Sr Lead M&A Architect

Key Responsibilities Own infrastructure architecture strategy for the M&A portfolio, authoring and governing infrastructure integration blueprints and roadmaps across current, transition, and future states for multiple concurrent acquisitions and divestitures. Develop multi-domain scenario plans with trade‑off analysis across cost, risk, and delivery dimensions, mapping current to future state in coordination with the M&A Center of Excellence and corporate development. Produce architecture decisions and design artifacts that enable delivery teams to implement solutions that are scalable, secure, supportable, and aligned with enterprise strategy. Create design artifacts and diagrams representing desired changes in infrastructure architecture. Establish, evolve, and govern Cox Automotive infrastructure integration standards, design patterns, and reference architectures; document and guide variances through approval. Lead alignment with acquired company stakeholders and CAI Infrastructure and Operations platform teams to align on roadmap and sequencing; influence infrastructure, platform, security, network, database, and automation teams without direct authority. Serve as a technical authority bridging platform engineering and delivery teams, reviewing designs and improving collaboration between groups. Facilitate virtual and in-person working sessions, including whiteboarding, to build alignment on integration direction. Synthesize complex technical findings into executive‑ready narratives highlighting decisions, risks, trade‑offs, and progress aligned to deal milestones; brief senior leadership on integration posture and architectural direction. Evaluate operational and engineering capacity impacts of incoming scope and provide readouts for downstream planning, including staffing, tooling, and run‑cost implications. Use AI‑assisted techniques for infrastructure due diligence, including document analysis, data room assessment, infrastructure scope classification, technology overlap identification, risk assessment, and production of confidence‑rated findings. Apply AI tools to generate, stress‑test, and validate architectural options across cost, performance, security, and resilience dimensions for integration scenario evaluation. Drive architectural governance, compliance, standards gap analysis, and documentation using structured and AI‑augmented methods, including automating standards checks, exception workflows, and audit‑ready documentation for acquired environments. Stay informed on infrastructure and cloud trends, including AI/ML infrastructure patterns, and assess relevance to integration strategies. Establish yourself as a trusted technical advisor with key internal and external stakeholders, including executive leadership, corporate development, and acquired company leadership. Leverage AI agents to identify overlapping platforms, normalize inconsistent inventories, estimate consolidation effort, and surface synergies across acquired environments. Mentor and develop M&A architecture capabilities across teams, establishing repeatable integration playbooks, patterns, and knowledge bases that reduce cycle time for future engagements. Partner with business leaders and corporate development to inform deal strategy, integration options, and investment decisions with technical insight and scenario‑based analysis. Identify and drive process improvements across the M&A infrastructure integration lifecycle, applying lessons learned to continuously improve integration speed, quality, and predictability. Other responsibilities as required to support the company’s growth. Qualifications 8+ years of infrastructure architecture experience in large‑scale enterprise environments. 5+ years of experience owning architecture strategy across M&A technology integration and divestiture engagements, including leading multiple concurrent deals. 5+ years of experience applying structured architecture and design practices in a large‑scale enterprise environment. Experience in modeling complex multi‑tier infrastructure architectures and leading design discussions with teams and stakeholders across all organizational levels, ensuring effective alignment between technical and business objectives. Subject matter expert depth in two or more domains with breadth across cloud platforms, networking, compute, virtualization, storage, monitoring, and security. Strong understanding of cloud computing concepts, particularly IaaS and PaaS, with hands‑on experience in enterprise cloud migration and integration. Proficiency with AI‑augmented tools for analysis, architecture design, and productivity, including validating AI‑assisted outputs for production readiness and coaching others on effective use. Excellent written and verbal communication skills with executive presence across all organizational levels. Demonstrated experience making and defending architecture decisions with organization‑wide impact. Strong interpersonal and leadership skills with demonstrated ability to influence across organizational boundaries without direct authority. Track record of mentoring architects and engineers, building team capability, and establishing repeatable practices. Preferred Qualifications Relevant certifications in enterprise architecture, cloud architecture, or infrastructure domains, such as TOGAF, Certified Enterprise Architect (CEA), AWS Solutions Architect, or CCIE. Experience facilitating virtual and in-person group working sessions. Demonstrated strategic thinking in AI‑enabled architecture initiatives. Experience with structured vendor and platform evaluations. Familiarity with simulation approaches, digital twin concepts, or intent‑based automation. Experience leading architecture strategy across a portfolio of concurrent M&A engagements at varying lifecycle stages. Experience establishing or contributing to enterprise architecture governance frameworks and integration playbooks. Experience partnering with corporate development or M&A Center of Excellence functions to inform deal strategy with technical analysis. Required Education • Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a relevant discipline and 8 years of related experience. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master’s degree and 6 years of experience, a Ph.D. and 3 years of experience, or 20 years of experience in a related field. Benefits • Flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as needed, seven paid holidays, and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually. Eligible employees may also receive bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave. • Health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off. Equal Employment Opportunity Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual’s age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law. Cox provides reasonable accommodations when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with disability, unless such accommodations would cause an undue hardship. #J-18808-Ljbffr CAI Cox Automotive Corp Svcs., LLC