Vice President - Architecture Futurist / Product Owner

Morgan Stanley•New York, NY

8d•$155,000 - $215,000

About The Position

Morgan Stanley’s Technology division develops innovative capabilities and connections that support the Firm and its clients. Institutional Securities Technology (IST) develops and oversees technology architecture strategy and tailored technology solutions for Institutional Securities Group (ISG) businesses and enterprise functions. ISG Architecture Governance develops, communicates, and implements the architecture principles, standards, design patterns, and governance that guide the ISG technology platform. The Vice President of ISG Divisional Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Technical Content shapes, articulates, and codifies the enterprise architecture strategy for ISG Technology. Working with senior architects, engineers, governance teams, and technology executives, the role translates complex strategies and decisions into authoritative, actionable content, including target-state strategies, principles, standards, patterns, roadmaps, and executive materials. The position calls for architecture fluency, strategic thinking, strong technical writing, and executive storytelling to guide divisional decisions. The role also builds a scalable body of architecture knowledge, develops educational and reference materials, researches emerging technology and architecture trends, and creates visual frameworks to support strategy and communication. It requires effective partnership and influence across a highly matrixed organization, including facilitating discussions, capturing decisions and rationale, and reconciling differing perspectives into consistent guidance.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in technical writing, technology strategy, enterprise architecture, technology consulting, architecture enablement, or a related discipline.
Exceptional writing and editing skills, including demonstrated ability to explain complex technical topics clearly and accurately.
Strong understanding of technology architecture concepts and ability to engage credibly with senior architects and engineers.
Ability to structure ambiguous or highly technical information into clear frameworks, narratives, and guidance.
Experience creating technical strategy documents, architecture documentation, standards, patterns, white papers, or comparable technical content.
Strong analytical and research skills, including ability to rapidly understand unfamiliar technology domains.
Experience developing executive-level technology presentations and written materials.
Strong stakeholder management skills and confidence working directly with senior technical and executive audiences.
Ability to balance technical precision with simplicity, readability, and practical usability.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with enterprise architecture concepts, including target-state architecture, reference architectures, architecture patterns, capability mapping, and technology standards.
Experience working within enterprise architecture, CTO, engineering strategy, or technology governance organizations.
Experience documenting cloud, data, AI/GenAI, software engineering, infrastructure, or platform architecture.
Understanding of architecture governance and technology decision-making forums.
Familiarity with diagramming, knowledge-management, and documentation platforms.
Experience in financial services or another large, complex, regulated organization.

Responsibilities

Partner with senior leaders to define ISG’s enterprise architecture strategy, target state, principles, technology positions, roadmaps, and decision frameworks.
Synthesize business priorities, engineering needs, domain strategies, and technology trends into a coherent divisional point of view.
Explain architecture direction, its importance, and its implications for technology teams.
Create and refine architecture strategies, standards, reference architectures, design patterns, playbooks, governance guidance, and implementation materials.
Work with architects and subject-matter experts to turn complex concepts into precise, accessible, actionable documentation while preserving technical accuracy and ownership.
Establish consistent terminology and editorial standards, and link strategy, decisions, standards, patterns, and engineering guidance.
Create executive narratives, presentations, strategy decks, briefings, and governance materials about architecture and engineering topics.
Research emerging technologies and architecture trends, assess their implications for ISG, and turn findings into executive briefings, strategies, and actionable white papers.
Develop visual frameworks such as architecture views, capability maps, operating models, roadmaps, and decision frameworks.
Tailor content to different audiences while maintaining consistent messaging.
Build a scalable, authoritative body of architecture knowledge that makes strategies, standards, patterns, decisions, and guidance easy to discover and use.
Partner with domain owners to keep content current, close documentation gaps, and convert governance outcomes into reusable guidance.
Create onboarding, educational, and reference materials that improve understanding of architecture expectations.
Build partnerships across architecture, engineering, governance, technology management, and senior leadership.
Facilitate working sessions to capture decisions, rationale, and strategic implications; clarify thinking and reconcile differing perspectives into consistent guidance.
Influence outcomes in a highly matrixed environment without direct authority.