ROLE SUMMARY
The Director, Enterprise Architecture is a senior leadership role that sits at the intersection of client delivery, pre-sales engineering, and practice building at Hatchworks. This role carries both strategic and hands-on responsibility: leading architecture on high-value client engagements, serving as the technical voice in the sales cycle, and shaping the Enterprise Architecture practice from the ground up.
The ideal candidate is a seasoned architect who can operate fluidly across the full engagement lifecycle — from scoping and estimating work alongside sellers, to architecting solutions, to enabling delivery teams for success. This role will lead the Hatchworks' Enterprise Architecture & DevOps circle, managing a team of architects and driving the standards, patterns, and mentorship that define how we deliver.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Client Delivery
Target: up to 75% of billable time; emphasis on Strategy engagements over Build where possible.
- Serve as lead architect on client engagements, including both Strategy projects (AI roadmaps, architecture assessments, modernization strategies) and Build projects (implementation, migration, platform engineering).
- Prioritize high-leverage contribution — enabling and delegating to project teams rather than operating solely as an individual contributor.
- Manage the architecture workstream within client Projects, with a path toward owning entire client Programs as the practice matures.
- Provide hands-on technical leadership in areas such as cloud infrastructure (Azure, GCP), data architecture, DevOps, security, and AI/ML integration.
2. Pre-Sales Engineering
Target: ~25% block (approximately 10 hours/week) dedicated to Sales Engineering.
- Act as the Pre-Sales Engineer in a triad with a Pre-Sales Strategist and a Seller, providing technical depth to the sales process.
- Participate in and facilitate discovery workshops.
- Lead solution architecture, technical scoping, and estimation for prospective client engagements.
- Own the technical narrative in proposals and presentations, ensuring that what we sell is what we can deliver.
- Drive a clean Sales-to-Delivery handoff by documenting architectural decisions, assumptions, risks, and context for the Delivery teams that will execute.
- Support staffing on projects he helps sign, ensuring continuity from sale through early delivery.
3. Practice Leadership & Mentorship
Target: 4–5 hours/week for mentorship and ad-hoc project support.
- Serve as the leader of the Enterprise Architecture practice (circle/tribe) at Hatchworks, defining its standards, toolkits, and career paths.
- Mentor junior and mid-level architects, developing them into the next generation of Enterprise Architects.
- Provide impromptu architectural guidance and support across other active projects as a senior technical resource.
- Contribute to internal initiatives that raise the bar on delivery quality, reusable frameworks, and architectural governance.
EXPECTED TIME & BILLING ALLOCATION
This role operates on a blended billing model. The approximate weekly breakdown is:
- Client Engagements — ~30 hours/wk · ~75% of time · Client-billable
- Pre-Sales Engineering — ~10 hours/wk · ~25% of time · Sales Engineering block
- Mentorship & Support — ~5 hours/wk · ~12.5% of time · Internal
Client billing should be high-value: enabling teams, leading architecture, and delegating effectively — not just heads-down IC work.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required
- 15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years in enterprise or principal architect roles.
- Demonstrated experience in a consulting or professional services environment, with direct client-facing delivery responsibilities.
- Deep technical expertise in cloud platforms (Azure and/or GCP), with hands-on experience in infrastructure, data, DevOps, and security.
- Proven ability to lead pre-sales activities: discovery, solution design, scoping, and estimation.
- Track record of leading and mentoring engineering teams (10+ engineers).
- Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for executive and non-technical audiences.
- Experience with architecture governance, standards definition, and cross-project technical oversight.
Preferred
- Experience with AI/ML strategy, roadmapping, or implementation in enterprise environments.
- Background in cloud migration and application modernization at scale (50+ application portfolios).
- Familiarity with Kubernetes, microservices architecture, and event-driven systems.
- Prior experience building or leading an architecture practice or center of excellence.
- History of closing or directly contributing to new business ($1M+ engagements).
GROWTH TRAJECTORY
This role is designed to scale with Hatchworks. Immediately, this Director will operate as the senior-most architect on engagements, a key voice in pre-sales, and the lead of the Enterprise Architecture & DevOps hub – owning the hiring, development, and deployment of a team of architects, and driving the standards that govern how Hatchworks delivers technical excellence.
The progression from supporting individual client Projects to managing entire client Programs is a key milestone for this role, and one that Hatchworks is actively building toward.
HatchWorks AI Chicago, Illinois, USA Office
333 N Green St, Suite 800, Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60607
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