Technology Strategy Lead

Job Description

• The Technology Strategy Lead defines the technology strategies, platform architectures and modernisation roadmaps that enable client organisations to deliver customer facing products, services and experiences at enterprise scale.
• This is a senior advisory position operating at executive level. You will advise C suite and C minus one leadership within the largest corporates in South Africa and across EMEA on technology vision, platform investment and architectural direction, and will be expected to hold credibility in both commercial and engineering discussions.
• The role carries technical authority above individual delivery teams. You will ensure that architecture decisions, technology selections and integration patterns remain coherent across engineering, product, design and data workstreams, and that they can be delivered within agreed commercial and risk parameters.
• Reports to the Value Stream Lead, Digital, Experience and Strategy.
• Partners with the Customer Advisory Lead, translating customer and business strategy into platform architecture and executable roadmaps.
• Partners with the Data and AI Lead on data architecture, intelligent decisioning and agentic solution design.
• Partners with the Sales and Go to Market Lead on solution shaping, cost estimation and commercial structuring.
• Partners with Marketing Operations on marketing technology architecture, integration and operational governance.
• Leads solution architects, technical product owners and delivery pods spanning engineering, product, business analysis and design.

Responsibilities & Deliverables

Set Technology Direction

• Define and articulate technology visions and modernisation strategies grounded in industry context and client business priorities.
• Advise executive leadership on platform investment, architectural direction and the sequencing of technology change.
• Develop value cases and operating models that establish the commercial justification for investment.
• Produce practical roadmaps that carry a strategy from current state through to implemented capability.

Own Platform and Solution Architecture

• Hold platform level technical direction across engagements, maintaining coherence across engineering, product, design, data and technology workstreams.
• Define solution architectures spanning customer engagement, onboarding, personalisation, self service and intelligent decisioning.
• Establish integration patterns, capability boundaries and technical standards that are consistent, scalable and strategically aligned.
• Develop reusable reference architectures, playbooks and capability models that enable consistent delivery.

Direct Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology

• Lead the design and integration of artificial intelligence and agentic solutions within client platforms, alongside the Data and AI Lead.
• Determine where intelligent decisioning, automation and personalisation are embedded across customer journeys and operational workflows.
• Assess emerging technology and establish where it delivers measurable advantage and where it does not.
• Ensure artificial intelligence capability is designed with appropriate governance, transparency and risk controls.

Shape Solutions and Assure Delivery

• Lead solution architecture on major opportunities, with accountability for blueprint, solution plan, cost estimates, staffing and roadmap.
• Act as trusted technical advisor in client presentations and orals, articulating solution value with clarity and credibility.
• Ensure solutions can be built, operated, secured and supported once implemented.
• Support delivery teams through mobilisation and stabilisation, including quality assurance reviews and solution transition.

Build Market Position and Capability

• Drive industry narratives and thought leadership that shape the technology agenda of major corporates in South Africa and across EMEA.
• Maintain senior relationships with major platform partners and assess their roadmaps against client requirements.
• Bridge business intent and technical execution, translating strategy into decisions delivery teams can act on with clarity.
• Coach architects, technical product owners and engineers, and build technical capability within client organisations.

Requirements

Essential Experience

• At least 15 years across technology strategy, enterprise and solution architecture, platform delivery and digital transformation, gained in professional services, consulting or senior client side roles.
• At least 5 years holding architectural or technical authority across multidisciplinary teams on complex, multi domain programmes.
• A track record advising executive committee members and their direct reports on technology vision, investment and architectural direction.
• Business and customer strategy translated into platform architectures and roadmaps that were subsequently implemented.
• Solutions shaped and costed end to end, covering vision, blueprint, solution plan, cost estimates, staffing plans and delivery approach.
• Due diligence led on major opportunities, assessing requirements, risks, contractual obligations and solution viability.
• Architecture governance held within enterprise forums, ensuring alignment to standards, risk requirements and regulatory obligations.
• Sector depth in financial services, telecommunications, retail, resources or the public sector, including the regulatory environment those organisations operate within.
• Exposure to South African and broader EMEA markets is advantageous.

Technical Depth

You will need the depth to set architectural direction and to challenge engineering decisions with authority.

• Cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, spanning compute, data, integration and application services.
• Enterprise application platforms including SAP, and the customer experience and commerce capabilities associated with them.
• Adobe Experience Cloud and comparable marketing technology, personalisation, customer data and campaign orchestration platforms.
• Artificial intelligence and agentic solution architecture, including intelligent decisioning and the integration of models within customer journeys and operational workflows.
• Digital channel architecture, including onboarding, product origination, self service and omni channel capability.
• Integration and data architecture, including application programming interface design, event driven patterns, microservices and the pipelines that support personalisation and analytics.
• Security, privacy, resilience and regulatory considerations as they apply to customer facing platforms.

Education and Certification

• A relevant undergraduate degree, or equivalent professional experience, in computer science, engineering, information systems or a related discipline.
• A postgraduate qualification or executive education in technology management, futures studies or business administration is advantageous.
• Architecture, cloud platform or scaled agile certifications, such as TOGAF, Azure or Amazon Web Services credentials, are advantageous.

Success Looks Like

Within your first 12 months you will have

• Established trusted advisor relationships with executive and technology leadership across priority accounts.
• Defined technology strategies and platform architectures that have progressed into funded delivery.
• Held architectural authority on at least one major transformation programme, maintaining coherence across multiple delivery pods.
• Shaped and costed significant opportunities alongside the Sales and Go to Market Lead and the Customer Advisory Lead.
• Embedded reference architectures, standards and assurance practices used across the value stream.
• Developed architects and technical leads capable of holding platform accountability independently.

What We Offer

• A senior leadership position within a value stream that is being built and scaled, with genuine influence over its d