Assurance Managed Services Solutions Architect

EY has an established a Global Managed Services business, of which Assurance Managed Services is a rapidly growing part, encompassing Integrated Finance, Controllership, FP&A, Treasury, ESG, Intelligent Data Discovery and Digital Compliance and Technology Risk solutions. Our ambition is to achieve significant growth in Assurance managed services through investment in modular, digital and audit-ready services available in both EY-hosted and EY-client hybrid configurations. To drive this growth, we are expanding our multi-disciplinary Solutions team to increase the breadth and depth of our technology, data, process and controls, and business architecture expertise.

The opportunity

The Global Solutions team leads the investment to create and enhance our Assurance Managed Services solution portfolio. We work closely with our business domain leaders to help to define the global vision for Assurance Managed Services and set the standards to which our managed services are developed and delivered.

With clients increasingly seeking to digitize their operations, we work closely with our EY technology teams, technology alliance partners and broader ecosystem to identify and leverage the latest technology applications, as well as leveraging predictive analytics, AI and machine learning to optimize our services and provide deep client insights into their own business operations.

The team is made up of data specialists (data architects, data engineers, data scientists), technology architects, process and controls architects, business transformation specialists and client-facing deal architects.

We are seeking to expand this team with the introduction of experienced Solution Architects to support the growth of Assurance Managed Services. These Solution Architects will partner with business domain leaders to shape, design, and commercialize managed services offerings. The roles bridge business strategy and solution and technology execution, translating market opportunities, customer requirements, and domain-specific needs into scalable, operationally and commercial viable managed services architectures.

The ideal candidates will combine strong business and technology acumen with architectural rigor and have a proven ability to convert strategic intent into structured managed service portfolios, operating models, and commercial frameworks.

We are seeking to appoint individuals who in addition to the broad architectural responsibilities described are able to act as the domain lead in the following areas;

• Solution Architect - Business and Service Architecture Lead
• Solution Architect - Technology Architecture Lead

Key Responsibilities across both roles are

Strategic Business Alignment

• partner with business domain leaders within the EY Sub-Service Lines to understand strategic objectives, market opportunities, competitive positioning, and growth targets.
• facilitate structured discovery sessions that ensure client, EY and third-party requirements are fully elaborated, captured and considered throughout the solutions development lifecycle;
• translate the business strategy and requirements into clear managed services value propositions and solution architecture roadmaps.

Managed Services Architecture

• design end-to-end managed services business architectures that incorporate standardized, scalable constructs that enable repeatability and margin optimization. With the support of domain architects and specialists, including process, technology data and commercial, lead the overall solution architecture,  ensuring alignment between business architecture, technology architecture, and operational capabilities, including;
  • Solution / service scope definition
  • Client experience blueprints
  • Process and controls design
  • Technology architecture and design
  • Operating model and governance structure
  • Service lifecycle model (including onboarding, offboarding and in-flight change)
  • SLA/OLA frameworks
  • Ensure compliance with regulatory, security, controls and risk frameworks where applicable (e.g. SOC1)
  • Delivery model (global/local/hybrid)
  • Commercial and pricing models
• ensure regulatory and legal compliance requirements are fully considered when developing and maintaining standard architectures, and when assessing requestes for solutions and deals to deviate from standard architectures and design patterns;
• liaise with IT security, data security, quality and risk management, Independence and other stakeholders to ensure architectures, designs and operational services meet broader EY requirements and standards;
• contribute to the design and development of the Managed Services Orchestrator

Commercial & Financial Modeling

• support business case development including revenue projections, cost structures, margin modeling, and investment requirements.
• align service design with target financial outcomes and go-to-market strategy.
• contribute to pricing strategy, packaging, and monetization frameworks.
• ensure solution and deal architectures are subject to robust cost and effort estimation, covering design, development, transition, operation, maintenance and deal exit costs; and

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• work closely with Product, Sales, Delivery, Finance, Technology, and Operations teams (both internal, and alliance partners) to ensure architectural feasibility and execution readiness.
• provide architectural leadership and input during engagment pursuits and client engagements.
• provide direction, advice and support to organizational change, process and controls change managemnent, and technology devleopment teams during the design and build of solutions and services;
• act as a trusted architecture advisor to executive leadership

Standardization & Continuous Improvement

• carry out horizon scanning to identify emerging industry and technology trends and assesss their potential impact and opportunity for Assurance managed services;
• establish KPIs and performance metrics for service effectiveness and profitability.
• drive standardization, automation, and continuous improvement across managed services offerings, ensuring all solution and deal architectures meet our architecture policies and standards
• monitor and manage the quality and currency of content in our global architecture repositories.

In addition, each role will be expected to represent the solutions team as the lead solution architect in their respective domain, as follows;

Business and Service Architecture Lead

• own and maintain the Assurance managed services business, process and controls architecture and standards;
• ensure Assurance managed services solutions are designed and implemented in a modular way to provide flexibility in how we bundle and integrate servivces to meet different client needs;
• define the Assurance managed services approach to audit readiness and compliance with process and controls standards such as SOC1 and SOC2, and support projects in meeting these standards;
• provide clear direction and support for delivery technology development teams throughout the development lifecycle to ensure processes, technology, job designs and delivery organization structures meets business requirements and aligns with standards;
• ensure appropriate process and controls training is provided to the Assurance managed services team.

Technology Architecture Lead

• own and maintain the Assurance managed services technology architecture and standards;
• provide clear direction and support for technology development teams throughout the development lifecycle to ensure technology meets business requirements and aligns with our architectural standards;
• ensure the Assurance managed services team has a sound understanding of the IT security standards and requirements our solutions and operations must meet; and
• ensure appropriate technology training is provided to the Assurance managed services team.

Skills and attributes for success

To qualify for the role you must have

• Business + Service Architecture Lead
  • Minimum of a Bachelors-level qualification in Management, Finance or Accounting
  • Minimum of ten years’ experience in managing the end-to-end architecture for managed services and/or outsourced solutions
• Technology Architecture Lead
• Minimum of a Bachelors-level qualification in Computer Science or Information Technology
• Minimum of ten years’ experience of agile, iterative and conventional development methodologies and how to apply them to platform, transaction, transactional application and analytical systems development

Ideally, you’ll also have

• Business + Service Architecture Lead
  • Certification in an Enterprise Architecture method such as TOGAF.
• Technology Architecture Lead
  • Certification / experience of building solutions  leveraging cloud (ideally Azure) and public SaaS platforms (ideally including SAP)

What we look for in all architects

• Clear communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively on specialist architecture with architecture professionals, Assurance SMRs, senior EY leaders and senior client stakeholders
• Ability to lead and manage multi-disciplinary teams to analyze and solve business problems by bringing together members of our team with domain experts, alliance partners and leveraging EY’s vast and diverse network of professionals
• Ability to set standards for, use and drive the effective adoption of enterprise, data, technology and process architecture tools
• Proven experience designing and commercializing managed services offerings.
• Strong understanding of business architecture frameworks (e.g., capability modeling, value streams, operating models)
• Demonstrated ability to translate market opportunity into structured service offerings.
• Experience supporting the build of financial models and supporting business cases.
• Experience working across multiple business domains (e.g., IT, digital, operations, infrastructure, industry verticals).
• Experience in global or multi-region service delivery models.
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF) and service management frameworks (e.g., ITIL).