Senior Manager, IT Architecture

Xcel Energy•Minneapolis, MN

8d•$156,000 - $196,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Manager, IT Architecture leads a team of architects responsible for defining and governing technology strategy, architecture, and roadmaps across the Customer and ERP domains. The role partners with business and technology leaders to evolve business capabilities, support enterprise priorities, and align technology investments with long-term business and technology strategies. As both a people leader and architecture leader, this position is responsible for domain strategy, architecture governance, technical leadership, and developing architectural talent. It influences technology decisions, drives adoption of enterprise architecture standards, and supports business transformation through effective architecture practices.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Technology, Science, Business, or a related field, or four years of experience equivalent to the position.
Five years of prior people leadership experience.
Ten years of experience with end-to-end service lifecycle, business process, project, or product management.
Five years of experience with strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, delivery execution, and operations.
Excellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill sets.
Excellent relationship management and collaboration skills, with a track record of working cross-organizationally as one team to drive innovation and business results.
Experience working within a highly regulated industry.
Ability to deliver value in compliance with policies and regulations.
Demonstrated ability to apply a customer focus, solve problems, and drive continuous improvement to solutions, systems, and processes.
Demonstrated ability to drive and adopt change and lead others through change in a diverse and dynamic environment.
Experience with sourcing and contract management.
Proven ability to attain and maintain in-depth acumen in business process, technical knowledge, and architectural topology.

Nice To Haves

Ten years of progressive experience designing and delivering SAP-centric business solutions, including deep technical architecture and implementation experience.
Ability to operate as both a people leader and an enterprise architect, combining organizational leadership with hands-on architecture engagement and technical thought leadership.
Ability to simplify and communicate complex technical ecosystems through clear, structured, executive-ready narratives and visuals, including end-to-end customer journeys, system flows, and architecture blueprints, tailored to audiences from engineers to senior executives.
Experience presenting complex technical topics to executive leadership, including CEO, CCO, and CTO audiences, and translating technical depth into business context, implications, and actionable recommendations.
Experience developing utility regulatory testimony content for commissions and regulatory audiences, explaining complex technical, operational, and customer impacts clearly and credibly.
Strong understanding of the utility financial business model and processes, including how accounting, billing, revenue, regulatory, and customer operations intersect within utility Customer systems.
Experience in the Customer and ERP domains, with accountability for shaping and governing end-to-end customer technology ecosystems and defining architectures across integrated landscapes, including customer engagement platforms, billing and revenue systems, and upstream and downstream enterprise capabilities.
Experience in large-scale utility or similar environments, with expertise in enterprise platforms and packaged solutions such as SAP, Salesforce Energy & Utilities Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud or similar CRM platforms, metering systems such as Itron, and contact center platforms.
Architecture expertise across integration, data, and AI, including APIs, event-driven architectures, messaging, and modern data architectures; ability to design scalable, business-aligned solutions across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments.
Ability to define, govern, and drive adoption of reference architectures, architecture patterns, and technology standards aligned with enterprise strategy and long-term sustainability.
Strong solutioning capability, including leading complex technical problem solving, diagnosing issues, navigating ambiguity, and delivering actionable recommendations and trade-offs.
Experience engaging system integrators, software vendors, and strategic partners to resolve technical challenges, guide architecture decisions, and align delivery with enterprise standards and target-state roadmaps; experience contributing to Statements of Work, architecture deliverables, and technology evaluations is preferred.
Ability to lead and influence cross-organizational teams, aligning them to enterprise architecture standards while enabling execution across concurrent programs and initiatives.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop a high-performing architecture team through hiring, coaching, performance management, succession planning, and professional development; foster technical excellence, innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.
Define and evolve domain architectures and roadmaps aligned with business objectives, technology investments, and delivery priorities; partner with business leaders to identify capability gaps, establish target-state capabilities, and drive business outcomes.
Develop technology strategies and target-state architectures for assigned business domains, aligned with enterprise strategy, regulatory requirements, and long-term technology objectives.
Establish and govern architecture principles, standards, patterns, and reference architectures to ensure solutions are secure, scalable, resilient, integrated, and aligned with enterprise goals; provide architectural oversight for major programs and technology investments.
Partner with business, technology, and executive leaders to shape domain strategies, technology investments, and key decisions; communicate complex technical concepts in clear business terms and build stakeholder alignment.
Support architecture modernization and technology transformation across applications, data, integration, cloud, AI, and platform ecosystems.
Drive simplification, reduce technical debt, and ensure solutions, vendor engagements, and technology investments align with approved architectures and business objectives.