Home. There’s no place like it.
And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that’s what we do. We’re the UK's number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And we’ve crafted a workplace that feels just as welcoming – where you can bring your ideas, be yourself, and feel right at home.
Work your way, together
We’re a hybrid business, which means you’ll have flexibility alongside time together with your team. In this role, you can expect min 1 day per week in the office or on-site, helping you stay connected, collaborate and do your best work for our customers.
This may increase to more days a week on occasions based on business needs.
You can choose to be based out of our Leicester or London office.
Shape the Future of Our Technology
Are you passionate about shaping the future technology strategy and Architecture for key domains in Dunelm – balancing long term thinking with pragmatic roadmaps – if so, read on, this role could be a great fit for you.
As an increasingly customer obsessed business, having the technology capability to better identify, know, engage and serve our customers is critical to the success of Dunelm. In addition, with a strong digital presence (including recently launched App), digital channels will be at the forefront of how we engage and effectively serve our customers. As the Enterprise Domain Architect for Customer & Digital, you’ll be an integral member of our growing Architecture function and will partner with the business and Head of Technology to drive forward our technology Architecture across our Customer and Digital domain.
- Leading the way – set & iterative the Architecture vision for your domain; represent Architecture at all key forums and ensure that our technology aligns to our business goals
- Creating the blueprint – define and maintain the blueprint of where our architecture is today and the target state
- Mapping out the journey – Work in tandem with Business & product/Delivery colleagues to map out the strategic roadmap for the domain, balancing long term foundations with value-add work, iterative delivery and consideration for technical debt.
- Taking decisive action – Identify, raise, recommend and make key decisions impacting the architecture in the Customer & Digital domain.
- Progress through collaboration – Work closely with Business, Product, Delivery & Engineering teams to ensure decisions made in an ‘informed’ manner and that Architecture has a voice in broader decisions and forums.
- Championing good practices – Establish forums, foster collaboration, and ensure our architectural standards are clear, consistent & well adopted.
- Spreading the word – Be a champion for architecture, mentoring others and sharing knowledge across the organisation.
- Keeping us ahead of the curve – Stay on top of emerging technologies and trends, helping us make smart, forward-thinking decisions.
- Making things better – Continuously improve our architectural processes & offerings, making them more efficient, effective, and adaptable.
Essential skills and experience
- Deep architectural expertise– You understand principles, patterns, and frameworks, and you know how to apply them in a complex enterprise environment. You can communicate the value of Architecture to a range of business and technical stakeholders.
- Broad technical experience – You understand SaaS, Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP), and modern software engineering. You know the different types of AI and the key considerations when adopting AI in solutions.
- Retail experience – You have experience working in the Retail sector or an adjacent industry sector (travel, consumer goods etc) and understand the dynamics that make up the retail sector (i.e. macro economics, consumer confidence and demands).
- Domain experience – You can articulate the key capabilities required in Customer & Marketing and Digital channels and have experience shaping and architecting solutions in this domain. You understand the domain’s interactions with the broader enterprise architecture.
- Key decisions – You are able to spot, raise and lead on making key decisions that impact the architecture and the broader business. You can evidence situations where you have had to make complex or unpopular decisions.
- Vendor and market knowledge – You know the key technology vendors in the Customer and Digital domain and can articulate & share key technology trends and innovation within the domain.
- Experience managing & influencing technology vendors and System integrators – You know key questions to ask technology vendors to form an honest appraisal of their capabilities. You can evidence where you have influenced their roadmaps or technical direction. You have experience working alongside system integrators.
- Experience working in an agile & iterative delivery environment – You are comfortable working with agile or programme teams. You can evidence where you have worked successfully alongside business, product, engineering and delivery stakeholders.
- Experience with Data - Ability to work closely with data governance and data engineering teams (given the data centric nature of this domain).
Nice to have’s:
- Architecting within context of broader business transformation – You know what’s required for successful business transformation and have delivered architectures/solutions as part of a broader transformation initiative/programme.
- Single customer view – you know the pitfalls and challenges with moving to a single consolidated view of customer data.
- Specific vendor experience - You have experience working with and architecting solutions with vendors such as Salesforce, AWS and Google.
Key qualities, behaviours and values:
- Strategic thinking – You connect architectural decisions to business goals and know how to plan long-term roadmaps. You can balance those long-term aspirations with pragmatism (i.e. how to enable business value in the short term)
- Brilliant communication – You can break down technical concepts for non-tech folks, present ideas clearly, and engage with senior stakeholders.
- Influencing – You are able to build strong relationships with key stakeholders, using a range of influencing styles to convey/land your message.
- Strong collaboration – You value and actively seek collaboration with business & technical/engineering teams to work through challenges and make informed technology decisions.
- Adaptable – You are comfortable juggling multiple priorities and happy to step out of your domain area where needed.
- Proactive & self sufficient – You are pro-active in the way that you work and comfortable managing your own pipeline of work.
