Portfolio Architect - Information Technology

Alberta Blue Cross® is an Alberta based organization dedicated to delivering exceptional customer experience and community leadership. We’re committed to providing the best health coverage to over 1.8 million members and take an active role in promoting wellness. We believe in what we do—and place trust in our employees to deliver our vision.

Working at Alberta Blue Cross® means having a career where you’ll be recognized for your contributions. We value diversity, encourage our team members to maintain a healthy work-life balance and provide opportunities for career growth.

OVERVIEW:

We have exciting opportunities for several Portfolio Architect roles to join our Enterprise Architecture team. Reporting to the Chief Architect, these are senior individual contributor roles accountable for owning the target architecture and modernization roadmap for defined technology or business portfolios, ensuring technology investments are coherent, sequenced, fundable, and aligned to enterprise priorities.

Current anticipated portfolio roles include Customer Portfolio Architect, Operations Portfolio Architect, Corporate Portfolio Architect, and IT 4 IT Portfolio Architect. Additional or adjusted portfolio assignments may be considered as organizational needs evolve.

The Portfolio Architect operates as the bridge between Enterprise Architecture direction and delivery execution, translating corporate and IT strategy, architectural guardrails, reference architecture target states, risk posture, and IT leadership priorities into practical roadmaps that delivery teams can execute against with confidence.

This is a strategic portfolio architecture role, not a solution design, development leadership, delivery management, product ownership, or domain architecture position. The role ensures initiatives advance Alberta Blue Cross as an integrated enterprise system rather than optimizing locally at the expense of customer experience, integration, cost-to-serve, security, operational resilience, or long-term sustainability.

While these are not people leader roles and do not include direct people-management accountability, they are senior architecture roles with significant influence across portfolio planning, investment alignment, delivery enablement, and formal architecture governance.

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

• Interpret corporate and IT strategy, Enterprise Architecture direction, business priorities, and portfolio context into practical architecture guidance.

• Develop and maintain portfolio architecture views that clarify current state, target state, transition states, dependencies, risks, and sequencing considerations.

• Assess impacts across business capabilities, platforms, integrations, data, security, operations, customer experience, regulatory obligations, and delivery readiness.

• Prepare decision-ready options, recommendations, and implications for portfolio planning, investment sequencing, and architecture governance discussions.

• Collaborate with IT leadership, EPMO, Finance, business stakeholders, Enterprise Architecture, Domain Architects, Solution Architects, and delivery teams to align plans and resolve ambiguity.

• Provide portfolio guardrails and context to Solution Architects and delivery teams without taking ownership of detailed solution design, engineering, delivery management, or sprint-level decisions.

• Identify and escalate material risks, unresolved trade-offs, duplication, dependency gaps, or drift from target state through established governance forums.

POSITION SCOPE:

• Report to the Chief Architect as senior individual contributors within the Enterprise Architecture organization.

• May be classified at the Manager or Director level depending on applicant experience, portfolio complexity, stakeholder scope, enterprise impact, and demonstrated seniority.

• Support portfolios such as Customer, Operations, Corporate, IT 4 IT, or other portfolios aligned to enterprise priorities.

• Exercise leadership through influence, architecture direction, stakeholder alignment, and decision framing rather than direct people-management authority.

• Remain distinct from Solution Architecture, development leadership, product ownership, delivery management, and domain architecture roles.

• Do not directly manage people, design detailed solutions, own sprint-level decisions, approve or reject solutions unilaterally, manage delivery teams, take over development work, or own formal governance outcomes.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Accountable for the architectural coherence of the assigned portfolio, including alignment to enterprise strategy, principles, reference architectures, and approved guardrails.

• Accountable for the portfolio target architecture and roadmap remaining current, actionable, and connected to business outcomes, investment planning, delivery capacity, and modernization priorities.

• Accountable for making major architectural risks, dependencies, trade-offs, and target-state deviations visible to senior stakeholders and governance forums.

• Accountable for enabling consistent, transparent, and traceable architecture decision support for portfolio planning, sequencing, ARB readiness, and formal governance outcomes.

KEY SUCCESS MEASURES:

• Adopted portfolio architecture direction: Target architecture and roadmap are understood, current, and used by IT leadership, EPMO, Finance, Solution Architects, and delivery teams to guide planning and execution.

• Improved investment and sequencing decisions: Portfolio priorities are supported by clear architectural rationale, dependency visibility, trade-off analysis, affordability considerations, and alignment to corporate and IT strategy.

• Reduced architectural friction: Major risks, technical debt patterns, duplication, and target-state deviations are identified earlier, resulting in fewer late-stage escalations, avoidable rework, and unresolved delivery constraints.

• Stronger governance readiness: Initiatives entering ARB or related governance forums have clear portfolio context, decision options, risk framing, and traceable alignment to enterprise principles and guardrails.

• Clearer role alignment and delivery enablement: Stakeholders understand where Portfolio Architecture adds value, how it differs from Solution Architecture and development delivery, and how portfolio guardrails enable rather than duplicate delivery work.

WHAT YOU WILL HAVE:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.

• Experience in the life and health insurance industry is a strong asset, particularly where it includes exposure to customer experience, claims, benefits administration, regulatory obligations, data privacy, digital services, or insurance technology modernization.

• 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise architecture, portfolio architecture, technology strategy, solution architecture, or senior technology advisory roles; Manager or Director classification will reflect demonstrated seniority, scope, and enterprise impact.

• Demonstrated ability to define target architecture, transition states, modernization roadmaps, and sequencing recommendations for complex portfolios or transformation programs.

• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture practices, including architecture principles, reference architectures, governance, guardrails, technology lifecycle management, technical debt, risk, regulatory obligations, and operational constraints.

• Experience with enterprise architecture tools or repository platforms is an asset, including use of these solutions to model capabilities, applications, technologies, roadmaps, dependencies, standards, risks, and architecture decisions.

• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams across IT, business, EPMO, Finance, architecture, product, and delivery groups without relying on direct reporting authority.

• Ability to assess cross-domain impacts across business capabilities, applications, data, integration, digital experience, cloud, security, identity, platforms, operations, and customer outcomes.

• Excellent communication, facilitation, executive storytelling, and decision-framing skills, with the ability to clarify trade-offs, role boundaries, risks, and recommendations for diverse audiences.

COMPETENCY MATRIX:

Portfolio Architecture

• Description: Defines coherent target architecture, transition states, and roadmap direction for the assigned portfolio.

• Proficiency Level: Advanced

• Evidence: Maintains a current roadmap with clear transition states and an adopted portfolio architecture direction.

Strategic Influence

• Description: Guides senior stakeholders through ambiguity, trade-offs, and decisions without relying on direct authority.

• Proficiency Level: Advanced

• Evidence: Builds stakeholder alignment, supports timely decision-making, and provides clear recommendations.

Investment Alignment

• Description: Connects architecture decisions to business value, affordability, risk, delivery readiness, and sequencing.

• Proficiency Level: Working to Advanced

• Evidence: Provides decision-ready options, identifies dependencies, and establishes clear sequencing rationale.

Enterprise Systems Thinking

• Description: Assesses impacts across capabilities, platforms, data, integration, security, operations, customer outcomes, and regulatory context.

• Proficiency Level: Advanced

• Evidence: Enables earlier visibility of risks and reduces architectural friction across the enterprise.

Architecture Tooling

• Description: Uses enterprise architecture tools or repositories to maintain architecture knowledge, dependencies, standards, roadmaps, and decision traceability.

• Proficiency Level: Working to Advanced

• Evidence: Maintains reliable repository content, develops reusable architecture views, and ensures architecture decisions are traceable.

Governance & Role Clarity

• Description: Applies guardrails, clarifies accountabilities, and enables governance readiness without duplicating delivery work.

• Proficiency Level: Working to Advanced

• Evidence: Supports clear ARB preparation and decision records while reducing role conflicts and duplication.

Executive Communication

• Description: Translates complex architecture topics into concise messages for technical, business, Finance, EPMO, and executive audiences.

• Proficiency Level: Working to Advanced

• Evidence: Develops clear roadmap narratives, effectively frames risks, and provides leadership-ready recommendations.

BEHAVIORAL INDICATORS:

Strategic Thinking

• Anticipates portfolio impacts, downstream dependencies, and long-term implications of architecture and investment decisions.

• Balances modernization, customer outcomes, business value, risk, compliance, affordability, and sustainability.

Leadership

• Provides calm, credible leadership when priorities, dependencies, stakeholder expectations, or trade-offs are unclear.

• Leads through influence and clarity while enabling Solution Architects, product teams, and delivery teams to work within agreed guardrails.

Analytical Skills

• Uses structured thinking to assess options, constraints, dependencies, risks, and transition paths.

• Simplifies complex architecture issues into practical recommendations for decision-making.

Collaboration

• Builds trust across business, technology, architecture, EPMO, Finance, product, and delivery stakeholders.

• Resolves tension by focusing on enterprise outcomes, transparent trade-offs, and clear accountabilities.

This position will remain open until suitable candidates are selected.

Alberta Blue Cross® is an inclusive employer committed to a workplace that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. We empower and are advocates for our team members by welcoming, respecting and valuing their unique perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences.

We offer the opportunity to work in an innovative, high-energy team-focused environment. If you have the qualifications we are looking for, apply online at careers.ab.bluecross.ca

A criminal record check satisfactory to Alberta Blue Cross will be required as a condition of employment, following a conditional offer.