T&DS - Group Chief Architect

Role purpose

The Group Chief Architect sets the firm’s enterprise architecture direction and ensures that major technology decisions support business strategy, delivery priorities and sustainable operations. The role provides pragmatic leadership across business, data, application, integration, cloud and technology architecture in a federated organisation.

This is a senior, hands-on role requiring deep technical knowledge, commercial judgement and a strong focus on execution. The role will also establish the AI architecture framework for the Amplified Collective Excellence (ACE) programme, ensuring that AI solutions are scalable, secure, governed and supported by the right data, integration and technology foundations.

Key responsibilities

Enterprise architecture and roadmaps

• Define and maintain the Group target architecture, principles and prioritised transition roadmaps.
• Translate business and transformation priorities into coherent capability, platform and technology choices.
• Identify material gaps, duplication and technical debt, and recommend practical simplification priorities.

Governance and delivery assurance

• Establish proportionate architecture governance and lead the relevant decision forum.
• Provide design assurance for priority investments and programmes, using practical standards and reusable patterns.
• Work directly with programme, product and engineering teams to resolve cross-domain decisions and turn architecture into implementable designs.

ACE AI architecture framework

• Establish the architecture framework, principles and reference patterns for AI capabilities delivered through ACE.
• Work with Data, AI, Security, Risk and delivery leaders to ensure AI use cases can move securely and sustainably into production.
• Maintain oversight of ACE architecture dependencies and decisions, ensuring alignment with the wider enterprise architecture.

Technology and stakeholder leadership

• Guide platform choices, modernisation and technical debt priorities to improve reuse, interoperability and value.
• Lead the Group architecture function and wider architecture community around clear priorities and delivery outcomes.
• Advise the Group CIO and senior stakeholders, translating complex technology choices into clear business implications and recommendations.
• Build alignment across Group, Regions and Countries while recognising where local flexibility is appropriate.

Key Skills

• Apply deep expertise across business, data, application and technology architecture, together with strong understanding of AI-enabling technologies, ensuring that strategic roadmaps are practical, integrated and clearly connected to business outcomes.
• Proven experience turning architecture strategy and target states into implemented outcomes in complex transformation and operational environments.
• Pragmatic and execution focused, able to simplify, prioritise, make decisions with incomplete information and stay engaged until issues are resolved.
• Commercially aware, balancing architectural quality with pace, cost, risk, security and supportability.
• Exceptional executive influencing and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technology choices into clear business implications, options and recommendations.

Experience and qualifications

• Degree-level education in technology, computer science, engineering, business or a related discipline is expected, with equivalent senior leadership experience also considered where it demonstrates the required strategic architecture capability.
• Relevant architecture qualifications or professional certifications, such as TOGAF, ArchiMate, cloud architecture certifications or equivalent industry-recognised frameworks, would be advantageous and should support practical leadership rather than purely theoretical knowledge.
• Experience leading enterprise architecture governance, architecture boards or design authorities is important, as the role will need to create decision discipline and alignment across Group, regional and local technology choices.
• Strong exposure to modern technology domains, including cloud platforms, data architecture, AI enablement, cyber security, integration and enterprise platforms, is required to guide a coherent target-state architecture.

About Technology & digital solutions

The Technology & Digital Solutions (T&DS) organization is one of the key pillars of Forvis Mazars’ digital transformation. Over the past years, T&DS has been shaping and continuously strengthening a seamless digital environment that enables greater collaboration worldwide, in a safe and trusted context. This empowers Forvis Mazars professionals to deliver more value to clients every day.

To achieve this, the T&DS transformation program has progressively consolidated IT operations from a multi-local model spread across 100+ countries into a global model. This global setup now supports the business, people and clients, while continuously adapting to evolving digital needs, technologies and expectations.

The success and sustainability of this transformation rely on the strong expertise and ongoing commitment of every member of the team. As digital technologies evolve every day, T&DS evolves with them. Joining the Technology & Digital Solutions organization means contributing to a mature, impactful transformation, and helping shape what comes next.