Enterprise Architecture – Functional Architect

Job Description

The EA - Functional Architect designs and maintains the business and functional architecture for assigned business domains, capabilities, programs and initiatives. The role turns strategic objectives and business needs into current-state and target-state models, functional decompositions, application impacts and pragmatic transition roadmaps aligned with Coface's enterprise architecture framework.

The architect works throughout the initiative lifecycle, from early framing and option assessment to architecture governance and delivery follow-up. The role partners with sponsors, product owners, BT business domain managers, regional CIOs, delivery teams and solution architects to ensure that proposed solutions meet immediate functional needs while remaining consistent, reusable, maintainable and sustainable at Group level.

The architect acts under the direction of the Functional Lead Architect. The role prepares architecture recommendations and decision material, challenges solution choices, documents significant decisions and deviations (part of ADAC or ADR cases), and brings material trade-offs or exceptions to the Functional Lead Architect and the architecture committee. The role contributes to the collective architecture practice through shared standards, reference models, repository maintenance and peer reviews. The EA - Functional Architect can handle one or more Business Domains scope and as well as one or more regional scopes.

Interaction with Technical and Data Architects

The EA - Functional Architect defines the business capabilities, functional boundaries, application responsibilities, interactions and target outcomes for the assigned scope. Technical Architects define the technical layer, integration, security, cloud and infrastructure choices. Data Architects align the supporting information concepts, data ownership, quality requirements and ontology or knowledge layer. The three perspectives are reconciled before architecture approval; unresolved trade-offs are escalated through the Functional Lead Architect.

Key responsibilities

• Build and maintain the current-state and target-state business, functional and application architecture for assigned domains, capabilities, programs and initiatives.
• Translate business strategy, operating-model changes and functional requirements into capability maps, functional decompositions, application impacts and transition states.
• Contribute to the medium- and long-term IS roadmap by identifying target capabilities, application evolution, dependencies, sequencing, decommissioning opportunities and architecture risks.
• Partner with business stakeholders, product owners, BT business domain managers and regional CIO teams to clarify needs, frame options and ensure alignment between local delivery and Group target architecture.
• Work continuously with Technical and Data Architects so that functional intent, technical feasibility, security and data design are coherent and traceable.
• Review project and product architectures throughout the lifecycle; assess compliance with target architecture, standards and principles, and provide clear recommendations, conditions or escalation points.
• Prepare architecture committee material and decision records; document significant assumptions, trade-offs, exceptions and remediation actions, and follow them through closure.
• Identify overlap, duplication, functional gaps, obsolete components and shadow IT within the assigned scope; propose rationalization and convergence opportunities that improve agility and reduce complexity and cost.
• Contribute to the definition and adoption of enterprise architecture principles, methods, templates, standards, reference models and reusable functional patterns.
• Maintain complete, accurate and usable architecture content in the enterprise architecture repository (Ardoq), including ownership, relationships, lifecycle, roadmaps and the evidence supporting key decisions.
• Contribute to architecture metrics and reporting, including roadmap progress, standards compliance, application rationalization, technical debt and architecture risks within assigned scope.
• Maintain knowledge of Coface's strategic plans, business processes, regulatory environment and technology landscape, and bring relevant market and technology insights into architecture recommendations.
• Support selected strategic assignments such as IT strategic planning, transformation studies and IT due diligence for M&A cases, subject to appropriate confidentiality and NDA requirements.

Qualifications

Required experience

• At least 10 years of total IT experience, including a minimum of 3 years in enterprise, business, functional, solution or application architecture.
• Proven experience defining functional or application target architectures and roadmaps for complex business domains or transformation programs.
• Experience working across the full project or product lifecycle, from framing and option assessment through governance and delivery follow-up.
• Track record of collaborating with business stakeholders, product teams, delivery teams and solution architects across departments or legal entities.
• Experience in an international or multi-entity environment; experience in insurance, financial services or another regulated sector is an advantage.
• Master's level (Bac+5 or Master 2) in IT, engineering or a related discipline; TOGAF or equivalent architecture certification is an advantage.

Hard skills

• Strong enterprise, business and functional architecture skills, including business capability modelling (BPMN, C4, diagram sequence), functional decomposition and application architecture.
• Ability to analyze a complex information system, connect business needs to application responsibilities, and define actionable current, transition and target architectures.
• Experience building architecture roadmaps and rationalization scenarios, including dependencies, sequencing, migration impacts, risks and decommissioning opportunities.
• Working knowledge of architecture frameworks and methods such as TOGAF, and ability to apply them pragmatically rather than mechanically.
• Proficiency with architecture modelling tools and an enterprise architecture repository; disciplined approach to metadata quality and traceability.
• Sufficient technical breadth across cloud, integration and APIs, microservices and containers, security, databases and user experience to collaborate effectively with solution architects and challenge solution choices.
• Good understanding of data architecture concepts, including information models, data ownership, quality, lineage and interoperability.
• Ability to assess architecture compliance, articulate trade-offs and produce clear decision material for governance forums.
• Working understanding of the regulatory framework of a regulated financial institution, including GDPR and DORA, sufficient to incorporate compliance constraints into functional architecture.
• Fluent French and English, written and spoken; able to work in an international, multi-entity environment.
• Deep knowledge of Dynamics and / or AWS cloud would be a real plus

Soft skills

• Systems thinking and the ability to step back from immediate delivery pressure to protect a consistent and sustainable target.
• Strong analytical and synthesis skills; able to make complex domains understandable through clear models, narratives and recommendations.
• Influence without direct authority; able to challenge constructively, negotiate trade-offs and build consensus across business and technical stakeholders.
• Excellent verbal and written communication; able to translate between executive, business, product, architecture and engineering audiences.
• Pragmatism and delivery orientation: able to balance target architecture, regulatory constraints, cost, risk and incremental value.
• Rigor, autonomy and strong organization; able to manage several architecture topics and maintain high-quality documentation.
• Curiosity, collaboration and peer mindset; willing to share reusable knowledge, seek review and contribute to the growth of the architecture community.
• Ability to operate proactively in changing environments and make recommendations when information is incomplete, while stating assumptions and risks transparently.

Additional Information

• Regular remote working possible.
• Reimbursement of 50% of public transportation costs.
• Meal vouchers for each day worked remotely.
• Remote work allowance.

Coface is a disability-friendly employer and is committed to welcoming and supporting people with disabilities.