Enterprise Architect

Lanes Group is a leading nationwide utility services provider with over 3,500 dedicated employees. Our diverse subsidiaries drive our success across various sectors, contributing to a remarkable turnover of over £500 million. We are committed to excellence and innovation, ensuring we provide industry leading services to our clients and stakeholders. Join us to be part of a dynamic and growing team that values diversity and fosters professional growth.

Purpose of the role:

As a key member of the IT Senior Leadership Team (SLT), the Enterprise Solutions Architect serves as the strategic visionary responsible for harmonizing complex business objectives with a vast technical landscape of 4,500+ users. The primary purpose of this role is to design and govern end-to-end architectural blueprints that solve immediate business challenges while strictly adhering to the organization’s long-term technology roadmap. Acting as a "strategic orchestrator," the Architect ensures that the ecosystem of current environments, processes, and people remains integrated and resilient, preventing the formation of fragmented technical silos. 

The role demands a candidate who can navigate the complexities of Tier-1 enterprise platforms, specifically leveraging MuleSoft as the integration "nervous system" to connect disparate systems through API-led connectivity. They are responsible for ensuring Dynamics 365 remains the centralized "source of truth" for customer data, while guaranteeing that Field Management Systems are robust, secure, and functional for a mobile workforce operating in varied connectivity environments. By defining technical guardrails and translating high-level strategy into actionable engineering blueprints, the Architect justifies long-term infrastructure investments to executive leadership. Ultimately, the goal is to build a future-proof environment where data flows reliably between HQ and the frontline, enabling the organization to innovate at scale while proactively managing technical debt. 

Location: Leeds, Leyland or Slough 

Employment Type: Full Time, Permanent

Hours: 37.5 (Monday-Friday)

Key Responsibilities:

1. Strategic Roadmap & Investment Alignment
   

The EA is responsible for translating the business’s 3-to-5-year goals into a coherent Technology Roadmap. In a UK firm of this size, this often involves evaluating "Buy vs. Build" decisions and ensuring that IT investment is directed toward systems that provide a competitive advantage. They ensure that every new project aligns with the long-term vision, preventing the "accidental" architecture that often occurs during rapid scaling. 

1. Integration & Interoperability Governance
   

With 4,500 users, the organization likely relies on a mix of SaaS products and legacy systems. The EA defines the Integration Strategy—often utilizing middleware like MuleSoft—to ensure data flows seamlessly across the business. They move the organization away from fragile point-to-point connections toward a reusable API-led architecture that reduces complexity. 

1. Security & Compliance (Cyber Essentials/GDPR)
   

In the UK landscape, the EA must act as a guardian of data integrity and regulatory compliance. They design systems with Security-by-Design principles, ensuring that the architecture meets GDPR requirements and aligns with frameworks like Cyber Essentials Plus or ISO 27001. They are responsible for ensuring that as the user base grows, the attack surface remains managed and identity management (IAM) is centralized. 

1. Technical Debt & Legacy Modernization
   

A primary responsibility is the lifecycle management of the "As-Is" environment. The EA identifies redundant applications and aging infrastructure that pose a risk to the business. They lead Legacy Modernization initiatives, creating migration paths to cloud-native environments (Azure, AWS) to improve agility and reduce long-term costs. 

1. Standards & Pattern Definition
   

To empower development and engineering teams without causing chaos, the EA establishes Architecture Guardrails. This involves creating a catalogue of approved technologies, design patterns, and "blueprints." By providing these pre-approved templates, the EA enables project teams to move faster while ensuring that the 4,500-person organization maintains a consistent, supportable, and scalable technology stack. 

What we offer:

• Life Assurance scheme 
• Company Car/Car Allowance
• Bonus 
• 24 Days Holiday 
• Auto enrolment pension scheme.
  
• Free On-Site Parking 

Living the Company Values:

By embedding our companies core values and purpose into each role, ensures that every employee, regardless of their role or level, understands how their individual development and contributions align with our purpose of ‘improving today for a better tomorrow’.

Each role and value has an alignment to set proficiency levels and expectations, this role holder is expected to:

• Leading:  Tackles complex, systemic challenges and develops transformative solutions. 
• Agile:  Consistently demonstrates agility, driving organisational outcomes through continuous improvement, quickly adapting to new situations and challenges
• Nurturing:  Consistently contributes to the growth and development of their peers.
• Engaging:  Contributes to creating a positive, supportive and engaging workplace culture.  
• Safe & Secure:  Consistently models safe behaviours, adhering to robust data security protocols.  

Your Contribution to the company:

• Strive to be always positive and constructive
• Adhere to all company policies
• Straight talking about the facts of the situation – open discussions are the best way to find solutions
• Help others through communicating clearly
• Deliver on commitments
• Ensure that any ideas that may enhance the productivity or systems of the company are brought to the attention of Senior Management, or your colleagues
• Deliver our Company Values understanding that by working together in unity we are ‘Stronger Together’

At Lanes Group, we are dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and empowered. We believe that our differences make us stronger and are committed to providing equal opportunities for all employees. We welcome and encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, including those from underrepresented groups. Join us in our commitment to creating a more inclusive and diverse world.