Director/Associate Director of the practice, responsible for customer relationship management, end to end programs delivery, projects & portfolio management, business growth and strategic customers management. Delivers through directing and managing through other managers and consultants

Associate Director – Banking Enterprise Architecture (9–12 years)

Practice: Technology & Transformation | Banking & Capital Markets

Location: PAN India (Hybrid)

Employment Type: Full-time

Role Summary

The Associate Director – Banking Enterprise Architecture plays a pivotal role in shaping and governing large‑scale transformation programs across the banking sector. This leader brings deep domain and architecture expertise, offering strategic direction while collaborating closely with senior client stakeholders, delivery teams, and multi‑vendor ecosystems.

The role centers on defining future‑state architectures, guiding modernization initiatives, ensuring architectural coherence across programs, and enabling technology-led business transformation. The Associate Director also contributes to strengthening the practice through talent development, thought leadership, and execution excellence.

Key Responsibilities

1. Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Blueprinting

·      Define the enterprise architecture vision, principles, and future‑state target architecture for retail, corporate, digital, and payments banking landscapes.

·      Create detailed architecture blueprints that align business strategy with technology transformation initiatives.

·      Establish architecture roadmaps covering legacy modernization, cloud adoption, integration modernization, and data strategy.

2. Architecture Governance & Program Oversight

·      Drive architecture governance across large, multi‑vendor transformation programs.

·      Review, validate, and sign off solution architectures, ensuring adherence to standards and alignment with target-state vision.

·      Identify and mitigate architectural risks, ensuring solution scalability, interoperability, performance, and compliance.

·      Support delivery teams in solving complex architecture challenges across channels, middleware, data, and core platforms.

3. Client Leadership & Advisory

·      Lead senior client conversations, influencing CIO/CTO/Chief Architect stakeholders.

·      Conduct architecture assessments, maturity evaluations, risks/gaps identification, and optimization recommendations.

·      Serve as a trusted advisor for digital transformation, modernization, cloud enablement, and platform consolidation.

4. Practice Building & Talent Development

·      Mentor senior managers, architects, and high‑potential talent within the architecture practice.

·      Contribute to playbooks, frameworks, and reusable architecture assets.

·      Support pre‑sales pursuits, solutioning, and go‑to‑market initiatives within the Banking & Capital Markets practice.

Qualifications & Skills

Experience Requirements

·      9–12 years of experience in banking enterprise architecture, solution architecture, or technology transformation leadership.

·      Demonstrated expertise in large banking transformation programs such as core banking modernization, digital platform rollout, payments transformation, or API-led modernization.

Domain & Technical Expertise

·      Strong understanding of retail, corporate, and digital banking domains.

·      Deep hands-on exposure to core banking systems, digital channels, payments platforms, API/microservices architectures, integration patterns, and data architectures.

·      Familiarity with cloud-native architectures, modernization methodologies, and industry frameworks (TOGAF, BIAN optional but beneficial).

Leadership & Consulting Skills

·      Strong commercial awareness and ability to drive solution discussions, business cases, and program architectures.

·      Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to engage CXO and senior leadership audiences.

·      Ability to mentor teams, inspire high performance, and foster a strong architectural culture.

Why This Role Is Critical

·      Shape technology transformation for top-tier banking clients

·      Lead enterprise-wide modernization and innovation initiatives

·      Build and grow high-impact architecture teams across domains

·      Influence strategic decisions that define the future of digital banking