Chief Architect Belgium

Chief Architect Belgium 

Organization: ING Belgium / Tech Strategy & Enterprise Architecture (TS&EA) 

Global Grade: 21 

The opportunity  
As Chief Architect for Tech Belgium, you are accountable for the architectural direction and outcomes of ING Belgium. You define and continuously evolve the target architecture, ensure alignment with ING’s global architecture strategy, and steer architectural decision‑making across all business and technology domains. 

This role combines strategic leadership, people development, and architectural governance in a complex, regulated, and fast‑changing environment. 

The team 
You lead the Enterprise Architecture community in Belgium, including enterprise architects and chapter leads, and provide functional guidance to solution architects. You will report hierarchically to the CIO Belgium and have a strong functional reporting line to the Global Head of Tech Strategy & Enterprise Architecture, being part of both their management teams.  

Roles and responsibilities 
In this role, you are accountable for the following core responsibilities, which are essential to shaping and governing ING Belgium’s target architecture, in close alignment with business strategy, global enterprise architecture, and regulatory requirements. 

Target Architecture Ownership 

• Define, own and communicate the target architecture for ING Belgium, aligned with ING group standards and principles 

Strategic Translation & Road mapping 

• Translate business and technology strategy into clear architectural choices and multi‑horizon roadmaps 

Architectural Decision‑Making 

• Steer architectural decisions to support digital transformation, customer experience, resilience, and cost efficiency 

Landscape Simplification & Technical Debt Reduction 

• Actively reduce technical debt and drive simplification of the IT landscape 

Structural Change Across Domains 

• Guide and oversee structural changes across tribes and domains, ensuring coherence and reuse 

Business & Portfolio Governance 

• Provide architectural input to quarterly business reviews, highlighting priorities, dependencies, risks, and trade‑offs 

Architecture Community Leadership 

• Lead, develop and sustain a high‑performing architecture community through a strong chapter model 

Group Alignment & Representation 

• Represent Tech Belgium within Group Architecture, contributing to global alignment, learning, and reuse of best practices 

Next to the above, you role‑model ING’s Orange Leadership behaviours: 

• You set the direction by translating strategy into clear architectural direction and making deliberate, transparent choices for ING 

• You lead by lifting others through trust, coaching and constructive challenge, fostering collaboration and open dialogue 

• You equip your team for win after win by setting clear outcomes, addressing root causes, and taking ownership of architectural decisions 

How to succeed 
We hire smart people like you for your potential. Our biggest expectation is that you’ll stay curious. Keep learning. Take on responsibility. In return, we’ll back you to develop into an even more awesome version of yourself.  

Experience 

• Extensive experience (typically 5–10 years) as a lead or enterprise architect in complex environments 

• Proven people leadership experience, developing senior professionals in a complex matrix organisation 

• Strong experience with large scale universal banking IT landscapes 

Technical expertise 

• Deep understanding of enterprise architecture and target‑state design in large, regulated environments  

• Proven experience with complex banking IT landscapes, spanning applications, platforms, integration, data, and infrastructure  

• Ability to assess and govern cloud, platform, and integration architectures at enterprise scale  

• Strong grasp of security, resilience, and risk considerations as integral parts of architectural decision‑making  

• Experience operating in Agile‑at‑scale organisations, balancing autonomy, alignment, and architectural coherence 

Competencies & skills 

• Influence & communication: Explains complex architecture topics simply to executives and engineers; manages conflicting priorities.  

• People leadership: Builds capability, coaches talent, and cultivates a culture of craftsmanship and excellence.  

• Change leadership: Drives adoption of standards and behaviors across a matrixed, international organization.  

Education & certifications 

• Master’s degree in IT or a related field, or equivalent professional experience 

• Relevant certifications are a plus: TOGAF, Archimate 
   

Rewards and benefits 
A senior leadership role with country‑level and group‑level impact. High exposure to strategic decision‑making in Tech Belgium. A diverse, international, and pragmatic working environment. Opportunities for growth and mobility across ING. 

 
Questions? 
Contact the recruiter attached to the advertisement. Want to apply directly? Please upload your CV and motivation letter by clicking the ‘Apply’ button.