technology opportunities - proactive as well as reactive Tech.
• Strong knowledge of and experience with Enterprise Architecture frameworks and tooling.
• The ability to face off to / deal with/execute via a network of suppliers and vendors.
• Ability to influence and negotiate with people at all levels, including senior management.
• A strong collaborator, with the ability to work with a range of different working styles.
• Hard working, enthusiastic, professional, high standards of delivery and very collaborative.
• Strong project management skills.
• Strong communication, both verbal and written.
• Experience operating in a fast-paced environment undergoing significant change.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

About The Mishcon de Reya Group

The Mishcon de Reya Group is an independent, international professional services business with law at its heart, employing over 1450 people with over 650 lawyers. It includes the law firm Mishcon de Reya LLP and a collection of leading consultancy businesses that complement the firm's legal services.

Mishcon de Reya LLP is based in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore and Hong Kong (through its association with Karas So LLP). The firm services an international community of clients and provides advice in situations where the constraints of geography often do not apply. Its work is cross-border, multi-jurisdictional and complex, spanning seven core practice areas: Corporate; Dispute Resolution; Employment; Impact; Innovation; Private; and Real Estate.

The Mishcon de Reya Group includes consultancy businesses MDR Discover, MDR Mayfair (in London, Singapore and Dubai), MDR ONE, MDRi (in Hong Kong) and MDRx. The Group also includes MDR Lab, which invests in the most promising early stage legaltech companies as well as the Mishcon Academy, its in-house place of learning and platform for thought leadership.

Earlier this year, the Group announced its first strategic acquisition in the alternative legal services market, flexible legal resourcing business Flex Legal. It also acquired a majority stake in Somos, a global group actions management business.

We strive to create a fully diverse and inclusive workplace where all our people are empowered to fulfuil their potential. We are proud of our agile working culture and are always happy to talk about flexible working.

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