EA Program Director

Job Level:  Director
Job Function:  Change Management
Location: 

Charlotte, NC, US, 28202

Employment Type:  Full Time
Requisition ID:  8442

SMBC Group is a top-tier global financial group. Headquartered in Tokyo and with a 400-year history, SMBC Group offers a diverse range of financial services, including banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. The Group has more than 130 offices and 80,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) is the holding company of SMBC Group, which is one of the three largest banking groups in Japan. SMFG’s shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York (NYSE: SMFG) stock exchanges.

 

In the Americas, SMBC Group has a presence in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Backed by the capital strength of SMBC Group and the value of its relationships in Asia, the Group offers a range of commercial and investment banking services to its corporate, institutional, and municipal clients. It connects a diverse client base to local markets and the organization’s extensive global network. The Group’s operating companies in the Americas include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., SMBC Capital Markets, Inc., SMBC MANUBANK, JRI America, Inc., SMBC Leasing and Finance, Inc., Banco Sumitomo Mitsui Brasileiro S.A., and Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Co., Ltd.

Role Description

The Solution Architect - Vice President serves as a strategic technology advisor responsible for defining architecture standards, evaluating technology solutions, and guiding enterprise technology initiatives. This role partners closely with business and technology stakeholders to ensure solutions align with business objectives, enterprise architecture standards, regulatory requirements, and long-term technology strategy.

 

Working across business domains and technology teams, the role provides architectural leadership for application, integration, data, infrastructure, cloud, and platform-related initiatives. The successful candidate will evaluate technology solutions, review complex architectures, establish standards, support governance activities, and provide guidance to project teams throughout the solution lifecycle.

 

This is a highly collaborative individual contributor role requiring strong technical expertise, strategic thinking, and the ability to balance business priorities with technology objectives while driving consistency, scalability, security, and operational excellence across the enterprise.

Role Objectives: Delivery

  • Develop and maintain enterprise architecture standards, reference architectures, technology roadmaps, and implementation guidance.
  • Evaluate technology solutions, platforms, products, and services to ensure alignment with enterprise architecture principles and business objectives.
  • Review solution designs and provide architectural guidance to ensure solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable, and operationally supportable.
  • Support technology modernization initiatives and digital transformation efforts across the enterprise.
  • Provide architecture oversight for application, integration, data, infrastructure, cloud, and platform-related initiatives.
  • Identify technical risks, dependencies, and architectural impacts and provide recommendations for mitigation and resolution.
  • Contribute to technology onboarding activities, architecture reviews, technical assessments, and governance processes.
  • Develop architecture artifacts including conceptual, logical, and physical architecture designs.
  • Support strategic planning activities by helping define future-state technology capabilities and roadmaps.

Role Objectives: Interpersonal

  • Partner with business stakeholders to understand business objectives and translate requirements into practical technology solutions.
  • Collaborate with application teams, infrastructure teams, cybersecurity teams, data teams, and project teams to support successful solution delivery.
  • Provide technical leadership during architecture reviews, design sessions, planning activities, and technology assessments.
  • Communicate complex technical concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Build effective relationships across business and technology organizations to promote alignment and successful outcomes.
  • Facilitate discussions between stakeholders to identify and evaluate technology options and architectural tradeoffs.
  • Support governance processes by providing architectural recommendations, technical reviews, and standards guidance.

Role Objectives: Expertise

  • Demonstrate strong knowledge of enterprise architecture principles, methodologies, frameworks, and governance practices.
  • Maintain expertise across application, data, integration, infrastructure, cloud, and security architecture domains.
  • Demonstrate understanding of enterprise integration patterns, API architectures, microservices, event-driven architectures, and distributed systems.
  • Apply expertise in evaluating technologies, defining architecture standards, and establishing implementation patterns.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of cloud platforms, enterprise applications, data platforms, infrastructure technologies, and emerging technology trends.
  • Apply architectural expertise to support solution scalability, resiliency, security, operational support, and maintainability requirements.
  • Maintain awareness of evolving technology trends and identify opportunities to improve enterprise technology capabilities.
  • Promote consistency, standardization, and architectural best practices across technology initiatives.

Qualifications and Skills

Recommended Years of Experience: 8+

Required Skills

  • 8+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, application architecture, technology strategy, or related technical leadership roles.
  • Strong understanding of enterprise architecture principles, methodologies, and technology governance practices.
  • Experience developing architecture roadmaps, standards, reference architectures, and technology strategies aligned with business objectives.
  • Experience evaluating technologies, platforms, vendor solutions, and implementation approaches to support business and technology initiatives.
  • Strong understanding of application, integration, data, infrastructure, cloud, and cybersecurity architecture concepts.
  • Experience designing and reviewing enterprise-scale solutions involving cloud platforms, APIs, enterprise applications, data platforms, and operational systems.
  • Knowledge of enterprise integration patterns, microservices architectures, event-driven architectures, API management, and system interoperability.
  • Experience supporting technology onboarding, architecture reviews, technical assessments, and governance processes.
  • Strong understanding of solution scalability, resiliency, performance, security, operational support, and maintainability considerations.
  • Experience creating architecture artifacts including conceptual designs, logical architectures, technical designs, and implementation guidance.
  • Strong experience using Jira and related planning tools to support technology initiatives, requirements management, backlog planning, and project execution.
  • Ability to evaluate technical risks, dependencies, architectural tradeoffs, and implementation approaches.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Skills

  • Experience with Azure cloud services and cloud-native architectures.
  • Experience supporting enterprise data, analytics, reporting, integration, platform modernization, or cloud transformation initiatives.
  • Knowledge of application modernization, DevSecOps, platform engineering, automation, or enterprise integration practices.
  • Experience working within financial services or other highly regulated environments.
  • Experience supporting enterprise architecture governance, standards development, and strategic technology planning.

Additional Requirements

  • Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
  • Demonstrated ability to balance strategic architecture objectives with practical implementation considerations.
  • Experience influencing stakeholders and driving alignment across business and technology organizations.
  • Ability to work across multiple initiatives while maintaining consistency with enterprise architecture standards and long-term technology strategy.
  • Experience providing technical leadership and architectural guidance without direct management responsibility.
  • Proven success supporting digital transformation, technology modernization, governance, and enterprise architecture initiatives.
  • Strong relationship management skills and ability to collaborate effectively across diverse stakeholder groups.
  • Certifications are not required. Demonstrated experience defining architecture standards, evaluating technologies, and guiding successful enterprise technology initiatives is preferred over certification credentials.

SMBC’s employees participate in a Hybrid workforce model that provides employees with an opportunity to work from home, as well as, from an SMBC office. SMBC requires that employees live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office location. Prospective candidates will learn more about their specific hybrid work schedule during their interview process. Hybrid work may not be permitted for certain roles, including, for example, certain FINRA-registered roles for which in-office attendance for the entire workweek is required.

 

SMBC provides reasonable accommodations during candidacy for applicants with disabilities consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application process, please let us know at accommodations@smbcgroup.com.


Nearest Major Market: Charlotte