The Executive Director, Enterprise Architecture is a senior architecture leadership role, accountable for shaping and advancing the enterprise technology blueprint that enables scale, resilience, modernization, and business growth across the organization. This leader guides the Enterprise Architecture (EA) function as a strategic business partner, helps define Fortrea ‑ wide architecture strategy and standards, and ensures technology decisions across domains align with business objectives, regulatory obligations, and long ‑ term vision.
The role serves as a key architecture advisor to the VP Technology Solutions & Services and partners closely with leaders across Infrastructure, Workplace, Network, Hosting, Cybersecurity, Platforms, Data & Integration, and Application/Product teams. This position ensures that technology components operate cohesively and efficiently, driving a consistent, secure, scalable, and cost ‑ effective technology ecosystem for Fortrea.
Summary of Responsibilities:
Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Leadership
- Contribute to and maintain Fortrea’s multi‑year (3–5 year) enterprise architecture vision, strategy, and reference models across infrastructure, cloud, data, integration, cybersecurity, workplace, and applications, and support alignment with Fortrea’s capital investment portfolio.
- Translate business strategy into technology roadmaps that enable operational excellence, clinical development capabilities, and future‑ready IT platforms.
- Establish and maintain Fortrea’s enterprise architecture repository, principles, and guardrails.
Standards, Guardrails & Technology Governance
- Support the development, publication, and maintenance of enterprise technology standards, approved patterns, and prohibited components.
- Lead the formal exception‑governance process, ensuring risk, licensing, regulatory, and financial considerations are properly evaluated.
- Drive wide adoption of architectural guardrails and ensure consistency across all business units and technical domains.
Architecture Review Board (ARB) Leadership
- Lead or facilitate the Architecture Review Board (ARB) and serve as a key voice on architectural feasibility, compliance, integration, and alignment to enterprise strategy.
- Ensure timely, robust architectural assessments for new initiatives, major platform changes, and vendor‑driven solutions.
- Provide transparent decision‑making, risk identification, and clear rationale for approvals, conditions, or escalations.
Integration, Interoperability & Platform Coherence
- Ensure all technology domains operate cohesively, eliminating fragmentation and enabling scalable, integrated end‑to‑end solutions.
- Oversee architectural alignment across shared services, platforms, and enterprise capabilities (e.g., identity, networking, data, cloud, automation, observability).
- Drive modernization and rationalization initiatives to reduce technical debt, simplify the environment, and improve performance and resilience.
Data, Integration & Security Architecture Alignment
- Partner with Data & Integration Architecture, Cybersecurity, and Hosting teams to ensure data flows, integration platforms, and cloud/hosting strategies align with enterprise guardrails.
- Champion security‑by‑design, privacy‑by‑design, and compliance as core architectural principles.
- Promote adoption of modern integration patterns (APIs, eventing, managed services) that enable scalability and efficiency.
Executive Advisory & Stakeholder Leadership
- Serve as a trusted advisor to senior technology leaders on enterprise technology strategy, architectural risks, capital investment decisions, and modernization investments.
- Partner with Product, Engineering, Clinical Technologies, and Corporate Functions to ensure architectural considerations are embedded early in planning processes.
- Represent Enterprise Architecture in senior leadership reviews, portfolio governance discussions, and selected partner and vendor forums.
Leadership of the Enterprise Architecture Organization
- Lead, develop, and mentor an Enterprise Architecture team, spanning enterprise, solution, domain, and security architecture competencies, and help shape talent development and capability plans for the function.
- Build a culture of architectural excellence, shared accountability, and collaboration across architecture communities and platform teams.
- Establish operating rhythms, EA communities of practice, and standards for architectural artifacts and engagement models.
Qualifications (Minimum Required):
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or a related field. Equivalent and relevant experience may also be considered.
Experience (Minimum Required):
- At least 12 years of experience in Enterprise Architecture or a related field, including progressive leadership experience.
- Demonstrated senior leadership and management experience in IT strategy and enterprise architecture, including leading architecture teams and advising senior business and technology stakeholders.
- Extensive experience in implementing enterprise architecture frameworks and methodologies such as TOGAF.
- Established track record of successfully implementing complex technology initiatives and architecture roadmaps within set timelines and budgets.
- Experience in governing the architecture process with cross-functional IT teams.
- Experience in organizational change management, innovation, and technological transformation.
Preferred Qualifications Include:
- Master’s degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or a related field.
- Certification in Enterprise Architecture framework such as TOGAF.
- Experience in a Clinical Research Organization or healthcare-related industry.
- Knowledge and understanding of advanced computing platforms common in healthcare industry.
- Hands-on experience with emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) would be a plus.
Physical Demands / Work Environment:
Work Environment:
- Work is performed in an office environment with exposure to electrical office equipment.
- Occasional drives to site locations with occasional travel both domestic and international.
Physical Requirements:
- Ability to sit for extended periods and operate a vehicle safely.
- Repetitive hand movement of both hands with the ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Occasional crouching, stooping, with frequent bending and twisting of upper body and neck.
- Ability to access and use a variety of computer software developed both in-house and off-the-shelf.
- Light to moderate lifting and carrying, or moving of objects, including luggage and laptop computer with a maximum lift of 15-20 lbs.
- Regular and consistent attendance.
- Varied hours may be required.
Learn more about our EEO & Accommodations request here .
