Enterprise Architect
Enterprise Architect
Job Description
About the Trust
We're one of the UK’s biggest charities and we care for 2,000 miles of canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs because we believe life is better by water. We're looking for people who support our cause and want to make a difference for future generations. Could this be you?
Along with our waterways we also manage museums, archives and the country's third largest collection of historic buildings, as well as the nature and wildlife that calls our canals home. All of this enables us to provide wellbeing opportunities for millions of people each year.
Join Our Team: Enterprise Architect opportunity
Navigate your future and lock in your career as we keep our canals open and alive.
The IT team at the Canal & River Trust delivers key digital solutions that keep our charity running smoothly. We look after our core systems and devices, support colleagues across the organisation, and help us adopt secure, modern technology to improve how we work. We also play a key role in our major transformation projects, including replacing our legacy SAP system with a new ERP platform, ensuring teams have the right tools and processes for the future.
The Enterprise Architect will lead and shape the Trust’s technology architecture during and beyond our ERP transformation. This role will provide strategic oversight, architectural governance, and practical leadership to ensure our new systems are integrated, scalable, and aligned with organisational objectives.
The Enterprise Architect will be accountable for defining the end-to-end technology landscape and establishing a sustainable architectural framework for the future.
Working Hours & Location
This role follows 37 hours, Monday to Friday working pattern. This role is based working from home, with a requirement to attend our main hub spaces from time to time for team working and collaborative meetings.
It is important that you can reasonably commute to one of our main hubs below. The regularity & flexibility of travel will be discussed further at interview stage.
Relevant Hubs: Leeds, Newark, Ellesmere Port, Burnley, Birmingham, Gloucester.
Role Overview
You’ll shape how our systems work together by leading the Trust’s enterprise architecture and supporting our major ERP transformation. This role sets the technical direction, improves our digital foundations, and helps teams adopt modern, scalable and secure ways of working.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and own the enterprise architecture roadmap for the Trust, ensuring alignment with business strategy and digital priorities.
- Provide strategic architectural leadership to the ERP transformation programme (SAP to best-of-breed), with a focus on integration, data, and scalability.
- Develop, document, and maintain a comprehensive enterprise architecture covering business processes, applications, integrations, data, and technology.
- Work closely with business, IT, and vendor teams to analyse requirements, define target architectures, and set architectural standards.
- Lead the adoption of a mature architectural approach, establishing architectural standards, documentation, and governance processes, addressing current immaturity in systems and configuration documentation.
- Provide challenge and assurance to vendors and delivery partners, ensuring realistic estimates, achievable designs, and effective integration.
- Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, translating complex technical concepts into business impact and opportunities.
- Identify and mitigate architectural risks, bringing clarity and realism to project planning and delivery.
- Build and champion architectural capability within the Trust, fostering a culture of best practice and continuous improvement in solution design, data management and system interoperability to facilitate reliable, scalable and secure operations
- Mentor and upskill internal teams to promote architectural thinking and sustainable capability development.
- Stay informed of technology trends, especially in ERP, integration platforms, and data analytics, to ensure the Trust’s technology landscape remains future-fit.
About You
This role blends hands‑on architectural expertise—spanning ERP migration, integrations, data and cloud—with the ability to set strong standards and guide how systems fit together. You’ll work closely with teams and suppliers, turning complex ideas into clear solutions while helping build long‑term architectural capability across the Trust.
Skills & Qualifications
Technical skills:
- Proven experience as an Enterprise Architect, with direct involvement in ERP transformation/migration projects (preferably SAP to best-of-breed environments).
- Deep expertise in integration architecture and API-led connectivity, ideally using an integration hub to connect multiple systems.
- Strong understanding of data warehousing and reporting platforms (PowerBI, Microsoft Fabric, or similar technologies).
- Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure and services (Azure, SharePoint, Teams, Power Platform or similar technologies).
- Track record of establishing and embedding architectural frameworks, governance, and documentation regimes in organisations with nascent architectural maturity.
General Skills:
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to bridge technical and business perspectives.
- Ability to produce clear architectural documentation, roadmaps and governance processes
- A pragmatic, hands-on approach to solving complex architectural and integration challenges.
- Skilled at challenging suppliers and partners to ensure delivery quality and value for money.
- Ability to instil best practices in solution design, configuration management, and systems documentation.
Contact & Application
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at CRT.recruitment@canalrivertrust.org.uk. We encourage early applications as we may close the vacancy once we receive enough suitable candidates.
What We Offer
In addition to your annual base salary of £70,000 - £75,000 (depending on experience), we also offer a competitive pension scheme, increasing holiday entitlement, and a range of employee benefits. For a full breakdown of our benefits, check out our brochure here: EVP - 1.
Learn more: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/work-for-us/our-benefits
Our values
We care passionately for our waterways, and as importantly, for those who look after and use them. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce where everyone can thrive. We are striving to represent the diverse communities that we are a part of and welcome applicants from across all sectors of the community.
We want everyone to have the opportunity to perform at their best during our recruitment process. If you require any reasonable adjustments - whether for a disability, neurodiversity, or health condition - please let us know what you need and how we can support you. We’ll work with you to make any necessary changes.
All of our jobs can be considered on a part time, flexible or job share basis.
We operate a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role. You are considered disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. We recognise not everyone who is classified as disabled under the Equality Act personally identifies this way, or with this definition of disability. Please do not let this discourage you from applying under the scheme.
At Canal & River Trust, we are committed to fair, transparent, and ethical recruitment practices. As part of our hiring process, we may use AI to analyse applications and support us work more efficiently. However, all hiring decisions – without exception - are made by our hiring managers.
Navigate your future and lock in your career as we keep our canals open and alive.
Find out more about us on our website: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us