Director of IT Strategy & Architecture

Position Summary

The Director of IT Strategy &Architectureis a newly created role within theInformation Technology team, reporting to the CIO, designed to provide strategic and operational leverage acrossForcepoint’sglobal IT team. Supporting aglobalSaaS security software company, this position ensures IT delivers measurable business valueandalignsour Enterprise Architecture roadmapwith corporate goals.

The primary responsibility is totake inputs todefineIT’snorth-star for EnterpriseArchitecture andalign all IT functions and business groupsto executeon thatvision. The role will helpoptimizeourenvironments,consolidatesystemsand ratify integrations.

As a newly establishedposition, this rolewill shape how IToperatesat scale-bringing structure, discipline, and visibility across programs, spend, and governance. Acting as a trusted advisor to the CIO and IT leadership, this individual is proactive inidentifyingopportunities, raising risks, and ensuring the right issues receive executive attention. They partner closely with IT leadership team members,consolidatingtheir updates, priorities, and risks into a unified status view for the CIO. They also serve as IT’s storyteller-creating compelling content, reports, and presentations thatshowcaseIT’sachievements, position the organization as a strategic enabler, anddemonstratetangible business value.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership, Architecture,AIand Alignment

• Partner with the CIO to define and execute the IT strategic roadmap in alignment with companyobjectives, global growth, and security priorities.

• Serve as a trusted advisor and integrator for the CIO, proactively raising risks, surfacing issues, and ensuring decisions are well-informed andtimely.

• Partner with all IT direct reports, ensuring their workstreams are aligned, interdependencies are managed, andconsolidatedstatus is rolled up to the CIO.

• Leverage industry data and benchmarks (e.g., Gartner research, vendor insights) to inform IT decision-making, strengthen business cases, and ensure investments align with external best practices.

• Define and institutionalize anorthstarapplication architecture; publish a~3year roadmap and a 4–6 quarter execution plan aligned to ourtransformation programs

• Continue to develop and operationalize our corporate AI program,define intake/approval processes/ROI, and launch prioritized, compliant AI use cases with measurable outcomesto accelerate our business further.Assistwith building aunified architecture for AI, rather than 1:1 integrations;focus on data sovereigntyand trust; agentic orchestration; cost to value mapping;enterprise corporate and Engineering tooling strategy

Governance and Prioritization

• Ensure our intake, programs and PI events align with the architecture roadmap

• Run IT prioritization sessions with senior leaders to drive transparency, trade-offs, and alignment across global initiatives.

• Conduct Business Relationship Management (BRM) reviews with key stakeholders to strengthenIT’srole as a business partner andidentifyemerging needs.

Operational Effectiveness and Delivery

• When required, manageIT’soperating rhythm, including staff meetings, leadership forums, and program reviews, ensuring disciplined follow-through oncommitments.

• Drive internal IT Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) with team leads, creating a structured forum to review delivery, risks, and performance againstobjectiveswhich will then be shared across the company.

• Develop the most critical metrics and KPIs to measure IT team success and the value IT delivers to the business.

• Track execution of IT initiatives, proactively surfacing risks and removing blockers to ensure leaders deliver on commitments.

• Create dashboards, scorecards, and reporting mechanisms that monitorIT’sperformance and business impact.

• Drive process improvements that enhance agility, scalability, and end-user experience, with a strong focus on SaaS and security best practices.

Financial and Vendor Oversight

• Partner with Finance and FP&A to coordinate and manage IT spend across the department, ensuringaccurateforecasting, budget discipline, and cost optimization.

• Facilitate stakeholder reviews of resource allocation and spend priorities, providing transparency and alignment with business goals.

• Monitor SaaS and vendor spend, ensuring ROI, cost efficiency, and adherence to security and procurement standards– and aligns with Enterprise strategy

• Establish financial reporting that links IT investments to outcomes anddemonstratesbusiness value– ensures alignment with Procurement

Executive Communication and Value Demonstration

• Act as the CIO’s communication hub,consolidatingstatus across IT leadership into a clear and actionable executive view

• Produce high-quality content ona regularbasis that can be shared with the Executive Team andBoard, ensuringIT’swork is consistently visible, contextualized, and tied to business outcomes.

• Comfortable with defining and delivery by metrics

• Develop compelling presentations, reports, and narratives that position IT as a strategic enabler, highlighting achievements, efficiencies, and business impact.

• Prepare, whenrequired,board-level and executive committee updates thatshowcaseIT’scontributions to revenue growth, security, and employee productivity.

• Partner with Corporate Communications to ensure consistent, business-friendly messaging aroundIT’swork and value.

• Can substitute for the CIO whenrequired

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Business Administration, or related field

• 8–12 years of experience in IT strategy, program management, or technology operations, ideally in SaaSor enterprise software.

• Deep understanding of IT governanceand architecture,financial management, and SaaS spend optimization, with proven experience partnering with FP&A.

• Strong facilitation skills, capable of leading cross-functional governance forums and steering committees.

• Exceptional communication, content creation, and storytelling skills—able to translate technical accomplishments into compelling business narratives.

• Demonstrated ability to proactively raise risks and issues, ensuring they are surfaced early and managed effectively.

• Experienceleveragingexternal market intelligence (e.g., Gartner, PE insights, vendor data) to inform IT strategy,validatepriorities, and benchmark performance.

• Proven experience working in global organizations with distributed teams and stakeholders across multiple time zones.

• Analytical, structured, and able to balance big-picture vision with hands-on execution.

Reporting Structure

Reports directly to the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Partners with all ITleaders(Infrastructureand Operations,EnterpriseApplications,PMO,User Experience and EnablementandBusiness Intelligence)and business stakeholdersto roll up status and provide the CIO with a unified view. Works cross-functionally with Finance, FP&A, HR, Security, Engineering, and other corporate stakeholders.

Success Profile

The ideal candidate is a proactive strategic operator and communicator: highly organized, trusted by the CIO and peers, and adept at translating complex IT activity into clear, business-aligned outcomes. They thrive in fast-moving SaaS environments,can navigate in thegray, understandthe unique challenges of scaling secure IT operations, and elevateIT’sposition in the company bydemonstratingmeasurable value.

As this is a newly created role, success will be measured not only by how well the individual delivers against current priorities, but also by how effectively they define andestablishthe function itself. The right candidate will set the standard for governance, spend management, QBR execution, metric development, risk surfacing, andExecutive visibility, while ensuring decisions are informed by the best available internal and external data.

Interview Process

As part of the interview process, the CIO will expect candidates toprovideanonymized real-world examples of their work. This includes:

• Sample metrics andKPIs theyhave developed to measure IT performance and business value.

• Architecture roadmaps, and how they are communicated,presentedand measured

• Examples of dashboards, reports, or executive updates (with sensitive information removed) thatdemonstratetheir ability toconsolidateand communicate IT performanceacross all parts of the department

• Evidence of how they haveleveragedindustry data, benchmarks, or vendor insights to influence decision-making or shape IT strategy.