Principal Enterprise Architect

Job description

The Principal Enterprise Architect is the senior-most technical architect in WME Enterprise IT and the principal technical advisor to infrastructure leadership on technology direction. The role owns the enterprise architecture — the standards, reference designs, and governance that define how WME's cloud, infrastructure, application, integration, and AI platforms fit together and evolve. It is the authority for “what good looks like” across the IT estate, and the seat that holds that line consistently as the rest of the function builds. This is a deep-technical role without direct reports. Authority comes through enterprise architecture standards, architecture review and approval, design guidance, and influence across every engineering pillar — not through people management. The role sets the multi-year technology direction, governs the architecture estate against consistent standards, and ensures that day-to-day engineering decisions ladder up to a coherent enterprise architecture. Scope & Boundaries This role owns enterprise architecture authority and is fenced explicitly against the build-and-operate roles it governs: In scope: enterprise-wide architecture vision, standards, and reference designs across cloud, infrastructure, application, integration, data, and AI; architecture review and approval authority; the multi-year technology roadmap; legacy-modernization and integration / API governance; and the political and technical standing to enforce standards consistently across pillars. Relationship to the Senior Platform Engineer (#61): this role sets the enterprise cloud and platform standards; the Senior Platform Engineer builds and operates the platform estate within those standards and may flex deep onto product / engineering team projects. This role stays enterprise-wide and holds the standard so it does not lapse when platform engineering goes deep on a specific project; the two partner closely, with real-world platform learnings feeding back into the standards. Relationship to engineering and operations functions: the server & cloud infrastructure, network, and application & integration functions engineer and operate within the architecture and standards this role sets. This role governs and reviews; it does not run day-to-day operations. Partnership with cybersecurity governance: security and compliance requirements are designed into the architecture in partnership with the cybersecurity governance function; this role ensures architectural decisions align to those requirements. How This Team Works Enterprise IT runs on one idea: operational excellence — technology that just works, problems fixed at the root, and an engineering bar that keeps climbing. As the senior-most architect, this role defines that bar for the whole estate. Six operating foundations describe how the function works, and a Principal here models all six and raises them across pillars. Service management, done right. Designs architecture with service reliability and operability built in, so what the function ships is dependable by design. Continual improvement. Treats architecture as living — uses real outcomes, metrics, and modernization signals to evolve the standards rather than freeze them. AI fluency. Sets the enterprise AI architecture standard and exemplifies AI-augmented engineering across the function. Ownership and documentation. Owns the architecture estate end to end and leaves reference architectures, standards, and decision records that scale beyond any one project. Security and risk by default. Builds security and risk into the architecture from the first decision, partnering with governance where decisions carry real weight. Clarity and influence. Earns alignment through clear standards, sound reasoning, and credibility — authority by influence, not by mandate. Key Responsibilities Responsibilities group into seven pillars spanning the enterprise architecture mandate. 1. Enterprise Architecture Vision & Standards Own the enterprise architecture vision and the standards and reference designs that span cloud, infrastructure, application, integration, data, and AI. Define “what good looks like” across the estate — opinionated, well-documented standards engineering teams design and build against. Maintain a coherent target-state architecture and keep current-state decisions laddering up to it. 2. Cloud & Platform Standards & Governance Set the enterprise standards for cloud (Microsoft Azure) and platform engineering — governance, landing-zone and identity patterns, automation and IaC expectations, and platform security baselines. Govern the estate against those standards; the Senior Platform Engineer and infrastructure teams build and operate within them. Hold the enterprise standard consistently across pillars, including when platform engineering goes deep on specific product or engineering projects. 3. Architecture Review, Governance & Decision Authority Own the architecture review function — review and approve significant designs across infrastructure, application, integration, and AI. Provide constructive technical critique and improvement recommendations; resolve cross-domain architectural tradeoffs. Author and maintain enterprise technical standards, reference designs, and architecture decision records. 4. Technology Strategy & Multi-Year Roadmap Own the multi-year infrastructure, platform, and enterprise technology roadmap and modernization strategy. Evaluate emerging technologies and patterns for fit, and recommend adoption, replacement, or retirement. Estimate effort, risk, and dependencies for major initiatives; brief leadership on direction, tradeoffs, and investment needs. 5. Legacy Modernization & Integration / API Governance Govern the legacy application infrastructure estate — stewardship strategy, lifecycle decisions (maintain, modernize, replace, retire), and risk reduction. Establish and govern API and integration standards, patterns, and reference architectures across business systems, infrastructure, and external partners. Maintain the integration inventory and govern API lifecycle — versioning, deprecation, security baseline, and observability. Partner with cybersecurity governance on integration security architecture and threat modeling for sensitive integrations. 6. AI Architecture & Enterprise Standards Set the enterprise AI architecture standard — how AI capabilities are architected, integrated, and governed across the estate. Provide architectural guidance on model selection, integration patterns, and operational boundaries, in partnership with the AI platform and AI & digital workplace functions. Serve as the principal-level AI-fluency exemplar; surface AI-driven architecture and automation opportunities to leadership. 7. Technical Leadership & Cross-Pillar Influence Operate as the senior-most technical voice across the IT function and the principal architecture advisor to infrastructure leadership. Mentor principal and senior engineers across pillars through design reviews, pairing, and technical guidance — by influence, not people management. Represent enterprise architecture in leadership forums and brief executives on technical direction, risk, and tradeoffs. Required Qualifications 12+ years of progressively senior engineering and architecture experience across infrastructure, cloud, application, and integration. Demonstrated principal- or enterprise-architect experience — owning enterprise-wide standards and exercising architecture authority through influence rather than direct management. Deep cloud architecture expertise, with Microsoft Azure at enterprise scale — governance, landing zones, identity integration (Entra), and networking. Strong enterprise architecture practice — reference architectures, standards development, and architecture review / governance. Broad infrastructure architecture across compute and virtualization, networking, identity and access, observability, automation, shared services, and enterprise integration. Modern API and integration architecture (REST, message-based, event streaming, integration platforms) and legacy modernization experience. Identity and security architecture partnership — Entra ID, conditional access, and Zero Trust principles. Excellent written and verbal communication — able to author standards, lead design reviews, and brief executives, and to drive alignment across the organization. Demonstrated experience using AI tooling in technical work — prompt engineering, AI-assisted documentation, and AI-aided design or analysis. Preferred Qualifications Enterprise-architecture certification — TOGAF, Zachman, or equivalent — and Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305). Experience leading legacy modernization or replatforming initiatives at enterprise scale. Experience establishing enterprise AI architecture standards or AI governance. Experience operating within large, complex, multi-region enterprise environments. Familiarity with security and reliability frameworks such as CIS Benchmarks and NIST CSF 2.0, and with the Azure Well-Architected Framework. Background in media, entertainment, or similar high-velocity, high-confidentiality industries. Equal Employment Opportunity WME is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Per local requirements and in the interest of transparency, the rate shown below reflects the prevalent current hiring range for this position. Hiring pay rates are based on a number of factors, including location and may vary depending on job-related qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience. The company strives to provide locally competitive rewards packages, which include base rate along with, as applicable, short- and long-term incentives, growth and developmental opportunities, and robust benefits, such as health care, retirement, vacation and other paid time off, and additional offerings. Hiring Rate Minimum: $172,500 annually (minimum will not fall below the applicable state/local minimum salary thresholds) Hiring Rate Maximum: $230,000 annually WME is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, or religion or belief.