Enterprise Architect - User Experience

You have a clear vision of where your career can go. And we have the leadership to help you get there. At CNA, we strive to create a culture in which people know they matter and are part of something important, ensuring the abilities of all employees are used to their fullest potential.
The Enterprise Architect - User Experience (EA-UX) will join CNA as an individual contributor leading the development of a technology architecture and associated best practices that help CNA deliver consistent and cutting-edge user experiences to multiple user personas, as efficiently as possible. The EA - UX will be instrumental in understanding our business strategies across various user personas and aligning those strategies with our technology vision. The ideal candidate will possess in-depth experience with user experience design and implementation. Experience delivering user experiences to end users within the Insurance vertical is ideal. A key responsibility will be the creation and stewardship of a comprehensive blueprint for a scalable design system. This includes defining reusable UI components, interaction patterns, accessibility standards, and governance models that support a unified experience across web and mobile applications. You will ensure the design system integrates seamlessly with enterprise architecture frameworks and supports rapid development while maintaining brand integrity and regulatory compliance. The EA - UX candidate will also be familiar with core architectural practices and principles. These practices will include deconstructing a business problem into the required components and processes, identifying key decisions and solution trade-offs and ultimately defining the architectural solution direction that solve the problem. To this end, the EA must often bringing clarity to the ambiguous by creating concise and compelling stories and communications for various stakeholders.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Performs a combination of duties in accordance with departmental guidelines:

• Individual contributor accountable for end-to-end architecture for User Experience, including articulating a vision and recommending incremental buildout of a scalable Design System that is appropriate for CNAs needs.
• Lead the alignment of business strategy and technology vision, working closely with senior business and technology leadership, fostering constructive tension and collaboration to shape and influence strategic decisions and drive innovative and effective solutions for complex business problems.
• Establish the portfolio level epic backlog, in collaboration with portfolio leadership, to enable strategic business and technology capabilities within the business area and identifying synergies across the enterprise.
• Drive architectural advancement through enabler initiatives, influencing cross-domain capabilities, foundational components and NFRs.
• Assess portfolio-level epics, deconstructing business problems to define architectural solution direction, and provide clarity to ambiguous situations.
• Responsible for establishing the technical blueprint and guiding principles for portfolio epics, encompassing conceptual architecture, contextual overview, capability interaction, and system interfaces, providing authoritative direction for the release train's feature development
• Align portfolio-level architecture with broader enterprise architecture initiatives, contributing to the development of architectural frameworks and strategies.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends, proposing technology adoption strategies to enhance business capabilities.
• Improve architectural practices, methodologies, and processes within the portfolio, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• Assess and manage technical debt, prioritizing and addressing areas of improvement as part of the portfolio backlog.
• Provide leadership and guidance in the creation of architectural standards, principles, and best practices to ensure the coherence, security, and scalability of our technology landscape.
• Maintain conceptual overview of the portfolio including the inventory of the application landscape, application strategies, and risk scores associated to the applications.
• Support and coach System Architects in building their skillsets and ensuring alignment with standards and patterns. May perform additional duties as assigned.

Reporting Relationship Typically AVP or above
Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Strategic and innovative leader within a technology organization, driving an architectural strategy and vision.
• Proficient in agile methodologies and applying enterprise architecture principles to the development lifecycle.
• Ability to design target state solution architectures using modern decoupled, event-based, and API-enabled frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of contemporary technology and business trends, enabling creative and cost-effective problem-solving.
• In-depth understanding of and experience within design and delivery of modern, accessible and compliant user experiences to various user personas.
• The candidate could be experienced in design, product management or coding, but must be able to bridge the gap between the needs of these and other stakeholders, to create a comprehensive vision for advancing our user experience design and delivery. Experience with strategies for organizing and building Design Systems is a plus.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, consultative and leadership skills to effectively engage, influence, and build partnerships with stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Proficient in complex problem-solving, with the ability to articulate approaches and solutions to both business and technology partners effectively.
• Familiarity with end-to-end architecture processes and procedures, including experience with EA frameworks (e.g., TOGAF) and SAFe Agile. Education & Experience
• Experience in commercial insurance industry and applicable certifications preferred. • Degree in Business Information Systems, Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• Typically a minimum of nine years of solid, diverse work experience in technology including experience with business analysis, solution design, architecture, and development.
• Experience working as an Enterprise Architect in corporate environment, preferably in a SAFe portfolio-level capacity.
• Experience in managing and resolving architectural challenges and trade-offs while considering both technical and business requirements.
• Experience working with diverse stakeholders, such as business leaders, technology teams, and enterprise architects, to align technology strategies with business objectives.
• Experience in providing strategic guidance and recommendations to senior leadership regarding technology investments and architectural decisions experience

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, or related discipline, or equivalent work experience.
• Typically, a minimum of ten years' related work experience in Information Technology.

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I n certain jurisdictions, CNA is legally required to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation for this role. In District of Columbia , California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois , Maryland , Massachusetts , New York and Washington, the national base pay range for this job level is $97,000 to $189,000 annually.Salary determinations are based on various factors, including but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and location. CNA offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package to help our employees - and their family members - achieve their physical, financial, emotional and social wellbeing goals. For a detailed look at CNA's benefits, please visit cnabenefits.com .
CNA is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in the recruitment process. To request an accommodation, please contact [email protected] .