Sr. Director, Enterprise Architecture & Software Engineering

Position Summary:
We are undergoing a major AI-first digital transformation to modernize our technology landscape, enhance membership experiences, operational efficiency, data intelligence, and security to drive organizational growth.

We are seeking a world-class Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture to serve as a key direct report to the Senior Executive Director of Technology. This senior technical leader will define and execute a modern, AI-native architecture and technical strategy across all systems, lead high-impact modernization initiatives, and ensure all solutions deliver maximum business value while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and risk management. This role is critical to our organizational change initiative, architecting scalable, secure, sovereign, and cost-effective AI-powered platforms that support member services, e-commerce, digital engagement, training/education, and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities
Strategic Architecture & Transformation
- Develop and maintain the enterprise architecture roadmap aligned with the organization's AI-driven digital transformation goals, business strategy, and long-term growth objectives.
- Lead the design of modern, cloud-native architectures including microservices, event-driven systems, API-first designs, serverless computing, and domain-driven design to enable rapid innovation, high availability, and scalability.
- Champion AI/ML integration, real-time intelligence platforms, legacy system migration/modernization, and data platform evolution to drive significant cost savings and performance improvements.
- Define architectures for sovereign data platforms, ensuring data privacy, residency, and control while leveraging external AI services.

Technical Leadership & Delivery
- Provide hands-on technical leadership across Software Development, Database Management, Infrastructure, and AI/Data teams.
- Establish architecture principles, standards, governance processes (including AI Governance), and design review boards.
- Drive adoption of DevOps, CI/CD, Infrastructure-as-Code, GitOps, observability, MLOps/LLMOps, and scaled agile practices to improve operational efficiency and deployment velocity.
- Lead integration of advanced AI capabilities including LLM orchestration, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, graph databases, and multi-agent systems.

Security, Compliance & Risk Management
- Embed security-by-design, zero-trust principles, privacy-by-design, and robust data protection controls into all architectures.
- Ensure full compliance with regulatory requirements, organizational policies, and internal controls, with specific focus on ethical AI use and AI Governance frameworks.
- Conduct architecture risk assessments covering AI-specific risks (model governance, prompt injection, data leakage) and support audit/regulatory reporting.

Operational Excellence & Financial Stewardship
- Transform the organization to leverage scaled agile delivery.
- Identify and deliver measurable cost savings through architecture optimizations, legacy decommissioning, and AI-driven automation.
- Track and report on architecture-related budget, ROI, and key performance metrics.

Team & Organizational Impact
- Mentor, manage, and elevate the capabilities of existing technical staff.
- Support staffing optimization and talent acquisition to build a high-performing, modern AI-native engineering organization.
- Promote a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications & Experience
Required:
- 12+ years of progressive experience in software architecture, enterprise architecture, or technical leadership roles.
- Proven success leading large-scale digital and AI transformations in complex environments.
- Deep expertise in modern architectures (microservices, event-driven, API-first, serverless, domain-driven design), cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP), and hybrid/multi-cloud strategies.
- Strong background in AI/ML technologies including: LLM orchestration, vector databases, graph databases, RAG architectures, multi-agent systems, MLOps/LLMOps, and AI Governance frameworks.
- Expertise in data engineering, real-time data platforms, and legacy system modernization.
- Demonstrated enterprise security, compliance, and risk management experience in regulated environments, including zero-trust and data sovereignty.
- Proven ability to deliver measurable business outcomes (cost savings, revenue enablement, user growth) through architecture decisions.
- Support and alignment to the mission, values and culture of the NRA.

Preferred:
- Experience in membership-driven, non-profit, or high-visibility organizations.
- Familiarity with Microsoft ecosystem, modern data and e-commerce/member engagement platforms.
- Prior experience reporting directly to a CIO or equivalent.
- Relevant certifications: TOGAF, AWS/Azure Solutions Architect, CISSP, Machine Learning Engineer, or AI Architecture certifications strongly preferred.

Education & Certifications:
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience).
- Relevant AI, cloud, and security certifications strongly preferred.