Head of Architecture and Delivery

James Fisher and Sons

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

At James Fisher, IT is seen as central to unlocking the speed, agility, efficiency, and differentiation needed for the organization to compete and win in its core markets. To fully realize this ambition, the company is modernizing its foundations, unifying and digitizing processes, and applying emerging technologies to transform how the business operates and performs. James Fisher is part-way through a major IT Transformation programme that will deliver a federated IT operating model, a target enterprise architecture, an integrated IT investment process, and a group-wide project governance framework. The Head of Architecture and Delivery will join at the point where design and early implementation are complete, and will take ownership of completing the implementation, building out the team, and transitioning the function into steady-state operation. This is a senior leadership role within the IT Function, accountable for enterprise architecture governance, integrated IT planning, and group-wide IT project governance. By ensuring architectural coherence, strategic alignment, and responsive, proportionate governance, the Head of Architecture and Delivery ensures that IT investments fit together, are scalable, reusable, and extensible, and deliver long-term business value. The scope of this role is global and group-wide, encompassing 3 Divisions (Maritime Transport, Energy, Defence) plus Group Functions, 77 sites across UK, Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Asia and Australia, with circa 2000 employees.

Requirements

• Significant experience in enterprise architecture, IT governance, and IT transformation, with a track record of leading these disciplines at group or enterprise level.
• Experience working in federated or multi-division environments, balancing enterprise-wide standards with divisional autonomy.
• Experience leading IT functions or sub-functions through periods of change, maturation, and continuous improvement.
• Significant experience in IT, including in a senior architecture, PMO, or IT leadership role.
• Degree level qualification in a relevant discipline (Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or similar).
• Strong technical grounding across application, data, integration, and infrastructure domains.
• Practical experience applying enterprise architecture concepts and frameworks, such as capability mapping, application and data architectures, integration patterns, and cloud architectural models.
• Broad application experience across COTS, SaaS, cloud-native, and custom-built solutions, including lifecycle considerations and architectural implications.
• Hands-on experience with integration patterns and technologies, such as API gateways, iPaaS, event-driven messaging, and other interoperability mechanisms.
• Experience reviewing and assessing architectural impacts of proposed change, including interoperability, security, scalability, resilience, and lifecycle implications.
• Experience simplifying fragmented or inconsistent application landscapes, modernising architectures, reducing duplication, and improving coherence.
• Experience running architecture governance forums, such as Architecture Review Boards (ARBs) or equivalent.
• Experience designing, embedding, and running IT project governance frameworks across waterfall, agile/iterative, hybrid, and DevOps delivery approaches.
• Experience leading or overseeing IT project delivery, with a clear practical understanding of what good looks like.
• Experience collaborating with teams responsible for agile SDLC and delivery tooling, ensuring project governance, architecture review, and change controls integrate smoothly with build, test, and deployment processes.
• Experience running a PMO or portfolio management function, including portfolio reporting, demand management, resource planning, and benefits tracking.

Nice To Haves

• Ideally, sector experience in engineering, maritime, defence, energy, or other industrial sectors.
• Recognised architecture framework certification, such as TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) or equivalent.
• Recognised portfolio/programme/project framework certification, such as P3O (Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices), MSP (Managing Successful Programmes), PRINCE2 or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Complete the transformation: Take ownership of the in-flight IT Architecture and Projects workstream from the IT Transformation team, completing the implementation of the operating model, governance framework, and supporting tooling.
• Build the team: Build the IT Architecture and Projects function, drawing from internal redeployment and new external hires. Establish team ways of working across Enterprise Architecture, Solution Architecture, the PMO, and group-level Project Management.
• Embed new ways of working: Embed the new architecture governance, demand management, and project governance processes across Group and Divisions, working with Divisional Heads of IT and business stakeholders to ensure adoption and value realization.
• Enterprise architecture leadership: Ensure a complete, up-to-date, and well-documented view of Enterprise Architecture (current, target, and transition states) across platforms, applications, data, and integrations. Own the transition-state architecture, dependency sequencing, and roadmap of strategic work required to move from current to target states. Champion architecture principles and ensure solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned to the organization's strategic direction.
• Architecture review and approval process: Run the review, challenge, and approval process for architecture decisions, ensuring compliance with architecture, security, data, and technology standards, and ensuring those standards and guardrails remain current, practical, and fit for purpose over time. Chair the Architecture Review Board (ARB) and equivalent forums.
• Quality, risk, and compliance management: Ensure governance, risk controls, and architectural guardrails are clearly defined and consistently applied across Group and divisions.
• Architecture-led simplification and rationalisation: Drive simplification, rationalisation, and reuse across platforms, applications, data, and integration landscapes – reducing duplication, managing technical debt, improving coherence, and increasing reuse across the Group.
• Integrated IT demand management: Run a unified process for capturing, assessing, and prioritising IT demand across Group and Divisions, ensuring alignment and common purpose.
• Integrated IT strategy, planning, and investment: Own and run a coherent, joined-up IT strategy and planning cycle, blending Group and Divisional priorities into a single, aligned investment roadmap, which adheres to agreed standards on change governance, benefits realisation, etc.
• Project governance framework: Own the group-wide IT project governance model with gated controls, approvals, assurance steps, artefacts (from ideation through to benefits realisation), and decision-making forums.
• Delivery assurance and intervention: Provide governance intervention, escalation, and assurance for strategically important or at-risk IT initiatives, ensuring issues are surfaced early and corrective action is taken.
• Integration of project governance with SDLC: Ensure governance integrates seamlessly with the SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) defined by Enterprise Platforms & Data Enablement.
• IT project portfolio visibility and control: Maintain visibility, prioritisation, governance, and control across the IT change project portfolio.
• Functional leadership: Lead the IT Architecture and Projects function, including Enterprise and Solution Architecture, the PMO, and group-level Project Management. Build and propagate best-practice skills and standards across the architecture and project delivery community group-wide, ensuring repeatable excellence and continuous improvement.
• Stakeholder alignment: Ensure the project portfolio and architecture are aligned with, and understandable and accessible to, key stakeholders across IT, the business, and other functions (e.g., HR, Finance, Legal, Marketing).
• Continuous improvement: Develop and mature the IT Architecture and Projects function over time, evolving processes, tooling, capability, and ways of working in response to changing business needs and emerging technology.

Benefits

• Competitive benefits tailored to the division.
• Opportunities for career growth and visibility across the organisation.
• A supportive, inclusive culture that values your ideas and contributions.
• Work that truly makes a difference in safety, innovation, and global capability.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior