Sr. Director, Enterprise Architecture - Platform, Integration, & Developer Experience

Overview

Are you passionate about sneakers and eager to make your mark in the dynamic intersection of technology and sneaker culture? Foot Locker, Inc. is on the lookout for a Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture to elevate and revolutionize our platform, integration, and developer experience capabilities.

In this critical role, you will be pivotal in shaping the future of our technology landscape and how we deliver software by designing and implementing platforms that allow Foot Locker to iterate quickly, provide ubiquitous access to data via APIs, and empower developers with a modern developer experience and workflow.

Your role is more than a traditional Enterprise Architect - it's an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of sneakers and solve enterprise customer and business problems collaboratively. You'll influence and drive the alignment of business and technology objectives with innovative platform solutions across enterprise business, product, and technology partners, ensuring that technology investments support Foot Locker's long-term growth and success.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Influence

• Influence senior executives across our global technology and business organizations, translating technology and business strategy into an architectural approach that drives strategic value.

• Foster a culture of collaboration, co-creation, and inclusivity across the GTS and Business organizations, promoting the adoption of Foot Locker Platform and Enterprise Architecture standards, frameworks, and best practices.

• Champion the integration of sneaker culture insights and trends into technology solutions, ensuring that Foot Locker is at the forefront of retail innovation.

• Ensure alignment of Enterprise Architecture and Platform portfolios with Foot Locker's strategic goals.

• Actively participate in cross-functional initiatives to drive strategic alignment and ensure that technology solutions seamlessly integrate with existing business and technology processes and systems.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to technology and business stakeholders, providing expert guidance on the impact of technology decisions on business outcomes.

• Continuously evaluate retail, sneaker, and technology trends for emerging capabilities and solutions, making recommendations on when to introduce, adopt, deprecate, and retire.

Enterprise Architecture Expertise

• Deeply understand how Foot Locker platforms can and will enable desired outcomes for cost, efficiency, operational excellence, and developer productivity, ensuring alignment with Enterprise Architecture and Distinguished Engineering.

• Guide the team on best practices in building large-scale platforms, emphasizing developer experience and democratization of data while optimizing cost, performance, scalability, and resilience.

• Define the vision, strategies, and roadmaps for infrastructure, cloud, integration, APIs, and developer experience using capability modeling.

• Modernize the current environment by building cloud-native, API first, event-driven, and micro-service approaches that leverage public cloud and SaaS, and incorporate DevOps, Lean Product, and Agile principles.

• Drive standardization and implementation of Enterprise Architecture artifacts, processes, and enterprise knowledge and application management platforms, (e.g. LeanIX, GitHub, Lucidchart, and Confluence).

• Manage the entire lifecycle of the Platform portfolio, ensuring alignment with Enterprise Architecture, technology and business outcomes and key results, and identifying and mitigating business, operational, and financial risks throughout the portfolio lifecycle.

Technical Expertise

• Possess in-depth knowledge of traditional on-premises infrastructure, public cloud platforms, and workload deployment methods (e.g. AWS, GCP, and Azure, plus Kubernetes, containers, functions, and serverless).

• Possess in-depth knowledge of data integration principles, methodologies, and tools (e.g., ETL/ELT, APIs, Event Sourcing, Messaging, etc.).

• Possess in-depth knowledge of modern API design, testing, and implementation (e.g., Open API Specifications, domain models, mocking, conformance testing, versioning, and documentation)

• Possess in-depth knowledge of modern software development methodologies (e.g., API Design First, Agile, DevOps, TDD, and CI/CD) and their impact on developer experience.

Technical Leadership and Development

• Lead and manage a team of Principal and Sr. Solution Architects.

• Act as a cultural champion to create an engaged and inclusive community of Architects and Engineers within the organization, providing leadership, mentorship and guidance to foster a culture of technical excellence and ensuring ongoing alignment with Enterprise Architecture vision, strategy, roadmaps, and standards.

• Define and measure key performance metrics, ensuring operational excellence and fitness for purpose, with a unique perspective inspired by sneaker culture. Drive the resolution of complex technical problems.

• Oversee research on industry standards, technologies, and trends to establish best practices that guide the design of technology solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, business administration, or a related field.

• 10+ years of experience designing enterprise solutions and platforms.

• Proven experience and knowledge of infrastructure, cloud, integration, DevOps, and developer experience

• Experience with enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF, Zachman, CVOSLD).

• Proven experience in IT strategy, enterprise architecture, and technology portfolio management.

• Public cloud experience, preferably Azure, AWS, or Google.

• Strong communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.

Benefits

The annual base salary range is $218000 - $250000/ year.This range represents the anticipated low and high end of the salary for this position. This role is also eligible to receive short term incentives that align with individual and company performance. Salary will be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data. Salary is one component of the Foot Locker, Inc. total compensation package, which includes the below.

Foot Locker Benefits:

• Employee Discount

• Paid Time Off

• Medical | Dental | Vision Coverage

• 401(k) | Roth 401(k)

• Stock Purchase Plan

• Life Insurance

• Flexible Spending Account

• Opportunities for Advancement

• Tuition Reimbursement for Qualified Courses

• Strong Company Culture

• Employee Resource Groups