Ahold Delhaize is one of the world's largest food retail groups and a leader in both supermarkets and e-Commerce. Its family of great, local brands serves more than 50 million customers each week in Europe, the United States and Indonesia. Together, these brands employ more than 420,000 associates in more than 7,000 grocery and specialty stores. Our Global Support Office (GSO) is based in Zaandam in the Netherlands, but GSO associates also work in all the countries we serve. This team supports all our great local brands in finance, HR, IT, legal, communications, sustainable retailing, and other key functions. . 

Platform Architect

The Platform architect is responsible for the architecture of a specific platform. He/she has elaborate and substantive experience and knowledge regarding the subject matters of a specific platform. He/she is responsible for:

• Interaction with Enterprise Architects, Product Cluster Architects and Tech Leads to ensure
• architectural compliance with the business and tech strategy and target enterprise architecture
• Setting up and maintaining technology roadmaps for his/her platform
• Ensuring that product architecture meets business requirements
• Knowledge leader on the various technological components work together to deliver the desired functionality, the roadmap (technical and business) for the platform
• Interaction with the key business domains to ensure business/ technology alignment.

About Ahold Delhaize

We’re Ahold Delhaize, one of the world’s largest food retail groups and a leader in both supermarkets and e-commerce. Together with our 19 strong local retail brands all over the world, we aim to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our customers, our people and the world around us. We offer a highly dynamic, international work environment in which our employees thrive.

Key responsibilities of your role

Your role is highly diverse and encompasses various responsibilities. Here are the key ones:

Architectural Management, Governance and Risk Management

• Drive the transformation of the technology department to meet the needs of the changing business demands and to platform for growth and efficiency
• Implement governance framework covering principles, procedures and processes and monitor KPI’s for specified platform
• Identify and evaluate platform risks and participate in defining mitigation and control activities

Technology Architecture Target State and Roadmap

• Define the architecture target state and roadmap for a specific platform
• Consult operating unit Business on overall Portfolio and Investment plans based on the Architecture Roadmap
• Support Enterprise Architecture to provide input into strategic roadmap and global architecture

• Proactively stay abreast of emerging trends and technologies and incorporate in technology platform target state and roadmap
• Develop and maintain an overall platform architecture roadmap. Integrate product architectures into the as-is platform architecture for future baseline references
• Contribute to cross regional or Global Architecture Strategy

Platform Architecture

• Translate business requirements into the platform technology architecture and product architecture deliverables
  • Ensure license efficiency
  • Comply with vendor strategy guidelines
  • Design future proof and scalable products
  • Consult with peer group on integration of
  • platforms
  • Taking into account transition planning from > to
  • Conduct continuous improvement analysis on existing application and infrastructure
  • technologies and its ability to support the business requirements, and feedback to the enterprise
  • architect.
  • Incorporating relevant market trends and technology trends
  • Incorporating the technology service catalogue
  • Enable ‘innovation by design’
• Provide architecture consultation and guidance in early program/product phases
• Provide technical oversight for all the Product Cluster Architects and Tech Leads
• Cultivate and disseminate knowledge of application usage best practices
• Accountable for inter-platform technical direction and decisions within their platform
• Steer and guard overall technology architecture working with multiple product Teams
• Ensure all security and compliance aspects are taken into account in local architecture (secure by design, compliant by design)
• Take part in the guilds concerning Architecture to spread best-practices and knowledge within Tech and lead by example

Financial Management

• Ensure spending will be within budget (TCO) and report to management
• Extract the value from existing systems, only investing in replacement when it is requirement for business continuity or to deliver a business requirement
• Encourage creativity on delivering simple products that deliver the business needs fast
• Work with the platform/Head of Techs to balance tradeoffs between speed to market, cost, risk and quality
• Stay abreast of emerging technologies and the potential applicability to Group Tech
• Proactively propose initiative to the business and the technology MT to increase the cost efficiency of delivery and maintenance of applications

Feedback and Continuous Improvement

• Gather and analyze feedback from associates and stakeholders.
• Continuously improve adoption strategies and user experience.

Performance Monitoring

• Track and report on adoption metrics.
• Provide insights and recommendations for improvement.

What’s in it for you?

Aside from what we ask of you in this role, we also have a great deal to offer you: plenty of growth opportunities and various cross-brand career options; flexible working hours; a hybrid working model (we ask you to spend at least 50% of your working time at the office); and the chance to drive meaningful change on a global scale. You can look forward to a good work-life balance, and the chance to work in an inclusive environment that wholeheartedly encourages growth and welcomes you just the way you are.

Requirements

We think you’ll be best geared for success if you meet the following requirements:

• Relevant master’s degree. Post-graduate is preferred
• 10 years of relevant experience
• Drive design & planning across one business with the technology platform
• Facilitating Executive Business Management
• Serves as primary architect on large and complex platforms
• Responsible for all the products in the platform
• Focus is on advising senior management and designing & planning strategic change across the
• domain as a whole
• Oversee architecture domains in two business or all technology products within a platform
• Lead of one Program Architecture Delivery
• Financial management
• Demonstrated ability to conceptualize, launch and deliver multiple complex technology
• programs on time and within budget
• Experience proposing and implementing wide architecture initiatives
• Subject expertise of the 1 or more business and architecture domains
• Inspiring
• Dealing with ambiguity
• Directing Business Value
• Customer Focus
• Demonstrate business relevance to business management
• Strong communicator with managers and non- technology managers on tactical topics
• Functional coach of Architects and act as domain or technology expert
• Head of 1 business or all technology product architects (1-3 FTE)
• Maintains platform risk and Governance framework

Apply now!
Are you keen to join the team? Even if you don’t tick all the boxes, but you still believe you have the personality and skills that make you a suitable candidate, we strongly encourage you to reach out to us. Apply now via the button on this page, or feel free to contact Katie Hillman via Katherine.hillman@aholddelaizeusa.com if you have any questions.

At Ahold Delhaize and our local brands, we broadly define diversity as being inclusive of thoughts and skills, generational differences, LGBTQ+, gender, race and ethnicity, disabilities, nationalities and more, and we accept all people for who they are.
 

The GSO sets global strategies frameworks, facilitates the sharing of best practice and encourages economies of scale. Great examples include sharing technology and digital know-how, so we can continue to lead in online and in-store retailing, setting global targets for healthy and sustainable products-including reducing food waste, use of plastics and making our products healthier to use and eat, and championing development for our future leaders-from learning about the digital mindset to leading our stores of the future.

Under the federal Transparency in Coverage rule, group health plans are required to make publicly available machine-readable files that include in-network rates and out-of-network allowed amounts and billed charges. Click  the link to view the in-network rates and out-of-network allowed amounts and billed charges under the welfare benefits plan in which GSO participates

We are an equal opportunity employer. We comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws. Qualified applicants are considered without regard to sex, race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, marital status (including civil unions), military service, veteran status, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, legally recognized disability, domestic violence victim status or any other characteristic protected by law.