Head of Architecture, Direct Platform
Morningstar · Chicago, IL · 1 mo ago
Engineering$263k–$404k/yrFull-time
We need to output HTML fragment with sections: About the role (but we must not repeat job title as heading; we can have heading "About the role"? The instruction: use for section headings (e.g. About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule). Do NOT repeat the job title as a heading (the page already shows it). So we can still have "About the role" as heading. The posting includes "About The Role" paragraph. We'll put that in
for section headings (e.g. About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule). Do NOT repeat the job title as a heading (the page already shows it). So we can still have "About the role" as heading. The posting includes "About The Role" paragraph. We'll put that in About the role
then
with content. Responsibilities: list bullet points. We'll extract responsibilities bullet lines. Requirements: The posting has "Required Experience" which is essentially requirements. We'll put under
Requirements
with- .
Qualifications: There's "Preferred Qualifications". We'll put under
Qualifications
(or maybe "Preferred Qualifications"? The instruction says use headings like Qualifications. We'll use Qualifications. Skills: Not explicitly separate; but we could include "Hands-On Technical Skills" and "Leadership Competencies". Could combine under Skills? The instruction says use headings for Skills if present. We have "Leadership Competencies" and "Hands-On Technical Skills". Could treat as Skills section. Might be better to split: maybe "Skills" includes both. But we need to avoid thin sections. Could combine into one Skills section with subpoints? But we must use- for any list. Could have two subheadings? Not allowed; only h3 headings. Could have one Skills section with bullet points covering both leadership competencies and hands-on technical skills. That seems okay.
Benefits: The posting includes "Compensation And Benefits" with details. We'll create Benefits section with bullet list of benefits. Also Pay section: they have "Total Cash Compensation Range $263,475.00-403,991.66". That's pay info. So we need Pay section.
Schedule: They mention location and expectation of four days per week in office, flexible remote workday. That's schedule info. So we need Schedule section.
We must not include boilerplate like cookie/navigation/legal/EEO etc. At end there is "001_MstarInc Morningstar Inc. Legal Entity" - that's boilerplate; drop.
We must preserve all substantive information. Ensure we don't miss any details.
Let's extract content.
About The Role paragraph: It's multiple sentences. We'll copy.
Responsibilities: There are subheadings: Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Transformation, Technology Leadership & Business Partnership, Team Leadership & Technical Excellence, Architecture Governance & Risk Management. Under each there are bullet-like sentences starting with verbs. We'll capture each as list items.
Let's list them:
Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Transformation:
- Define and maintain the target-state Direct Platform architecture aligned to business priorities, product strategy, and long-term growth objectives.
- Develop and execute multi-year architecture and modernization roadmaps that reduce technical debt, simplify the technology landscape, and improve scalability, resiliency, maintainability, and operational efficiency.
- Establish enterprise architecture principles, reference architectures, technology standards, and cloud strategy across applications, data, infrastructure, and platform services.
- Lead evaluation of existing systems and technologies, identifying opportunities for consolidation, standardization, modernization, and adoption of cloud-native capabilities.
- Serve as the final escalation point for significant architectural decisions and trade-offs, balancing speed, scalability, resiliency, security, customer experience, and total cost of ownership.
- Establish and monitor architecture success metrics tied to business outcomes, including speed-to-market, platform reliability, operational efficiency, technology cost optimization, and customer experience.
Technology Leadership & Business Partnership:
- Facilitate alignment with Product, Engineering, Data, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations teams.
- Lead cross-functional architecture reviews for major initiatives and strategic investments.
- Influence technology investment planning and capital allocation decisions, including development of business cases and financial modeling for major architecture investments.
- Provide architectural direction and executive oversight of strategic vendor and partner technology relationships.
- Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to evolve organizational structures, delivery models, and platform operating practices that improve delivery velocity and developer effectiveness.
- Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on technology strategy, platform investment priorities, transformation risks, and emerging technology opportunities, including AI-enabled capabilities.
Team Leadership & Technical Excellence:
- Lead and mentor a small team of senior architects, working alongside them on design and delivery
- Foster a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, accountability, and innovation.
- Develop architectural capability across the organization through coaching, technical thought leadership, and communities of practice that promote consistency and knowledge sharing.
- Build long-term organizational capability through talent assessment, succession planning, coaching, and development of future architecture leaders.
Architecture Governance & Risk Management:
- Establish governance processes for evaluating emerging technologies, including AI and machine learning capabilities, and approving major platform investments.
- Ensure compliance with security, regulatory, privacy, and operational requirements.
- Establish architecture review processes and governance forums that balance innovation, speed of delivery, risk management, and long-term platform sustainability.
Now Required Experience bullet points (they are sentences but we can treat each as list item). Let's extract:
- 15+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, including significant experience in enterprise, platform, solution, or application architecture roles within complex, global organizations.
- At least 5+ years of experience leading architecture organizations, architecture teams, or enterprise-wide technology transformation initiatives, with recent hands-on architecture experience designing and governing complex cloud, application, data, and platform solutions.
- Proven success defining and executing enterprise architecture and modernization strategies across cloud, application, data, and platform domains that improve scalability, operational efficiency, and business outcomes.
- Demonstrated ability to influence executive stakeholders and partner effectively across Technology, Product, Operations, Security, Data, and Business functions to drive strategic technology initiatives and operating model improvements.
- Experience leading and developing high-performing architecture teams, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and succession planning.
- Proven track record establishing architecture governance, technology standards, and decision-making frameworks that balance innovation, risk management, and execution speed.
- Strong understanding of modern software development practices, platform engineering, DevSecOps, API-first architectures, microservices, event-driven architectures, and cloud-native technologies.
- Experience evaluating emerging technologies, including AI-enabled capabilities, and influencing technology investment decisions through business case development, financial analysis, and strategic prioritization.
- Excellent communication and executive presentation skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business recommendations.
Leadership Competencies (maybe part of Skills). We'll extract:
- Strategic thinker with the ability to connect technology decisions to business outcomes and enterprise objectives.
- Ability to influence, build alignment, challenge conventional thinking, and drive decisions across diverse stakeholder groups.
- Demonstrates sound judgment, balancing long-term architectural vision with practical execution in complex and ambiguous environments.
- Passion for developing talent and fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Hands-On Technical Skills:
- Demonstrated ability to remain a hands-on architect, contributing to the design, review, and delivery of complex, high-impact platform initiatives, including prototypes and reference architectures when appropriate.
- Maintains deep technical credibility through direct engagement with engineering teams, enabling informed architectural decisions and resolution of complex performance, scalability, reliability, and operational challenges.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience leading architecture functions in high-growth SaaS, fintech, financial services, data, analytics, or technology-driven organizations.
- Experience supporting large-scale, mission-critical platforms serving global customers in regulated environments.
- Cloud certifications (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and architecture-related certifications preferred.
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
Location: "Location: This role is based at our global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Regardless of office, there is an expectation of four days per week in the office. Morningstar operates a flexible in-office model in which employees select one preferred remote workday per week."
Compensation And Benefits: We need to separate Benefits and Pay.
Benefits list: Let's extract bullet-like items from the benefits paragraph.
Paragraph: "At Morningstar we believe people are at their best when they are at their healthiest. That’s why we champion your wellness through a wide range of programs that support all stages of your personal and professional life. Here are some examples of the offerings we provide: Financial Health100% 401k match up to 6% of salaryStock Ownership PotentialCompany provided life insurance - 1x salary + commissionPhysical HealthComprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coveragesAdditional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annualCompany-provided long- and short-term disability insuranceEmotional HealthTrust-Based Time Off6-week Paid Sabbatical Program6-Week Paid Family Caregiving LeaveCompetitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental LeaveAdoption AssistanceLeadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship OpportunitiesAnnual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses Tuition ReimbursementSocial HealthCharitable Matching Gifts programDollars for Doers volunteer programPaid volunteering days15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups"
We need to parse into sensible bullet items. The text is jammed; we need to separate.
Let's list:
Financial Health:
- 100% 401k match up to 6% of salary
- Stock Ownership Potential
- Company provided life insurance - 1x salary + commission
Physical Health:
- Comprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coverages
- Additional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annual
- Company-provided long- and short-term disability insurance
Emotional Health:
- Trust-Based Time Off
- 6-week Paid Sabbatical Program
- 6-Week Paid Family Caregiving Leave
- Competitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental Leave
- Adoption Assistance
- Leadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship Opportunities
- Annual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses
- Tuition Reimbursement
Social Health:
- Charitable Matching Gifts program
- Dollars for Doers volunteer program
- Paid volunteering days
- 15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups
We'll output as
- items, maybe grouping not needed; just list each.
Pay: "Total Cash Compensation Range $263,475.00-403,991.66 Inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive"
We'll put that in Pay section as
. Schedule: location and expectation: "Location: This role is based at our global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Regardless of office, there is an expectation of four days per week in the office. Morningstar operates a flexible in-office model in which employees select one preferred remote workday per week." We'll put in Schedule section as
. Now ensure we don't include any boilerplate like "001_MstarInc Morningstar Inc. Legal Entity". Also remove any duplicated lines. Now produce HTML fragment with
headings and
or
- .
Order: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule.
We need to include Skills section combining Leadership Competencies and Hands-On Technical Skills.
Let's craft Skills bullet list:
- Strategic thinker with the ability to connect technology decisions to business outcomes and enterprise objectives.
- Ability to influence, build alignment, challenge conventional thinking, and drive decisions across diverse stakeholder groups.
- Demonstrates sound judgment, balancing long-term architectural vision with practical execution in complex and ambiguous environments.
- Passion for developing talent and fostering a culture of technical excellence,
- items, maybe grouping not needed; just list each.
Pay: "Total Cash Compensation Range $263,475.00-403,991.66 Inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive"
We'll put that in Pay section as
- for any list. Could have two subheadings? Not allowed; only h3 headings. Could have one Skills section with bullet points covering both leadership competencies and hands-on technical skills. That seems okay.
Benefits: The posting includes "Compensation And Benefits" with details. We'll create Benefits section with bullet list of benefits. Also Pay section: they have "Total Cash Compensation Range $263,475.00-403,991.66". That's pay info. So we need Pay section.
Schedule: They mention location and expectation of four days per week in office, flexible remote workday. That's schedule info. So we need Schedule section.
We must not include boilerplate like cookie/navigation/legal/EEO etc. At end there is "001_MstarInc Morningstar Inc. Legal Entity" - that's boilerplate; drop.
We must preserve all substantive information. Ensure we don't miss any details.
Let's extract content.
About The Role paragraph: It's multiple sentences. We'll copy.
Responsibilities: There are subheadings: Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Transformation, Technology Leadership & Business Partnership, Team Leadership & Technical Excellence, Architecture Governance & Risk Management. Under each there are bullet-like sentences starting with verbs. We'll capture each as list items.
Let's list them:
Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Transformation:
- Define and maintain the target-state Direct Platform architecture aligned to business priorities, product strategy, and long-term growth objectives.
- Develop and execute multi-year architecture and modernization roadmaps that reduce technical debt, simplify the technology landscape, and improve scalability, resiliency, maintainability, and operational efficiency.
- Establish enterprise architecture principles, reference architectures, technology standards, and cloud strategy across applications, data, infrastructure, and platform services.
- Lead evaluation of existing systems and technologies, identifying opportunities for consolidation, standardization, modernization, and adoption of cloud-native capabilities.
- Serve as the final escalation point for significant architectural decisions and trade-offs, balancing speed, scalability, resiliency, security, customer experience, and total cost of ownership.
- Establish and monitor architecture success metrics tied to business outcomes, including speed-to-market, platform reliability, operational efficiency, technology cost optimization, and customer experience.
Technology Leadership & Business Partnership:
- Facilitate alignment with Product, Engineering, Data, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations teams.
- Lead cross-functional architecture reviews for major initiatives and strategic investments.
- Influence technology investment planning and capital allocation decisions, including development of business cases and financial modeling for major architecture investments.
- Provide architectural direction and executive oversight of strategic vendor and partner technology relationships.
- Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to evolve organizational structures, delivery models, and platform operating practices that improve delivery velocity and developer effectiveness.
- Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on technology strategy, platform investment priorities, transformation risks, and emerging technology opportunities, including AI-enabled capabilities.
Team Leadership & Technical Excellence:
- Lead and mentor a small team of senior architects, working alongside them on design and delivery
- Foster a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, accountability, and innovation.
- Develop architectural capability across the organization through coaching, technical thought leadership, and communities of practice that promote consistency and knowledge sharing.
- Build long-term organizational capability through talent assessment, succession planning, coaching, and development of future architecture leaders.
Architecture Governance & Risk Management:
- Establish governance processes for evaluating emerging technologies, including AI and machine learning capabilities, and approving major platform investments.
- Ensure compliance with security, regulatory, privacy, and operational requirements.
- Establish architecture review processes and governance forums that balance innovation, speed of delivery, risk management, and long-term platform sustainability.
Now Required Experience bullet points (they are sentences but we can treat each as list item). Let's extract:
- 15+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, including significant experience in enterprise, platform, solution, or application architecture roles within complex, global organizations.
- At least 5+ years of experience leading architecture organizations, architecture teams, or enterprise-wide technology transformation initiatives, with recent hands-on architecture experience designing and governing complex cloud, application, data, and platform solutions.
- Proven success defining and executing enterprise architecture and modernization strategies across cloud, application, data, and platform domains that improve scalability, operational efficiency, and business outcomes.
- Demonstrated ability to influence executive stakeholders and partner effectively across Technology, Product, Operations, Security, Data, and Business functions to drive strategic technology initiatives and operating model improvements.
- Experience leading and developing high-performing architecture teams, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and succession planning.
- Proven track record establishing architecture governance, technology standards, and decision-making frameworks that balance innovation, risk management, and execution speed.
- Strong understanding of modern software development practices, platform engineering, DevSecOps, API-first architectures, microservices, event-driven architectures, and cloud-native technologies.
- Experience evaluating emerging technologies, including AI-enabled capabilities, and influencing technology investment decisions through business case development, financial analysis, and strategic prioritization.
- Excellent communication and executive presentation skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business recommendations.
Leadership Competencies (maybe part of Skills). We'll extract:
- Strategic thinker with the ability to connect technology decisions to business outcomes and enterprise objectives.
- Ability to influence, build alignment, challenge conventional thinking, and drive decisions across diverse stakeholder groups.
- Demonstrates sound judgment, balancing long-term architectural vision with practical execution in complex and ambiguous environments.
- Passion for developing talent and fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Hands-On Technical Skills:
- Demonstrated ability to remain a hands-on architect, contributing to the design, review, and delivery of complex, high-impact platform initiatives, including prototypes and reference architectures when appropriate.
- Maintains deep technical credibility through direct engagement with engineering teams, enabling informed architectural decisions and resolution of complex performance, scalability, reliability, and operational challenges.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience leading architecture functions in high-growth SaaS, fintech, financial services, data, analytics, or technology-driven organizations.
- Experience supporting large-scale, mission-critical platforms serving global customers in regulated environments.
- Cloud certifications (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and architecture-related certifications preferred.
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
Location: "Location: This role is based at our global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Regardless of office, there is an expectation of four days per week in the office. Morningstar operates a flexible in-office model in which employees select one preferred remote workday per week."
Compensation And Benefits: We need to separate Benefits and Pay.
Benefits list: Let's extract bullet-like items from the benefits paragraph.
Paragraph: "At Morningstar we believe people are at their best when they are at their healthiest. That’s why we champion your wellness through a wide range of programs that support all stages of your personal and professional life. Here are some examples of the offerings we provide: Financial Health100% 401k match up to 6% of salaryStock Ownership PotentialCompany provided life insurance - 1x salary + commissionPhysical HealthComprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coveragesAdditional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annualCompany-provided long- and short-term disability insuranceEmotional HealthTrust-Based Time Off6-week Paid Sabbatical Program6-Week Paid Family Caregiving LeaveCompetitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental LeaveAdoption AssistanceLeadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship OpportunitiesAnnual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses Tuition ReimbursementSocial HealthCharitable Matching Gifts programDollars for Doers volunteer programPaid volunteering days15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups"
We need to parse into sensible bullet items. The text is jammed; we need to separate.
Let's list:
Financial Health:
- 100% 401k match up to 6% of salary
- Stock Ownership Potential
- Company provided life insurance - 1x salary + commission
Physical Health:
- Comprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coverages
- Additional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annual
- Company-provided long- and short-term disability insurance
Emotional Health:
- Trust-Based Time Off
- 6-week Paid Sabbatical Program
- 6-Week Paid Family Caregiving Leave
- Competitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental Leave
- Adoption Assistance
- Leadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship Opportunities
- Annual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses
- Tuition Reimbursement
Social Health:
- Charitable Matching Gifts program
- Dollars for Doers volunteer program
- Paid volunteering days
- 15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups
We'll output as