Architecture Practice Lead at World Vision Kenya

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Practice leadership & capability development

• Lead, develop, and support architects across the practice (Solution, Lead, and Enterprise Architects)
• Build a cohesive, high-performing architecture practice with clear roles, expectations, and ways of working
• Drive capability development, mentoring, and skills uplift aligned to organizational needs
• Plan and manage architecture practice capacity to balance demand, priorities, and available resources across the portfolio
• Foster a culture of professionalism, collaboration, and continuous improvement

Operational enablement of architecture & technical debt

• Enable consistent identification, documentation, and visibility of architectural risks and technical debt
• Support the Principal Architect in maintaining visibility of the technical debt baseline and agreed remediation actions
• Embed architecture engagement into governance, service lifecycle, and planning processes
• Coordinate inputs and follow-through across architects, delivery teams, and governance forums

Integration, governance & reporting

• Integrate the architecture practice into portfolio, demand, and governance forums
• Ensure architecture engagement is predictable, timely, and clearly understood across the organization
• Enable effective use and adoption of architecture tools, repositories, and artefacts to support decision-making, governance, and practice maturity
• Ensure architecture information remains accessible, accurate, and relevant for stakeholders and leadership
• Provide visibility of architecture practice health, capacity, and effectiveness to senior stakeholders
• Continuously refine architecture ways of working based on feedback and outcomes

PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIORS & CAPABILTIES:

The Architecture Practice Lead is expected to demonstrate the following behaviors:

Enabling leadership

• Enables architects to perform at their best rather than acting as the primary technical authority
• Removes barriers and creates conditions for consistent, high-quality architectural outcomes

Clear and consistent communication

• Communicates expectations, priorities, and outcomes clearly across diverse stakeholder groups
• Ensures transparency in processes, responsibilities, and performance

Coordination & integration

• Coordinates across teams and functions to reduce friction, duplication, and ambiguity
• Aligns architecture activities with delivery, governance, and planning rhythms

Respect for technical authority

• Actively protects and reinforces the technical authority of senior architects
• Does not override architectural judgment on technical matters

Professional integrity

• Acts with fairness, transparency, and accountability in people and practice leadership

KNOWLEDGE, SKILL AND EXPERIENCE:

Required Education, training, license, registration, and/or Certification

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Required Professional Experience

Architectural practice & operating model knowledge

• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture practices, roles, and engagement models across solution, domain, and enterprise levels
• Experience embedding architecture into governance, portfolio management, and delivery lifecycles
• Understanding of how architectural standards, technical debt, and risk management operate in complex organizations
• Working knowledge of architecture repositories, artefacts, and methods sufficient to enable consistent practice adoption and quality outcomes

Stakeholder leadership & communication

• Strong experience engaging senior business and technology leaders on architecture outcomes, priorities, and performance
• Ability to translate architectural work into clear business value, risks, and maturity progress for executives
• Proven ability to influence without direct authority across federated teams and functions
• Experience managing competing priorities, expectations, and organizational change

People & practice leadership experience

• Experience leading or enabling professional teams in a capability or practice model
• Experience coaching, developing, and performance-managing senior technical professionals
• Experience building consistent ways of working, standards adoption, and continuous improvement

​​​​​​​Operational & governance experience

• Experience coordinating work across multiple teams, initiatives, and governance forums
• Experience tracking practice performance, capacity, and outcomes to support leadership decision-making
• Experience improving operational maturity of professional services or technical practices

ROLE BOUNDARIES & ESCALATION:

• This role does not act as the primary technical authority for architectural decisions
• This role does not override architectural judgment made by senior architects
• Technical arbitration, architectural trade-offs, and technical debt prioritization remain with the Principal Architect