FERRING

Principal Enterprise Architect

Lisbon, Portugal Full time

Job Description:

At Ferring Pharmaceuticals, we help people around the world build families and live better lives. We are entrepreneurial and innovative, with a global team focused on scientific advances in the areas of reproductive and women’s health, gastroenterology and urology. Ferring + You is all about working together and sharing ideas, so that we can bring science to life for patients around the world.

Ferring+You

As Principal Enterprise Architect, you will guide the evolution of Ferring’s enterprise‑wide architecture by aligning business capabilities, enterprise applications, platforms, and underlying technologies across Global IT. In a senior individual‑contributor capacity, you will strengthen architectural coherence and rationalisation, ensuring technology choices support business priorities, delivery outcomes, and long‑term sustainability. With Ferring concluding a major SAP rollout and reassessing its platform strategy, you will shape a lean, pragmatic, and coherent enterprise architecture backed by actionable initiatives that move the organisation from its current state toward a clear target direction.

The role is influence‑driven, requiring early risk identification, strong credibility, and the ability to support and escalate decisions when architectural guardrails are at risk. Embedded in the Enterprise Analytics & Technology organisation but working across all Global IT domains, you will build connections, provide architectural clarity and guidance, and ensure governance remains balanced, proportionate, and value‑focused.

Your day at Ferring

  • Maintain and evolve an enterprise‑wide, lean architecture across business capabilities, applications, platforms, and technology.

  • Define and drive architecture‑led initiatives and IT roadmaps in collaboration with IT Partners, Infrastructure, and Security teams.

  • Lead and operate key architecture governance forums (Architecture Governance Board and Architecture Screening).

  • Ensure governance is lean, early‑risk‑focused, and aligned with long‑term architectural integrity, escalating issues when necessary.

  • Advise and challenge solution/domain architects and engineering teams to ensure sustainable, coherent, and maintainable designs.

  • Build and strengthen the Architecture Community of Practice to promote consistency, capability growth, and best‑practice sharing.

  • Communicate architectural topics clearly across all stakeholder levels and translate strategy into actionable guidance and alignment.

Behind our innovation…There’s you

  • Extensive experience in enterprise architecture within large, complex global IT environments, with strong exposure to ERP‑centric landscapes (e.g., SAP).

  • Proven track record leading architecture or platform transformation programs with a pragmatic, delivery‑focused approach.

  • Ability to influence and drive outcomes without formal authority, including effective engagement with senior stakeholders.

  • Experience running architecture governance forums that add value and operate proportionately.

  • Strong architectural breadth across applications, data, integration, and platforms, with sound judgement and a bias for simplicity and balanced trade‑offs.

  • Degree in IT/Engineering/Computer Science (or equivalent experience); architecture certifications are beneficial but not mandatory.

People come first at Ferring

  • Get inspired from our commitment to advocate for everyone’s right to build a family, no matter who you are, where you live or who you love

  • Our inclusive support package – “Building Families at Ferring” provides equal and accessible policies for all employees who wish to start their family journey, ensuring a global standard, irrespective of location and role

  • Parental leave for both birthing and non-birthing parents

  • Extended support on family building journey

Making a difference in the lives of millions of people means we succeed by working together. Our diverse backgrounds, experiences, expertise, and perspectives enable us to find solutions to even the most challenging problems, and our success is tied to each team member’s contributions. Imagine the power of your career when it’s Ferring + You.

Behind our purpose… There’s you

If our mission and your vision are aligned, please apply! 

We strive to build and maintain an inclusive and diverse workplace with equal opportunities and mutual respect for all employees regardless of their backgrounds and socioeconomic status. 

Location:

Ferring Service Center Portugal