EA Area Architect_3074
Job Summary
The EA Area Architect for Americas is responsible for the product portfolio, technology landscape, and architectural direction of the Americas operating entities. This role bridges enterprise strategy and local business realities, ensuring architectural decisions are coherent, forward-looking, and aligned with Allianz Group standards.
About the Role
This is a high-visibility role embedded within a globally distributed EA community. The person operates with significant autonomy, representing the Americas area in global architecture governance bodies, and acts as a trusted technical advisor to both engineering and business leadership.
Responsibilities
Own the target architecture and technology roadmap for the Americas area, aligned with the Allianz Group enterprise architecture and H4 standards.
Support tribes and product teams in identifying the architecture and technologies that best fit their product designs, resolving interdependencies across area boundaries.
Define and govern critical non-functional requirements (scalability, resilience, security, observability) across the area.
Drive architectural evolution of existing platforms - reducing technical debt and improving product health.
Chair or co-chair the Americas Area Design Authority (ADA), facilitating architecture decision-making at area level.
Represent the Americas area in global EA bodies, contributing to enterprise-wide standards, patterns, and architectural decisions.
Review and sign off on significant architectural changes, ensuring compliance with H4 guardrails and enterprise standards.
Coordinate with Lead Architects in adjacent areas and functional domains (data, security, cloud, integration).
Review projects and gain alignment for the Challenge room sessions.
Ensure security architecture principles are followed in the design and implementation of services across the area.
Consult product teams on secure-by-design patterns and facilitate security architecture reviews.
Collaborate with the EA Security domain to embed controls appropriate for the Americas regulatory environment (SOX, state-level data privacy).
Participate in quarterly business reviews and planning cycles, providing architectural input to product roadmaps and investment decisions.
Assess technology competencies within area teams and identify coaching and enablement needs.
Contribute to the EA community of practice - sharing knowledge, validating patterns, and developing architectural standards.
Requirements
8+ years in IT architecture roles, with at least 3 years at area or enterprise level.
Proven track record managing architecture across complex, multi-team product areas in large-scale organizations.
Background in insurance, financial services, or regulated industries is a strong plus.
Familiarity with agile operating models (SAFe, Spotify-model or equivalent).
Broad architectural knowledge across application, integration, infrastructure, and data domains.
Hands-on understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) and modern application patterns (microservices, event-driven, API-first).
Ability to assess and govern security architecture, including Americas regulatory context (SOX, state-level data privacy).
Proficiency with architecture modeling tooling (ArchiMate, C4, UML, or equivalent).
Strong stakeholder management skills - able to influence without authority across engineering, product, and business leadership.
Able to translate complex architecture decisions into clear language for both technical and non-technical audiences.
Experience facilitating design authorities or architecture review forums.
Comfortable working in a globally distributed, multicultural environment.
Qualifications
Full professional proficiency in English.
Hybrid work model with 3 days/week in Golden Valley, MN.
Benefits
Health insurance.
Company bonus scheme.
401(K) with company match.
Company paid holidays.
Paid time off.
Paid volunteer days.
Tuition reimbursement.
Paid parental leave.
An employee shares program.
Employee discounts.
What We Offer
We offer a hybrid work model which recognizes the value of striking a balance between in-person collaboration and remote working. Our compensation and benefits package includes health insurance, company bonus scheme, 401(K) with company match, company paid holidays, paid time off, paid volunteer days, tuition reimbursement, paid parental leave, an employee shares program and employee discounts. As part of our comprehensive compensation and highly rated benefits programs, we also offer eligibility for an incentive-based annual bonus.
About Allianz Technology
Allianz Group is one of the most trusted insurance and asset management companies in the world. Caring for our employees, their ambitions, dreams and challenges is what makes us a unique employer. We are united by a shared commitment: to put our customers first and at the center of everything we do. Their needs inspire our thinking and guide our actions. Together, we can build an environment where everyone feels empowered and confident to explore, grow and shape a better future – for our customers and for the world around us. At Allianz, we stand for unity: we believe that a united world is a more prosperous world, and we are dedicated to consistently advocating for equal opportunities for all. The foundation for this is our inclusive workplace, where people and performance both matter, and where integrity, fairness, inclusion and trust are at the heart of our culture. We therefore welcome applications regardless of ethnicity or cultural background, age, gender, nationality, religion, social class, disability or sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected under applicable local laws and regulations. Join us. Let's care for tomorrow. You.IT