Technology Director Lead Architect, Commercial Banking
Wells Fargo · London, United Kingdom · 17d ago
About this role
Wells Fargo is seeking a Technology Director to serve as Lead Architect for the Commercial Banking business. Based in London, this role will provide enterprise and portfolio-level architecture leadership across Commercial Banking as well as the bank's international intersections. The role reports to the Head of Architecture for CCIBT and will work closely with the CIO of Commercial Banking Technology and the CIO of the International Bank, acting as a trusted advisor on technology strategy, modernization, risk, investment priorities, and major architectural decisions.
This is a senior leadership role requiring the maturity, judgement, executive presence, and organizational influence expected of a Technology Director, combined with deep, hands-on architecture expertise. The successful candidate will define target-state direction, resolve complex cross-domain challenges, strengthen architecture governance, and translate business strategy into practical, executable technology roadmaps. They will influence across business, product, engineering, risk, cyber, data, and enterprise technology teams, often without direct authority.
Define and drive the target-state architecture for Commercial Banking, aligning technology strategy, modernization initiatives, AI adoption, and investment priorities with business objectives. Serve as a trusted advisor to senior business and technology leaders, providing direction on architecture, risk, resiliency, governance, and strategic technology decisions. Lead complex cross-domain initiatives across Commercial Banking, International Banking, and enterprise platforms while establishing architecture standards, reusable patterns, and roadmaps that improve consistency, scalability, and regulatory compliance. Partner with engineering, product, cyber, data, risk, and operations teams to simplify the technology landscape, accelerate modernization, and improve organizational effectiveness. Additionally, develop and mentor senior architects, strengthen architecture capabilities, and identify emerging technologies that enhance client outcomes, operational efficiency, and long-term business value.
In this role, you will:
Manage a team of engineering managers and engineering leads
Focus on delivering commitments aligned to enterprise strategic priorities
Build support for strategies with business and technology leaders
Guide development of actionable roadmaps and plans
Identify opportunities and strategies for continuous improvement of software engineering practices
Provide oversight to software craftsmanship, security, availability, resilience, and scalability of solutions developed by the teams or third party providers
Identify financial management and strategic resourcing
Set risk management guidelines and partner with stakeholders to implement key risk initiatives
Develop strategies for hiring engineering talent
Lead implementation of projects and encourage engineering innovation
Collaborate and influence all levels of professionals including more experienced managers
Lead team to achieve objectives
Interface with external agencies, regulatory bodies or industry forums
Manage allocation of people and financial resources for Technology Strategic Leadership
Develop and guide a culture of talent development to meet business objectives and strategy
Required qualifications
Significant experience in engineering, architecture, or technology leadership, or an equivalent combination of work experience, military service, training, and education.
Experience leading major technology initiatives, architecture organizations, and complex cross-functional programs that deliver meaningful business outcomes.
Demonstrated success leading senior technology professionals, including hiring, performance management, compensation and talent processes, succession planning, employee development, and the management of complex or sensitive people matters.
Proven experience defining and leading architecture strategies for large-scale, distributed enterprise systems and technology portfolios.
Strong ability to solve abstract, systemic, and cross-domain challenges requiring advanced analytical thinking, strategic perspective, and sound commercial judgement.
Extensive experience influencing CIO-level executives, senior technology leaders, and business stakeholders on technology strategy, investment priorities, risk management, and architecture decisions.
Deep understanding of architecture governance, non-functional requirements, technology risk, cybersecurity, resiliency, and regulatory control expectations.
Exceptional executive communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex technical concepts, articulate trade-offs and consequences, and build alignment among senior stakeholders.
Demonstrated maturity, credibility, and sound judgement in high-stakes environments, including the ability to challenge constructively and operate effectively through ambiguity and change.
Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, or governing enterprise AI solutions, including Generative AI, machine learning platforms, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic workflows, model lifecycle management, evaluation frameworks, observability, and integration with enterprise data and application architectures.
Desired qualifications.
Experience within Commercial Banking, Corporate & Investment Banking, International Banking, or another highly regulated financial services technology environment.
Experience working across UK, international, and global technology organizations with complex legal entity, regulatory, data, and operational dependencies.
Expertise in several of the following areas: cloud and platform architecture, distributed systems, data architecture and integration, API and event-driven architectures, resiliency and fault-tolerant design, cybersecurity, and high-performance or high-volume systems.
Experience leading large-scale modernization and transformation initiatives, including application rationalization, platform consolidation, cloud adoption, data modernization, and legacy technology reduction.
Proven experience developing enterprise architecture patterns, standards, reference architectures, and decision frameworks that drive consistency and adoption at scale.
Ability to connect architectural decisions to measurable business value, client outcomes, operational efficiency, risk reduction, and investment priorities.
Experience identifying and prioritizing AI opportunities that enhance client outcomes, employee effectiveness, control execution, operational efficiency, or revenue growth, and translating those opportunities into governed experiments, reusable capabilities, and enterprise-scale production solutions.
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
Job expectations
Based in London and able to work on-site in accordance with company expectations.
Operate at enterprise and portfolio scale across Commercial Banking and relevant international and shared-technology domains.
Maintain substantial engagement with the CIO of Commercial Banking Technology and the CIO of the International Bank, as well as senior product, engineering, risk, and business leaders.
Focus on strategic architecture, governance, modernization, and cross-domain alignment rather than ownership of a single application.
Ability to travel domestically and internationally as business needs require.
Perform consistently as a senior representative of the architecture organization in executive, governance, and external forums.
Leadership & Success
The successful candidate will be a highly influential enterprise leader with the strategic vision, technical credibility, and executive presence to shape long-term technology direction across Commercial Banking. As a trusted advisor to CIOs and senior leaders, they will drive alignment on complex business and technology decisions, translate strategy into actionable outcomes, and champion modernization, AI adoption, risk reduction, and architectural excellence. Success will be measured through the establishment of a clear and adopted target architecture, improved decision quality, accelerated transformation, stronger organizational capability, and a more resilient, efficient, and strategically aligned technology estate that delivers sustainable business value.
Posting End Date:
3 Oct 2026*Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.
We Value Equal Opportunity
Wells Fargo is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristic.
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