Head of Digital Architect

Job Description

Head of Digital Architect | Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, located in Abu Dhabi. The company is dedicated to evolving its digital ecosystem to deliver exceptional customer experiences across all touchpoints. This role is crucial for defining the strategic direction and technical foundations for ADIB’s digital channels, ensuring they are cohesive, secure, scalable, and future-ready to meet business goals and regulatory standards.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Location: In-person, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• Mission: Define, govern, and continuously evolve ADIB’s Digital Ecosystem architecture to align with business strategy, customer experience, and regulatory expectations.
• Tech Stack: Mobile, Web, APIs, Microservices, Event-driven architecture, Container platforms, Cloud-native capabilities, CRM, Data analytics interfaces, AI-enabled capabilities, IAM/CIAM, RESTful APIs, API gateways, Core banking systems, Cards, Payments, Risk, Fraud, Identity, DevOps, CI/CD.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Architecture Definition: Define and maintain the target-state architecture for the entire Digital Ecosystem, spanning mobile, web, APIs, microservices, integration, identity, data, AI, and partner capabilities.
• Strategic Alignment: Translate digital business priorities and product roadmaps into clear architecture roadmaps, transition states, and platform evolution plans that support rapid market delivery while protecting long-term platform health.
• Governance & Standards: Establish and govern API-first architecture principles, define API standards, service boundaries, interface contracts, and integration patterns, ensuring consistency and reusability across the ecosystem.
• Security & Resilience: Embed secure-by-design and privacy-by-design principles across the Digital Ecosystem, collaborating with security and operations teams to mitigate operational, cyber, and integration risks.
• Technology Leadership: Provide architecture direction for advanced capabilities, including microservices, event-driven patterns, cloud-native solutions, and AI-enabled digital services, guiding strategic digital initiatives and modernization efforts.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Executive-level understanding and deep knowledge of digital banking ecosystem architecture, encompassing mobile, web, APIs, microservices, integration, identity, data, AI, and partner platforms.
• Experience: Demonstrated experience defining target-state, transition, and reference architectures, alongside establishing ecosystem principles, architecture standards, and reusable design patterns. Proven ability to lead architecture governance, review forums, exception management, and technical debt resolution.
• Skills:
• Expertise in API-first design, RESTful APIs, API gateways, service decomposition, domain-driven design, microservices, event-driven architecture, and cloud-native patterns.
• Strong comprehension of non-functional requirements such as scalability, availability, performance, resilience, observability, and operational readiness.
• Proficiency in secure architecture practices, including IAM/CIAM, API security, authentication, authorization, encryption, secrets management, and data protection.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of simplifying complex architecture trade-offs and recommendations for both technical and executive audiences.
• Bonus: Good understanding of modern software engineering practices, DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing, release governance, code quality, and operational monitoring.