Head of Enterprise Architecture - US TECH

At Chanel, we are focused on creating an inclusive culture that nurtures personal growth, contributing to collective progress. We believe the uniqueness of each individual increases the diversity, complementarity, and effectiveness of our teams. We strongly encourage your application, as we value the perspective, experience, and potential you could bring to CHANEL.

About the role

CHANEL is seeking a transformative Head of Enterprise Architecture to lead a pivotal evolution in how technology empowers our luxury retail business. This executive role, based in New York City and reporting to the CIO, will have strategic and operational ownership for the overall design of the application landscape. The role involves architecting scalable, future-ready solutions that empower the business to accelerate growth and operational excellence while fostering cross-regional collaboration and shared learning between the US and global architecture communities. The Head of Enterprise Architecture will align capabilities within a product-oriented model and architect the platforms, data pipelines, integration patterns, and guardrails that make responsible and scalable AI possible.

Responsibilities

• Drive architectural consistency and standardization across the global technology landscape to ensure coherence, reliability, and harmonization with regional and global priorities.
• Establish and uphold robust governance frameworks and structural discipline to guide enterprise-wide technology decisions.
• Define the Enterprise Architecture operating model, governance forums, decision rights, standards, exceptions, and gates.
• Embed strong architecture principles for Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning enablement, moving from static architecture to dynamic capability-driven architecture.
• Design the enterprise data architecture—from ingestion to consumption—ensuring data flows from operational systems (POS, OMS, WMS) to analytics and AI platforms with minimal friction.
• Define data domain ownership, ensuring clear accountability for customer data, product data, transaction data, and supply chain data, aligned with business domains.
• Harmonize US data architecture with the global data platform, ensuring US data products are consumable by global analytics teams and vice versa while respecting data residency and privacy requirements.
• Architect for unstructured data (text, image, video, and conversational data) alongside structured retail data to enable generative AI use cases.
• Future-proof technology by evaluating and integrating emerging technologies (genAI, agentic frameworks, multicloud solutions) into the enterprise operating model.
• Provide thought leadership, analysis, and design related to developing a well-managed enterprise architecture.
• Define repeatable processes that guide portfolio planning, investment decisions, and roadmap execution aligned to business outcomes.
• Own Application Portfolio Management using tools such as SAP LeanIX, ServiceNow APM / CMDB, or equivalents to map capabilities, rationalize redundancy, and show dependencies.
• Define and enforce end-to-end Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) standards across the region, ensuring consistent delivery practices using Agile Methodology to drive quality, speed, and repeatability.
• Shape the enterprise approach to AI and Machine Learning adoption, working closely with business stakeholders to identify high-value use cases, establish guardrails for responsible deployment, and ensure AI/ML capabilities are architected into the broader technology landscape.
• Stand up and lead a Center of Excellence (COE) for Architecture, bringing together architecture talent across the region to build shared capability and ensure architectural consistency across programs and domains.
• Own the Reference Architecture for US CHANEL Tech, using and adopting global playbooks, including librarianship and delivery of standards and build patterns.
• Define cloud, integration, platform, security, and resiliency standards, including landing zones, API-first patterns, and secure-by-design expectations.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with all functions across the business and IT to understand their processes and develop secure, automated, and integrated solutions that improve speed, efficiency, performance, accuracy, and security.
• Optimize business workflows by translating complex capability maps into simplified, efficient IT value streams to enhance agility and operational efficiency.
• Provide architecture input into planning, budgeting, TCO reduction, investment prioritization, and KPIs for rationalization, debt reduction, reuse, and target architecture alignment.
• Ensure alignment between US needs and global architecture standards for the full product lifecycle, including connectivity across PLM, merchandising, ERP, planning, OMS, WMS, POS, clienteling, e-commerce, analytics, and AI.
• Drive business outcomes such as faster time-to-market, operational visibility, stronger decision-making, and innovation enablement.

Requirements

• Knowledge of enterprise architecture principles, frameworks, and governance models; ability to define, implement, and govern enterprise-wide architecture direction that ensures alignment of technology capabilities with business strategy across regional and global operations.
• Expertise with technical/solution architecture and system design principles; ability to guide and govern architecture decisions for complex, multi-domain initiatives to ensure alignment with enterprise standards and strategic direction.
• A minimum of 15 years in a leadership technology role with a focus on Enterprise Architecture, ideally for a global matrixed company, major consultancy, or system integrator.
• Operates effectively between US autonomy and global alignment; knows when to push for standards and when to advocate for flexibility.
• Understands the language of retail, including P&L, merchandising, consumer behavior, clienteling, supply chain, and store operations as they relate to technology.
• Balances architectural rigor with delivery speed.
• Complete understanding and practical application of EA frameworks such as TOGAF or equivalent, including current/target state, transition planning, roadmaps, gap analysis, and migration planning.
• Experience in technical debt reduction: identify, assess, and mitigate the operational, obsolescence, and financial risks associated with maintaining legacy platforms.
• Strong expertise in designing and executing phased application decommissioning playbooks to securely sunset end-of-life, legacy hardware, and software.
• Experience and understanding of multiple technical domains: application, data, DevOps, AI/ML, integration, big data, mobility, analytics, cloud, and platform architecture.
• Knowledge of Enterprise Architecture methodologies such as TOGAF and experience with tools such as SAP LeanIX, ServiceNow APM / CMDB, ArchiMate, or Bizzdesign.
• Drive enterprise-wide simplification of technology landscapes, reducing complexity across platforms, applications, and processes to improve agility and operational efficiency.
• Experience working in a retail environment, with an understanding of customer trends and digital innovations in luxury retail (a plus).
• Experience working in complex IT environments, able to prioritize and plan complex work in a rapidly changing context.
• Complex problem-solving and systems thinking: leverages deep technical acumen and a systems-oriented mindset to resolve multifaceted architectural challenges while continuously optimizing digital employee experience at scale.
• Knowledge of financial, market, and operational drivers of business performance; ability to ensure enterprise architecture initiatives deliver measurable business value and support strategic outcomes.
• Proven advanced capability to work credibly at an executive level, anticipating, understanding, and responding to strategic business challenges and how IT can help solve them.
• Solutions mindset with exceptional problem-solving skills and the ability to connect the dots within a complex work environment.
• Proven track record in managing external vendors and establishing strong partnerships with them.
• Strong enthusiasm for building strategic relationships and managing multiple key stakeholders and projects.

Skills

• Engaging strategically across all organizational levels within a global luxury retail maison to align technology vision with business ambition.
• Providing visionary thought leadership while fostering deep collaboration with cross-functional divisions and key client stakeholder groups.
• Architecting scalable, future-ready solutions that empower the business to accelerate growth and operational excellence.
• Championing emerging technologies and industry trends to ensure the organization remains at the forefront of digital innovation.
• Thriving within a highly collaborative, multicultural environment that values diversity of perspective and collective problem-solving.
• Navigating competing priorities with clarity and composure in a fast-paced, high-demand environment while maintaining strategic focus.
• Inspiring and motivating cross-functional teams through inclusive leadership, intellectual curiosity, and a commitment to shared success.
• Demonstrated leadership qualities with integrity, humility, and open-mindedness.
• Team player with experience leading and collaborating cross-team to ensure successful delivery of solutions.
• Excellent presentation, facilitation, and storytelling ability.
• Entrepreneurial spirit with the ability to handle ambiguity and challenge the status quo to drive continuous improvements.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills to articulate complex technical concepts, designs, and goals to technology leaders and non-technical stakeholders.
• Exceptional analytical, conceptual, and problem-solving abilities.
• A measured and informative approach to highlighting and dealing with conflicts.

Schedule

This position is based on-site in New York City with a 3-day in-office requirement.