Architecture Practice Lead at World Vision Kenya

As our Architecture Practice Lead, you will lead and enable the Enterprise Architecture practice, ensuring architects are effective, supported, and consistently integrated into organizational ways of working.

The Architecture Practice Lead is accountable for people leadership, practice maturity, and operational enablement, creating the conditions for high-quality architecture outcomes, while technical authority and architectural judgment remain with the Principal Architect.

This role focuses on how the architecture function operates as a capability, not on making enterprise architectural decisions.

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