Bharti AXA Life Insurance - Chief Enterprise Architect

Role purpose:

Define and govern a simple, composable and future-ready technology architecture while systematically reducing legacy complexity, duplication and structural technical debt.

Primary accountabilities:

• Own enterprise target architecture across applications, integration/events, data/AI, cloud and security in collaboration with peer leaders.
• Lead domain and solution architecture for strategic initiatives and major product/value-stream changes.
• Own Architecture Governance, standards, reference patterns, technology radar and exception management.
• Create application rationalisation and legacy retirement roadmap; prevent transformation from simply adding more technology.
• Own technical-debt transparency and structural simplification agenda.
• Shape build-vs-buy, SaaS/platform and strategic technology choices based on business capability, economics and long-term flexibility.
• Act as CTO's independent technical adviser on major investments and architectural risks.

Key interfaces / boundaries:

• Architecture sets guardrails and target state; Engineering owns implementation and delivery.
• Architecture must enable speed through paved roads/reference patterns - not create approval queues.
• Data/AI, Infrastructure and Security own their platforms; Architecture ensures enterprise coherence across them.
• Product/business priorities are not decided by Architecture, but material architectural consequences must be transparent.

CTO-2 functions:

• Enterprise Architecture
• Domain & Solution Architecture
• Architecture Governance & Standards
• Technology Radar & Strategic Architecture
• Application Rationalisation & Technical Debt

Primary outcomes & success measures:

Outcome:

• Simplification: Application count reduction, duplicate capability removal, legacy retirement.
• Architecture quality: Compliance to target patterns, exception volume/ageing, solution rework.
• Reuse: Shared platform/API/event/data-product adoption.
• Technical debt: Structural debt reduction and ageing of critical debt.
• Speed: Architecture decision lead time; % delivery using pre-approved/paved patterns.
• Economics: TCO avoided/reduced through rationalisation and strategic platform choices.

Leadership profile:

• Experience: Typically 20+ years across enterprise/solution architecture and large-scale modernization; strong insurance/BFSI architecture exposure; credible across core, digital, cloud, integration, data and AI.
• Leadership attributes: Enterprise thinker, intellectually rigorous, commercially pragmatic, decisive, low-ego influencer, capable of simplifying complexity.

First 12 - 18 month agenda:

• Create current-state application/integration map and target architecture.
• Define 10 - 15 non-negotiable architecture principles and paved-road patterns.
• Identify first wave of application retirement/consolidation.
• Establish fast architecture governance and exception process.
• Create transparent technical-debt and simplification scorecard.