Head of Architecture | Lisbon

Head of Architecture | Reatail | Lisbon Lisbon, Portugal | Hybrid Model | Iberian Scope A leading international group in the retail sector is looking for a Head of Architecture – Iberia to lead its technology architecture strategy across Portugal and Spain. This is a senior leadership opportunity within a complex, multi-business environment, combining strategic technology governance, architectural transformation and cross-border team leadership. Reporting to the Executive Technology Leadership, the successful candidate will play a critical role in shaping a scalable, resilient and future-ready technology ecosystem, ensuring alignment between business priorities, digital innovation and international technology standards. Key Responsibilities - Define and lead the technology architecture strategy across the Iberian business units, ensuring alignment with business objectives and international technology frameworks. - Partner with senior executive stakeholders to translate business strategy into architectural roadmaps and technology priorities. - Establish architectural governance standards and promote synergies, interoperability and technology reuse across multiple business units. - Drive the evolution of technology platforms, ensuring scalability, resilience, security and operational excellence. - Promote the adoption of AI and Generative AI capabilities within architectural frameworks and technology solutions. - Lead initiatives to identify, prioritise and reduce technical, functional and security debt. - Work closely with Engineering, Product and Technology teams to embed Architecture-by-Design and Security-by-Design principles. - Lead and develop a distributed team of Enterprise and Solution Architects, fostering collaboration, technical excellence and talent development across Iberia. Candidate Profile - Experience: Minimum of 8 years of relevant experience in Enterprise and/or Solution Architecture, including significant leadership responsibilities in complex technology environments. - Industry Background: Experience in large-scale organisations, ideally within Retail, E-commerce, Supply Chain or other technology-intensive sectors. - Architecture Expertise: Strong knowledge of Cloud Architecture, Microservices, API-first approaches, Event-driven Architecture, Security Governance and AI/Data integration. - Strategic Leadership: Proven ability to define architecture strategies, manage transformation programmes and influence senior executive stakeholders. - International Exposure: Experience operating across multiple business units, countries or international technology structures. - People Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading and developing architecture teams, including geographically distributed professionals. - Languages: Professional fluency in Portuguese and English is mandatory. Spanish is a plus. The Opportunity This position offers the opportunity to shape the architectural direction of a major international retail ecosystem, working at the intersection of business transformation, technological innovation and strategic leadership. The role combines Iberian responsibility, international exposure and direct influence on technology investment and transformation decisions, within a collaborative and evolving environment. Location: Lisbon, Portugal Working Model: Hybrid, with occasional travel to Madrid, Spain. Apply This recruitment process is being conducted confidentially by Sofia Montalvo, from Circle Human Consulting. Interested candidates are invited to submit their CV to contacto@circle-consulting.pt, indicating “Head of Architecture” in the email subject line. All applications will be treated with strict confidentiality.