Job Description
Chief Technology Officer / Chief Architect
European Union Institutions & Agencies
Client Focus: European Commission, European Parliament, Council of the EU, DGs, and EU Agencies
Reports To: [Account Executive / Regional CTO / Head of Technology, BeLux]
Key Internal Interfaces: Sales & Account Management, Solution Directors, Global Business Line Architects, Delivery Leadership, Marketing, Partner Ecosystem
Location: Brussels, Belgium (with travel to EU institution sites and Atos offices)
Role Overview
The CTO / Chief Architect for the EU Institutional Account is a senior, market-facing technology executive responsible for shaping and evangelizing the regional technology vision, driving innovation-led growth, and enabling sales through differentiated technical strategy and thought leadership.
Key Responsibilities
- Technology Vision & Customer Evangelism
- Define and articulate the multi-year technology vision for EU accounts, aligning Atos’s global road map and growth objectives with the EU’s Digital Decade goals, Sovereignty mandates, and interoperability frameworks (EIRA, EIF).
- Act as the chief evangelist for Atos’s strategy across cloud, cybersecurity, AI/ML, data platforms, automation, and digital transformation, translating complex technologies into compelling business value.
- Continuously assess emerging technologies, industry trends, and competitor positioning within the EU institutional landscape to shape differentiated offerings and maintain competitive advantage.
- Collaborate with Global Business Lines as a strategic feedback loop to orchestrate holistic strategies for service portfolio development and market positioning.
- Develop and maintain an EU-specific technology radar, identifying trends and innovations relevant to institutional modernization priorities.
- AI, Agentic AI & Intelligent Automation
- Define and lead Atos’s AI strategy for EU institutions, encompassing Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs),Agentic AI, and intelligent automation frameworks.
- Architect AI-readiness assessments for legacy estate, defining transformation pathways from traditional systems to AI-ready platforms.
- Ensure all AI solutions comply with the EU AI Act, embedding responsible AI governance principles including transparency, explain ability, fairness, and human oversight.
- Drive adoption of agentic AI and automation solutions as business enablers, demonstrating measurable operational impact through proof-of-concepts and reference implementations.
- Collaborate with data science, ML engineering, and innovation teams to develop EU-specific AI use cases and solution accelerators.
- Security, Compliance & Digital Sovereignty
- Evangelize security-by-design, resilience, and compliance as core components of Atos’s technology value proposition. Architect resilient frameworks that satisfy NIS2,DORA, EU AI Act, and GDPR requirements.
- Partner with security leaders to ensure Atos’s offerings are positioned as secure, compliant, and enterprise-ready across all threat vectors.
- Lead the design of Sovereign-by-Design cloud and hybrid infrastructures ensuring data residency, jurisdictional control, and operational sovereignty within the EU.
- Oversee the modernization of legacy stacks into cloud-native, AI-ready platforms while ensuring seamless interoperability across inter-institutional systems.
- Ensure all architectural designs align with EU-specific standards including the European Interoperability Reference Architecture (EIRA) and the European Interoperability Framework (EIF).
- Deal Architecture & Solution Design
- Serve as the lead architect on large-scale, multi-million euro deal pursuits, owning the technical solution design, architecture narrative, and technical volumes in competitive bids and framework contract responses.
- Define end-to-end solution architectures with clear delivery models, costing implications, risk assessments, and transition plans for complex EU institutional programmes.
- Chair architectural review boards for major pursuits, ensuring solution quality, feasibility, and alignment with Atos’s delivery capabilities and global standards.
- Develop repeatable solution frameworks, reference architectures, and reusable IP that accelerate bid response times and improve win rates.
- Conduct technical due diligence on large opportunities, assessing feasibility, risk, and resource implications before committing to bids.
- Lead executive-level technical discussions, whiteboarding sessions, and value-based solution narratives with C-suite clients during competitive dialogues and tender evaluations.
- Cross-Architect Collaboration & Architecture Governance
- Orchestrate collaboration across Atos’s architect community, aligning with Global Business Line architects, Solution Directors, domain architects, and delivery architects on deal-specific and programme-level designs.
- Chair or participate in architecture review boards, resolving architectural conflicts across workstreams (infrastructure, applications, cybersecurity, workplace, data) on multi-institutional deals.
- Establish and enforce architecture governance frameworks aligned with industry standards (TOGAF, ArchiMate) and EU-specific standards (EIRA), ensuringconsistency across the EU account portfolio.
- Act as the escalation point for technical design decisions during delivery, ensuring that what is built matches what was architected and sold.
- Conduct architecture compliance reviews at key delivery milestones, providing quality gates between solution design and operational deployment.
- Business Development & Innovation Leadership
- Design and lead Innovation Workshops (using Design Thinking) and CTO Round Tables to co-create solutions with EU stakeholders.
- Serve as a senior technology ambassador for Atos in client meetings, executive briefings, advisory councils, and industry forums.
- Collaborate with partners (e.g., Microsoft, AWS, hyper scalers), global innovation teams, and centres of excellence to showcase Atos capabilities through demos, prototypes, and reference architectures.
- Build and maintain long-term institutional relationships beyond individual procurements, positioning Atos as the default strategic technology partner.
- Provide independent architectural assessments and technology roadmap workshops for DG-level stakeholders, demonstrating advisory value beyond commercial engagements.
- Pre-Sales Excellence & Sales Enablement
- Partner closely with sales, account teams, and marketing to support strategic pursuits, large deals, and competitive bids.
- Enable sales teams with clear messaging, architectures, differentiators, and competitive intelligence that accelerate pipeline conversion and deal velocity.
- Develop and maintain a library of solution assets, proposal templates, and technical narratives tailored to EU institutional procurement processes.
- Monitor and anticipate EU procurement pipelines, including framework contracts, competitive dialogues, and calls for tender from DIGIT, DG CONNECT, and other DGs.
- Team Leadership &Capability Development
- Mentor senior architects and technical leaders in client-facing, advisory, and pre-sales roles, building a bench of CTO-calibre talent within the EU account.
- Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and customer-centric thinking aligned with Atos’s values and the unique requirements of EU institutional clients.
- Act as a role model for inclusive leadership and technical excellence in market-facing engagements.
- Drive knowledge sharing across the architect community, ensuring lessons learned from pursuits and deliveries are codified and reused.
Required Qualifications & Experience
- 15+ years in senior technology leadership roles within global IT services, consulting, cloud, or enterprise technology organisations.
- Deep expertise across cloud platforms, AI/ML (including Generative AI and Agentic AI), cybersecurity, data platforms, and digital transformation.
- Demonstrated track record of architecting and leading the technical design on large-scale deals (€10M+), including owning technical volumes in competitive bids.
- Strong experience in client-facing, pre-sales, and advisory roles, with proven ability to influence C-suite and DG-level executive stakeholders.
- Proven ability to articulate complex technologies as business outcomes and competitive advantage.
- Experience with enterprise architecture frameworks (TOGAF, ArchiMate) and familiarity with EU-specific standards (EIRA, EIF).
- Understanding of EU procurement frameworks including framework contracts, competitive dialogue procedures, and public tender processes.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and storytelling skills for executive and public forums.
- Full professional proficiency in English is required; French or Dutch is a significant advantage.
- Eligibility for, or willingness to obtain, EU personnel security clearance (if applicable).
Preferred Qualifications
- Direct experience working with EU Institutions (EC, EP, Council, EU Agencies).
- Strong understanding of EU regulatory and compliance landscapes (NIS2, DORA, EU AI Act, GDPR).
- Prior experience as a CTO, Chief Architect, Distinguished Engineer, or senior technology evangelist in a large IT services or consulting firm.
- Experience supporting large-scale strategic deals and transformational sales pursuits across multiple technology domains.
- Active participation in industry bodies, standards organisations, or advisory boards relevant to EU digital policy.
- Experience with sovereign cloud architectures and data residency frameworks.