Principal Architect | Strategic Enterprise Architecture

Our NielsenIQ Technology teams are building and evolving Connect a unified global open data ecosystem powered by AI cloud and on-premises technologies. Clients around the world rely on NielsenIQ data and insights to innovate and grow. As a Principal Architect within the Enterprise Architecture team you will define architecture for key components and capabilities across NIQ platforms ensuring alignment with business strategy product objectives technology standards and the long-term platform vision. You will partner with architecture peers Product and Operations leaders engineering leaders and development teams to take solutions from initial requirements through design delivery and production operation. A key focus of this role is shaping the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence Generative AI and agentic AI across the enterprise. The successful candidate will combine broad enterprise architecture experience with practical knowledge of AI-enabled systems and will grow into an end-to-end platform architect as their knowledge of NIQs platforms expands.

Role Mandate: Act as the strategic Enterprise Architecture partner and single point of architecture accountability for an assigned NIQ product portfolio. The role connects business and product strategy to target-state architecture capability ownership technology roadmaps governed standards and delivery feedback. It is intentionally strategic while remaining close enough to Product Engineering Solution Architecture and Architecture Practice teams to ensure that direction is actionable and produces measurable outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the portfolio target-state architecture and rolling three-year technology roadmap aligned with business priorities product strategy engineering plans and enterprise transformation goals.
• Serve as the named strategic architecture partner and single point of EA accountability for the assigned portfolio building trusted working relationships with Product Engineering Operations Data Science Security and business leadership.
• Create and maintain business-capability domain application data and platform maps that expose ownership dependencies duplication maturity gaps lifecycle risk and opportunities for simplification or growth.
• Translate strategic priorities into clear architecture outcomes transition states investment options sequencing recommendations and measurable decision criteria.
• Guide platform-placement and build-versus-buy decisions balancing enterprise reuse and standards with appropriate portfolio autonomy speed cost resilience and client commitments.
• Define and contribute reusable reference architectures patterns guardrails and decision trees including patterns for AI Generative AI agentic AI data integration cloud security and observability.
• Drive adoption of approved architecture standards and bring standards reference architectures major exceptions and cross-functional decisions through the lightweight EA governance process for ratification.
• Own visibility of portfolio architecture risks strategic exceptions technical debt capability gaps and cross portfolio dependencies; ensure actions owners and escalation paths are clear.
• Partner with the Solution Architecture pillar to triage architecturally significant demand shape initiatives early and ensure delivery-level learning feeds back into portfolio strategy standards and roadmaps.
• Assess emerging technologies and market shifts especially AI and agentic commerce and convert relevant signals into adoption guidance controlled experiments investment recommendations and roadmap implications.
• Enable self-service architecture by creating high-quality reusable content for NIQ architecture knowledge repositories and supporting AI-enabled access to standards patterns decisions and portfolio views.
• Establish and run an effective operating cadence including strategic portfolio reviews intake alignment with Solution Architecture reference artifact alignment with the Architecture Practice and architect-only sessions to drive capability and domain consistency.
• Define outcome-oriented measures for the portfolio such as roadmap adoption reuse simplification risk reduction decision cycle time standards adoption and value realized from technology investments.
• Support M&A due diligence and integration planning by assessing capability fit architecture compatibility technology risk redundancy security considerations and potential integration paths.
• Mentor architects and engineering leaders communicate complex decisions clearly and influence across organizational boundaries without relying on direct authority.

Qualifications :

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering Information Systems or a related discipline or equivalent practical experience.
• 10 years of progressive experience across software engineering solution architecture platform architecture or enterprise architecture including significant experience with enterprise-scale products and data platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to define target-state architectures and multi-year technology roadmaps and to connect them to business capabilities product objectives investment decisions and executable transition plans.
• Experience operating as a strategic advisor to senior Product Engineering Technology Operations or business leaders with evidence of influencing decisions across multiple organizations and geographies.
• Strong knowledge of capability-based planning domain and platform mapping application rationalization technology lifecycle management technical debt and architecture risk management.
• Experience creating and driving adoption of enterprise standards reference architectures reusable patterns architecture decision records and governance processes that are pragmatic and lightweight.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud data integration API security resilience observability and distributed system architecture preferably in Microsoft Azure and hybrid environments.
• Knowledge of AI Generative AI and agentic AI architectures including model and tool integration retrieval augmented generation orchestration context and memory evaluation guardrails observability human oversight and Responsible AI controls.
• Ability to assess emerging technologies and develop clear build-versus-buy adoption migration and total-cost of-ownership recommendations.
• Experience partnering with Solution Architecture and delivery teams on architecturally significant initiatives while preserving a strategic portfolio-wide perspective.
• Excellent written visual and verbal communication skills including the ability to express complex architecture choices as concise options trade-offs decisions roadmaps and executive-level narratives.
• Proven facilitation stakeholder management negotiation and conflict-resolution skills with the ability to establish accountability and progress in a matrixed organization.

Preferred Experience: 

• Experience in data analytics measurement consumer intelligence retail media or other information intensive product environments.
• Knowledge of ArchiMate capability-based planning methods and enterprise architecture repositories such as ADOIT.
• Experience with product operating models agile delivery portfolio planning FinOps and outcome-based technology investment governance.
• Experience supporting technology due diligence post-merger integration platform consolidation or large-scale modernization and simplification programs.
• Hands-on engineering or architecture experience with APIs Python databases data pipelines cloud-native platforms MLOps or LLMOps or enterprise AI platforms such as Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI.
• Thinks in business capabilities portfolios platforms and multi-year outcomes rather than isolated projects.

Successful Profile: 

• Balances enterprise consistency with purposeful autonomy and avoids governance for its own sake.
• Creates clarity from complexity makes decision ownership explicit and converts strategy into reusable architecture assets.
• Builds trust through early engagement pragmatic recommendations transparent trade-offs and reliable follow-through.
• Uses delivery feedback to continuously improve target states standards patterns and investment guidance.

Additional Information :

Our Benefits

• Flexible working environment
• Volunteer time off
• LinkedIn Learning
• Employee-Assistance-Program (EAP)

NIQ may utilize artificial intelligence (AI) tools at various stages of the recruitment process including résumé screening candidate assessments interview scheduling job matching communication support and certain administrative tasks that help streamline workflows. These tools are intended to improve efficiency and support fair and consistent evaluation based on job-related criteria. All use of AI is governed by NIQs principles of fairness transparency human oversight and inclusion. Final hiring decisions are made exclusively by humans. NIQ regularly reviews its AI tools to help mitigate bias and ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. If you have questions require accommodations or wish to request human review were permitted by law please contact your local HR representative. For more information please visit NIQs AI Safety Policies and Guiding Principles: NIQ

NIQ is the worlds leading consumer intelligence company delivering the most complete understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to 2023 NIQ combined with GfK bringing together the two industry leaders with unparalleled global reach. With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insightsdelivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platformsNIQ delivers the Full View. NIQ is an Advent International portfolio company with operations in 100 markets covering more than 90% of the worlds population.

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Our commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion

At NIQ we are steadfast in our commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace that mirrors the rich diversity of the communities and markets we serve. We believe that embracing a wide range of perspectives drives innovation and excellence.  All employment decisions at NIQ are made without regard to race color religion sex (including pregnancy sexual orientation or gender identity) national origin age disability genetic information marital status veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. We invite individuals who share our dedication to inclusivity and equity to join us in making a meaningful impact. To learn more about our ongoing efforts in diversity and inclusion please visit the  Work :

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Employment Type :

Full-time