Chief Architect

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC•Philadelphia, PA

22h•Hybrid

About The Position

Janney is hiring a Chief Architect to lead Enterprise Architecture for the firm and to lead its push into applied AI and automation. This role involves setting technical standards and reference patterns, and building and leading a team of AI engineers. It is a hands-on leadership role that requires working directly with senior business leaders as a trusted advisor. The Chief Architect will act as an in-house consultancy, using technical judgment, increasingly AI-powered, to solve business challenges. The ideal candidate is genuinely excited about AI and wants to build and lead a team that uses it responsibly.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in enterprise or solution architecture leadership, including real ownership of governance – standards, patterns, and decision records.
Deep knowledge of wealth management and wealth technology: advisory and brokerage workflows, clearing and custody, portfolio construction and performance reporting, and financial planning platforms.
A track record of being sought out by business and product leaders for early advice, not just approvals.
Genuine, hands-on comfort with modern AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT – able to direct them through real design and analysis work, and know when to push back on what they produce.
Experience leading a governance model that’s measured by adoption, not approval volume – comfortable being an advisor, not just a gatekeeper.
Comfort leading a small, senior team, and staying personally involved in architecture and design work, not just directing others.
Experience leading an applied-AI or automation team, including setting roadmap and security/control standards.
A track record of leading through influence – getting strong work out of people who don’t report to you.

Nice To Haves

Experience building or overhauling a reference architecture and pattern library from a less mature starting point.
Hands-on experience with the Atlassian suite (Jira, Confluence), ideally including migrating a team off Azure DevOps.
Familiarity with the regulatory and supervisory environment for broker-dealers and registered investment advisors (data retention, entitlements, recordkeeping, exam readiness).
Experience partnering with a dedicated data office or Chief Data Officer function.
Direct, hands-on experience with enterprise deployments of Claude or ChatGPT, rather than only casual personal use.
Broad familiarity across SaaS platforms (like Salesforce or ServiceNow), web engineering, and full-stack engineering.

Responsibilities

Set Janney’s Architecture Standards, including owning and publishing reference architectures, technology standards, and build-vs-buy guidance.
Maintain the architecture pattern library as a living resource, retiring or updating patterns that teams aren’t using.
Keep the technology reference model current and accurate.
Lead the migration from Azure DevOps to the Atlassian suite (Jira and Confluence) for architecture decision records, pattern library, and backlog management.
Guide Technology Investment Decisions by owning the architecture review for all technology portfolio intake requests.
Chair the exception review process and maintain a clear record of decisions.
Represent architecture at the quarterly Portfolio Investment Council and monthly Portfolio Checkpoint.
Act as the senior architecture partner to UX research, data office, and security architecture during intake.
Lead AI & Automation as a Core Capability by building and leading a team of AI engineers focused on solving business problems with AI.
Set Janney’s roadmap for applied AI and automation, holding it to high standards.
Own the approach to AI security and responsible AI use in partnership with Data and Information Security.
Champion smart, secure, and productive use of AI across the firm.
Bring in the Right Expertise by pulling Solution Architects from various platforms onto initiatives.
Set the technical direction for initiatives and hold architects to enterprise standards.
Feed learnings from initiatives back into the pattern library.
Build Real Relationships Across the Business by getting involved early in business problem framing.
Develop deep understanding of business areas like advisor and client workflows, brokerage, clearing and custody, portfolio construction, performance reporting, and the regulatory environment.
Stay current on wealth management technology and vendor landscape.
Use AI in daily work for solution options, trade studies, research, prototypes, and drafting architecture decision records.
Own all work produced with the assistance of AI tools.