Head of Enterprise Architecture

Head of Enterprise Architecture

Contract: Permanent, Full Time 35 hours per week

Location: London, UK
UK hybrid working a minimum of 40 % of working time is spent face-to-face (London office, external meetings or travel). 60/40 hybrid working at WaterAid means roughly three days wherever you work best and two days together in person.

Salary: £71,481/-per year with excellent benefits.

We offer competitive, market-aligned starting salaries. While most roles are offered at the advertised starting salary, we may adjust this in exceptional cases depending on a candidate s experience, skills, and potential.

Change starts with water. Change starts with you.

Every day, millions of people live without clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. WaterAid exists to change that for everyone, everywhere. Join us, and your energy will help unlock people s potential and create a fairer future.

About WaterAid

We re a global federation driven by one vision: a world where everyone, everywhere has clean water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030. Powered by our values of Respect, Accountability, Courage, Collaboration, Integrity and Innovation, we work alongside communities, partners and supporters to make change happen.

About the team

The Head of Enterprise Architecture sits within the IT Leadership Team and reports directly to the Director of IT. The role leads the newly established Enterprise Architecture function consisting of a small data engineering team and a data governance lead. Enterprise Architecture is one of the core pillars of WaterAid s IT & Technology planning, along with Global IT Service & Delivery, Global Cybersecurity & Global IT Portfolio & Strategic Engagement.

About the role

The Head of Enterprise Architecture provides strategic leadership for enterprise, data, and solution architecture across WaterAid UK and supports global initiatives. This role sets the vision for organisation-wide architecture, ensuring that business strategy is underpinned by scalable, responsive, and sustainable technology and data ecosystems. The postholder is responsible for the oversight of data architecture, engineering, integration, and governance to drive business value and data maturity.

In this role, you will:

• Enterprise Architecture Strategy and Governance: Define, implement and develop WaterAid s enterprise architecture strategy and embed governance across delivery lifecycles.
• Data Architecture and Data Engineering Leadership: Oversee WaterAid UK s data architecture and lead the Data Engineering function, ensuring scalable, secure data platforms, integrations and pipelines.
• Strategic IT Leadership: Act as a key advisor within the IT Senior Leadership Team, shaping IT strategy, influencing planning and prioritisation, and ensuring technology addresses organisational requirements.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Change Adoption: Engage senior leaders to translate business needs into architectural outcomes and lead the adoption of architectural best practices, agile approaches and continuous improvement.

• Champion WaterAid s commitment to equity, inclusion and safeguarding.

To be successful, you will need:

• Strong experience in EA and data architecture methodologies and frameworks (e.g. TOGAF) with the ability to translate business strategy into technology and data solutions.
• Proficiency in data modelling, integration, cloud and hybrid environments (we are a Microsoft Azure house), and practical experience of data engineering and lifecycle processes.
• Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary technical teams and influence senior stakeholders, including communicating complex concepts to non-specialists.
• Strong knowledge of data governance, regulatory compliance (including GDPR). Security and risk management frameworks.

Although not essential, we d prefer you to have:

• Professional certifications in enterprise/data architecture frameworks or cloud technologies (e.g. TOGAF, Zachman, Azure).

• Working knowledge of data engineering languages (SQL, Python), Business Intelligence tools (e.g. Power BI, Tableau) and experience with predictive analytics projects.
• Experience in a charity, public sector, or similar mission-driven organisation.

Closing date: Applications close 12:00 PM UK time on 24th April 2026. Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 4th May. Shortlisting and interviews will be scheduled on a rolling basis, and the role may close earlier if a suitable candidate is found. Therefore, we encourage you to apply at an early stage.

How to apply: Apply to upload your CV and Cover Letter.

Can I use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in my application?

At WaterAid, we strongly advise against using AI technology at any stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure a fair and transparent process that provides every applicant with an equal opportunity to succeed. We value hearing about your unique experiences and perspectives in your application, and, if shortlisted, during the interview as well.

Pre employment screening

To apply for this role, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the respective country. All pre-employment checks will be carried out according to local law and WaterAid s Safer Recruitment policy. All UK based roles require a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Benefits

• 36 days holiday (including 8 Bank Holidays)
• Option to buy an extra 5 days annual leave
• Employer pension contribution up to 10 %
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements
• Season ticket loan
• Free annual eye tests
• Give as you Earn charitable giving scheme
• Enhanced parental leave (maternity, adoption/surrogacy, shared parental and paternity)
• Sabbaticals
• One paid volunteer day each year

As part of our annual leave policy, all employees receive three additional days of annual leave on top of their standard allocation of 25 days. These days are designated to cover the period when our UK office closes between Christmas and New Year, allowing all UK WaterAiders to take a well-deserved break.

These days are automatically scheduled and cannot be changed or moved. Annual leave is accrued based on your start date. If sufficient leave has not been accrued by the time of the closure, the 3 days will be taken as unpaid leave or pro-rated, depending on your circumstances.

Our People Promise

We will work with passion and focus to make sure everyone everywhere has clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. WaterAid is a place of purpose where people have a real commitment and shared responsibility for the impact we have. We are a global community with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, motivated by inspiring, stimulating work. We are determined to be a place where people feel safe and able to contribute their voice and truly live our values.

Equal Opportunities

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, beliefs, customs, traditions, ways of life and status. This includes, but is not limited to, race, ethnicity, caste, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, disability status, neurodiversity, age, marital and family status, sexual orientation and gender identity, health status, place of residence, economic and social situation.

Safeguarding

We are committed to protecting everyone we come into contact with. We have a zero- tolerance approach to abuse of power, privilege or trust across our global work, and to any form of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination, abuse, bullying, harassment, or exploitation. Safeguarding the people and communities we work with, our staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks (which can include counterterrorism, safeguarding and criminal records checks).

Together, we ll change the world through water.

Join us and be part of the change!