Director, Architecture

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Grade: Executive Technical 716 Pay Range: $190,100.00 - $342,200.00

Job Description

WGU is transforming its technology ecosystem from the ground up-modernizing our core platforms, rethinking how our systems connect, and actively embedding AI throughout the university. We are building toward a modern, cloud-based, event-driven architecture designed to increase agility, scalability, interoperability, and our ability to rapidly deliver better experiences for students and staff.

The Director of Enterprise Architecture will play a critical leadership role in this transformation. You will translate WGU's business and technology strategy into the architecture direction, standards, patterns, and roadmaps that shape our next-generation technology ecosystem.

You will lead and develop a team of architects while partnering across engineering, product, data, security, infrastructure, and business teams to drive significant technology decisions. This is an opportunity to help design what comes next-not simply govern what already exists.

Success requires a combination of people leadership, enterprise architecture expertise, modern technical depth, AI experience, and executive influence. You must be equally comfortable coaching senior architects, navigating complex technical tradeoffs, and presenting a compelling recommendation to executive leaders.

This is a role for an experienced architecture leader-not a first-time people leader or an individual contributor looking to make the transition into management.

What You'll Do

Shape Our Next-Generation Architecture

• Help drive WGU's transformation toward a modern, cloud and mesh-based, loosely coupled, event-driven technology ecosystem.
• Translate strategy into target-state architectures, transition roadmaps, standards, and reusable patterns.
• Help rethink and modernize legacy platforms, integrations, and architectural patterns rather than simply extending them.
• Guide significant decisions spanning applications, integration, platforms, data, cloud, security, and AI.
• Identify opportunities to simplify our technology landscape, reduce technical debt, improve interoperability, and increase reuse.
• Partner with technology and business leaders on modernization, platform, build-versus-buy, and other consequential technology decisions.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and determine where they can create meaningful, sustainable value for WGU.

Build and Lead a Strong Architecture Team

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of architects.
• Create clear expectations for technical excellence, architectural judgment, business partnership, and communication.
• Develop architects who can independently lead complex domains and transformation initiatives.
• Attract, develop, and retain senior architecture talent.
• Build a strong architecture community and promote consistent practices across WGU.

Advance Modern Architecture

• Provide leadership and deep expertise in SOA, APIs, microservices, mesh architecture, messaging, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Establish modern patterns for service boundaries, domain ownership, APIs, events, integration, interoperability, and data exchange.
• Help teams make thoughtful tradeoffs across synchronous services, asynchronous events, APIs, packaged platforms, and data integration.
• Champion architectures designed for scalability, resilience, observability, security, maintainability, and rapid change.
• Partner closely with engineering leaders to turn architectural direction into working software and platforms.
• Maintain enough technical depth to challenge assumptions, architectural designs, and coach architects through difficult decisions.

Embed AI Throughout WGU

AI is an active part of WGU's transformation-not a future aspiration or isolated innovation initiative.

• Provide architecture leadership as WGU integrates AI capabilities throughout our products, platforms, operations, and technology ecosystem.
• Apply real-world experience taking AI solutions from concept to implementation at an enterprise level.
• Help establish architecture patterns for generative AI, LLMs, RAG, agentic systems, AI orchestration, model and tool integration, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Help establish the foundational platforms, integration patterns, data access, security, observability, and guardrails needed to scale AI responsibly across the enterprise.
• Partner with product, engineering, data, security, and business teams to turn AI opportunities into production capabilities.
• Help teams distinguish where AI creates meaningful value-and where traditional software, automation, integration, or analytics is the better solution.
• Continuously evaluate a rapidly changing AI landscape and translate relevant advances into practical implications for WGU's architecture.

Drive Architecture Through Influence

• Build trusted relationships with technology, business, product, data, infrastructure, and security leaders.
• Communicate complex technology choices in terms of business outcomes, tradeoffs, risks, and cost.
• Create and deliver compelling architecture strategies, roadmaps, and executive presentations.
• Facilitate and influence difficult decisions and build alignment among stakeholders with competing priorities.
• Influence technology decisions across teams you do not directly manage.
• Lead pragmatic architecture governance that improves decision quality and accelerates transformation without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

What You'll Bring

• 15 years of progressive technology experience in complex enterprise environments.
• 8 years of formal technology leadership experience, including demonstrated success directly managing architects, senior architects, engineering leaders, or similarly senior technical professionals.
• 5+ years of enterprise architecture or equivalent architecture leadership experience.
• Experience playing a meaningful architecture leadership role in a large-scale technology modernization or transformation.
• Proven ability to translate business and technology strategy into target-state architectures, transition roadmaps, standards, patterns, and decisions.
• Deep practical expertise in SOA, microservices, APIs, event-driven architecture, messaging, distributed systems, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Strong experience with modern cloud architectures and platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Demonstrated experience delivering AI-enabled capabilities into production-not solely proofs of concept or experimentation.
• Practical knowledge of modern AI architectures, including generative AI, LLMs, RAG, agentic systems, AI orchestration, enterprise data integration, security, observability, and governance.
• Experience establishing or leading pragmatic architecture governance and standards.
• Strong executive presence with exceptional written, verbal, presentation, and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrated negotiation and conflict-resolution skills.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive significant technology decisions without direct reporting authority.
• Ability to balance an ambitious target architecture with the practical realities of legacy technology, delivery commitments, cost, risk, and organizational change.

What Great Looks Like

You will be successful in this role if you:

• Want to build the future, not maintain the past.
• Lead architects rather than architect everything yourself.
• Turn an ambitious technology vision into executable architecture.
• Bring modern architecture patterns and challenge legacy assumptions.
• Have actually put AI into production and understand what it takes to operate it at enterprise scale.
• Influence through credibility rather than organizational authority.
• Communicate with executives while maintaining technical credibility with architects and engineers.
• Create clarity when technology, business, cost, and delivery priorities conflict.
• Use architecture governance to accelerate good decisions-not create gates.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience helping lead a ground-up or large-scale enterprise technology transformation.
• Experience modernizing complex legacy technology ecosystems.
• Experience in a complex, high-volume enterprise environment.
• Experience with TOGAF or other enterprise architecture frameworks.
• Experience with data architecture, governance, security, and privacy.
• Experience evaluating strategic technology vendors and supporting technology selection and negotiation.

Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It's not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.