Senior Director
Norfolk Southern
Senior Director
Norfolk Southern
Rail freight transportation across eastern U.S.
Requisition 40281: B7 Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture
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Norfolk Southern offers a unique opportunity to be part of our proud legacy that spans nearly 200 years. We are a customer-centric, operations-driven team dedicated to advancing safety, serving communities, and driving innovation for tomorrow's rail. As part of Norfolk Southern, you’ll join a collaborative team where there are opportunities for growth across the organization. We are building a culture where everyone can thrive by owning and driving exceptional results, being humble and leading with trust, serving our customers with excellence, and collaborating and coaching to win.
Norfolk Southern is transforming how railroads operate through modern technology, data-driven decision making, AI-enabled capabilities, and platform-based delivery. The Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture serves as the enterprise technology strategist responsible for defining the future-state technology landscape and ensuring technology investments align with business priorities, operational excellence, and long-term enterprise objectives.
Reporting to the AVP, Technology & Digital Strategy, this leader will establish and evolve enterprise architecture capabilities across business applications, data, AI, cloud, infrastructure, and security domains. The role is responsible for enterprise technology standards, architecture governance, target-state architectures, modernization roadmaps, and technology decision frameworks that enable Norfolk Southern to operate a more stable, resilient, secure, and customer-focused railroad.
This leader partners closely with product, engineering, operations, commercial, data & AI, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and executive leadership teams to drive technology simplification, accelerate modernization, and ensure technology investments create measurable business value.
Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Target State Design
• Define and continuously evolve Norfolk Southern's enterprise architecture strategy, guiding the long-term modernization of applications, platforms, data, and infrastructure.
• Develop enterprise reference architectures, architectural principles, standards, and technology roadmaps aligned to corporate and D&T strategic priorities.
• Create and maintain target-state architectures that support business transformation, operational excellence, customer experience, and AI adoption.
• Partner with technology and business leaders to ensure roadmaps are integrated, scalable, and aligned to enterprise goals.
Architecture Governance & Technology Decision Making
• Lead enterprise architecture governance forums and technology review processes.
• Establish decision frameworks that balance business value, cost, risk, speed, resiliency, security, and technical sustainability.
• Drive consistency in technology decisions across products, platforms, and business domains.
• Provide executive-level recommendations regarding technology investments, modernization priorities, and emerging technologies.
Modernization, Platforms & Cloud Transformation
• Drive architecture direction for large-scale modernization initiatives including cloud adoption, application modernization, platform engineering, integration, and infrastructure transformation.
• Establish reusable architecture patterns, paved paths, and platform standards that accelerate delivery while reducing complexity and technical debt.
• Promote platform-oriented architecture principles that improve developer productivity, scalability, and operational efficiency.
• Guide architecture strategies for mission-critical operational systems supporting train operations, transportation, network planning, asset management, customer experience, and corporate functions.
Data, AI & Digital Innovation
• Partner with Data & AI leaders to establish architecture standards for enterprise data, analytics, AI, machine learning, and intelligent automation capabilities.
• Ensure AI-enabled solutions are built on scalable, secure, governed, and reusable platforms.
• Define architecture patterns that support responsible AI, data governance, observability, model lifecycle management, and regulatory compliance.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities to create business value through innovation.
Business Alignment & Executive Influence
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear business narratives for executives and non-technical stakeholders.
• Influence technology and business leaders without direct authority to achieve enterprise-wide alignment.
• Support strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, technology investment decisions, and business case development.
• Build trusted partnerships across business and D&T organizations to drive adoption of enterprise standards and strategic direction.
Organization & Talent Leadership
• Build and lead a high-performing enterprise architecture capability.
• Mentor domain, solution, and platform architects while fostering architectural excellence and continuous learning.
• Establish architecture operating models, processes, tools, and metrics that drive accountability and measurable outcomes.
• Promote a culture of simplification, reuse, innovation, collaboration, and engineering excellence
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Computer Science, Information Management, or related technical field) required.
Skills Required:
• 10+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, including significant experience in Enterprise Architecture.
• Proven experience developing enterprise-wide technology strategies, architectures, standards, and governance models in large, complex organizations.
• Deep expertise in one or more architecture domains including enterprise architecture, cloud, platforms, applications, data, AI, cybersecurity, or infrastructure.
• Experience leading large-scale modernization initiatives involving cloud, application transformation, data platforms, AI capabilities, and/or enterprise systems.
• Demonstrated success influencing senior executives and driving enterprise change across matrixed organizations.
• Strong understanding of architecture governance, technology risk management, resiliency, security, and technology investment planning.
• Exceptional communication, storytelling, and executive presentation skills.
• Experience leading teams and building enterprise architecture capabilities.
Skills Preferred:
• Master's or Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or a related field.
• Experience in transportation, logistics, industrial operations, supply chain, or other asset-intensive industries.
• Experience with formal architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF or equivalent) and familiarity with engineering practices and software development methodologies (e.g., CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability)
• Experience developing architecture strategies for AI, advanced analytics, intelligent automation, and platform engineering.
• Proven track record driving enterprise simplification, technology rationalization, technical debt reduction, and cloud transformation.
• Experience supporting mission-critical operational environments requiring high availability, resiliency, and security.
Success Measures
The Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture will be measured on:
• Adoption of enterprise architecture standards and target-state roadmaps.
• Reduction of technology complexity and technical debt.
• Acceleration of modernization and cloud transformation initiatives.
• Increased reuse through platforms, shared services, and reference architectures.
• Improved architecture governance and technology investment decision quality.
• Business alignment of major technology initiatives.
• Enablement of enterprise data and AI capabilities at scale.
• Improvements in technology resiliency, security, and operational efficiency.
Work Conditions
Environment: Hybrid 2 days on-site and remote work 3 days per week.
Shift Work: No
On-Call: No
Weekend Work: No
Company Overview
Since 1827, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) and its predecessor companies have safely moved the goods and materials that drive the U.S. economy. Today, it operates a customer-centric and operations-driven freight transportation network. Committed to furthering sustainability, Norfolk Southern helps its customers avoid 15 million tons of yearly carbon emissions by shipping via rail. Its dedicated team members deliver more than 7 million carloads annually, from agriculture to consumer goods, and is the largest rail shipper of auto products and metals in North America. Norfolk Southern also has the most extensive intermodal network in the eastern U.S., serving a majority of the country’s population and manufacturing base, with connections to every major container port on the Atlantic coast as well as the Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes. Learn more by visiting www.NorfolkSouthern.com.
At Norfolk Southern, we believe in celebrating our individuality. By leveraging the unique backgrounds and viewpoints of our employees, we can create a culture of innovation, respect, and inclusion. We know that employees thrive in a workplace where differing viewpoints, ideas, and experiences are freely shared and valued. As such, we encourage all employees to contribute their distinctive skills and capabilities to our organization.
Equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants regardless of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Together, we power progress.
Rail freight transportation across eastern U.S.
Norfolk Southern moves freight by rail across about 19,500 miles of track in 22 eastern states and the District of Columbia, carrying coal, automotive products, and other goods for manufacturers, energy producers, and retailers. Its service works by operating trains that connect eastern container ports and link with other rail carriers to enable intermodal shipments, charging customers based on haul distance, weight, commodity type, and demand. Compared with competitors, NS differentiates itself with a large eastern network, direct port access, and strong connections to other carriers, along with a diverse customer base concentrated in coal, automotive, and industrial shipments. Its goal is to provide reliable, efficient freight transportation and logistics that support customers' supply chains.
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