Director of Enterprise Architecture - Remote Opportunity - KinderCare Education LLC

Description

Futures start here. Where first steps, new friendships, and confident learners are born. At KinderCare Learning Companies, the first and only early childhood education provider recognized with the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award, we offer a variety of early education and child care options for families. We pave the way for their lifelong learning journey ahead. And we want you to join us in shaping a future we can all be proud to share-in neighborhoods, at work, and in schools nationwide.

At KinderCare Learning Companies, you'll use your skills and expertise to support the work (and fun) that happens in our sites and centers every day. From marketers and strategists to financial analysts and data engineers, and so much more, we're all passionate about crafting a world where children, families, and organizations can thrive.

KinderCare is led by top leaders in its industry, is rapidly growing, is highly profitable on a base of approximately $2.5 billion in annual revenue, and is going through a business enhancing digital transformation. We offer the flexibility of being able to work from home while working with a stellar IT team and business leaders in an "intrapreneurial" leadership role. We are seeking someone to lead Enterprise Architecture and to help build a small team of domain architects (to replace temporary contractors/consultants). With exposure to leaders throughout the company while working on an early education industry-leading digital family experience which drives stakeholder satisfaction, efficiency, effectiveness, and increased top-line revenue and profitability growth. This is a great time and hands-on leadership role in which to join our company.

The KinderCare Technology team is amid a complete technology transformation; embracing modern technologies and ways of working to deliver experiences that delight families and staff and accelerate the company's growth. We are looking for a collaborative leader to build our future technology blueprint aligned to short- and long-term business strategic imperatives. If you are passionate about technology, leading teams, and 'patiently impatient' setting aggressive goals and building alignment across teams to drive adoption and can balance current-state delivery architecture with transformational future-state architectures to promote value-delivery in both the short and long term, you could be the perfect fit for our Director of Enterprise Architecture role.

As a member of the IT leadership team reporting to CIO, the Director Enterprise Architecture will lead architects that will link the overall business strategy and growth drivers to its IT strategy and architectural vision. You'll lead collaboration across both the technology and business & product organizations to ensure a proper runway is established for aligning product roadmaps to architectural designs and standards. In addition, you'll be instrumental in leading the ongoing transformation from the current state to a product & agile centric organization. This will include leading the transformation of core systems to more modern approaches including, but not limited to, a cloud-first and cloud-native environment across applications, infrastructure, data and security.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Own the organization's IT Architecture function, establishing & maintain a vision and the methodologies to deliver.
• Develop business & product-centric technology strategies and roadmaps that demonstrate IT capability to deliver solutions that align to business objectives with a pragmatic and iterative approach.
• Manage, grow, and develop a team of enterprise & domains architects. Serve as a mentor for and guide solution architects and senior engineering resources across IT.
• Design and implement enterprise solutions that are aligned with architectural patterns, standards, and principles.
• Lead the architecture governance practice to ensure new solutions adhere to defined standards & patterns.
• Develop, maintain, and socialize an architecture artifact repository to be leveraged across IT and product teams to understand patterns, frameworks, principles, and standards.
• Work with agile teams to ensure a proper runway of defined target architectures and understanding of any technical debt that align to product roadmaps and goals.
• Develop and manage policies, standards and guidelines that direct the selection, development, implementation, and use of Information Technology within the enterprise.
• Manage and visualize our technology portfolio, review IT assets to assess health, gaps, redundancy, and waste; make recommendations for optimization and rationalization of the portfolio.
• Drive business innovation through technology and educate IT and business partners on the "art of the possible" with newer and existing technologies.
• Manage and oversee the development of a holistic, enterprise-wide application roadmap, including corporate, business, and customer-facing applications.
• Define the technical architecture and control framework for managing the risk to data/information privacy and IT assets through appropriate standards and security policies.
• Build & maintain reference architecture playbooks that align to defined standards, patterns and frameworks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required, preferably in Computer Science, MIS, or related technical field.
• MBA in Technology Management, or other related Master's degree preferred.
• 6 years of IT architecture leadership experience.
• 8 years of hands-on engineering experience in at least two technology domains (software engineering, enterprise applications, data, security).
• Experience working in a value-based release cycle, especially in a continuous delivery or digital portfolio environment that is forming or changing regularly.
• Broad understanding of how that technology supports Line of Business functions to deliver business value.
• Ability to translate short- and long-range business strategic plans and objectives into IT architectures and designs for current and future IT solutions.
• Proven experience driving technology-enabled business innovation.
• Proven experience with delivering and integrating cloud-based as-a-service solutions.
• Proven experience evolving an organization to cloud native development and deployment processes.
• Highly collaborative with an ability to influence decisions with credibility and, if necessary, healthy tension across business functions or influence technologies paths using analysis and facts.
• Strong leadership, project, and team building skills-the ability to lead teams and drive projects and initiatives by working effectively with others with a demonstrated ability to work cross-departmentally.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with engineers, business, and IT leaders, and to build and maintain excellent relations with key stakeholders.
• Conceptual and analytical thinker-ability to extract, analyze and document complex business and technical requirements/strategies from customers and IT team members.
• Technology and infrastructure planning and design experience.
• Experience with Agile Development, DevOps (CI/CD/Automation), and integration technologies (messaging/ESB).
• Working knowledge of Architecture frameworks such as TOGAF, FEAF, Zachman or others that are similar.

PREFERRED CERTIFICATIONS:

• At least one of FEAC® CEA Black Belt, TOGAF 9.1 Level 1 & 2, The Open Group Certified Architect (CA) Program, or another similar industry-standard Enterprise Architect certification.
• At least one cloud certification (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional or similar other industry-standard cloud certification).
• PMI PMP certification, SAFe certification, or other industry-standard project management certification.
• Ability and appetite to lead and engage diverse and equitable teams

Our benefits meet you where you are. We're here to help our employees navigate the integration of work and life:

• Know your whole family is supported with discounted child care benefits.
• Breathe easy with medical, dental, and vision benefits for your family (and pets, too!).
• Feel supported in your mental health and personal growth with employee assistance programs.
• Feel great and thrive with access to health and wellness programs, unlimited paid time off and discounts for work necessities, such as cell phones.
• ... and much more.

We operate research-backed, accredited, and customizable programs in more than 2,000 sites and centers across 40 states and the District of Columbia. As we expand, we're matching the needs of more and more families, dynamic work environments, and diverse communities from coast to coast. Because we believe every family deserves access to high-quality child care, no matter who they are or where they live. Every day, you'll help bring this mission to life by building community and delivering exceptional experiences. And if you're anything like us, you'll come for the work, and stay for the people.

KinderCare Learning Companies is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, military or veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law.