Principal Enterprise Architect

Principal Enterprise Architect

Position Summary

Bancontact Company is the leading provider of debit card payment experiences in Belgium, actively promoting a digital payments (r)evolution in the market. With our Bancontact card, Bancontact Pay app, and bank apps integrating our solutions, we serve the large majority of the Belgian community with more than 10 million cards and 6 million mobile app users. Bancontact Company develops new payment experiences for its consumers and merchants that want to pay or get paid online, in-store or with family and friends.

To bring the pace of these evolutions to the next level, we are looking for a Principal Enterprise Architect.

Are you passionate about payment architecture and want to shape the technical backbone of Belgium's digital evolution? Join our driven and enthusiastic team!

The Principal Enterprise Architect reports to the Chief Technology Officer.
Job location: Brussels


RESPONSIBILITIES

The Principal Enterprise Architect sits within the Architecture, Technology and Security (ATS) department, which is organised around three strategic pillars: FAST covers everything that keeps the platform running and responsive in real time: incident detection, crisis coordination, rapid response to service degradation, and merchant-facing operations continuity. Speed of reaction and quality of communication under pressure are the defining competencies here.

CORE is about structural solidity and operational consistency. It covers infrastructure monitoring, SLA governance, provider performance tracking, process standardisation, and architectural sovereignty of the payment scheme. Where FAST is reactive, CORE is systemic: it ensures the platform is measurable, governable, and improvable over time.

SECURE ensures that architecture and operational practices remain compliant with the regulatory and security frameworks Bancontact (BC) operates under: DORA, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and the internal security standards governed by the (C)ISO function. Architecture reviews, decision records, and process maturity all feed directly into BC's compliance posture.

The Principal Enterprise Architect role sits primarily within CORE: taking ownership of the high-level Bancontact architecture and ensuring its consistency, governance, and long-term sovereignty. The role feeds SECURE through the security and resilience dimension of every architecture review,and supports FAST indirectly by anchoring lessons from incidents and operational evolutions into structural architecture decisions.

1. Principal enterprise architecture for Bancontact (CORE)

Architectural ownership and consistency 

  • Ownership of the high-level Bancontact architecture and act as principal architect for the payment ecosystem, ensuring architectural consistency across scheme services, across the infrastructure (including the Bancontact Pay app back-end, the mobile contactless infrastructure to support HCE and Apple Pay, the Certification Platform, Bancontact’s Acceptance Environment for Wero… ) and payment flows. 
  • Own and maintain the Bancontact high-level architecture, keeping it validated, current and reflective of major architectural changes. 
  • Maintain a structured architecture repository covering key components, owners, dependencies, environments, interfaces and criticality. 
  • Ensure that critical projects and components are reviewed against the reference architecture before implementation. 
  • Formalise key architecture decisions through architectural decision records. 
  • Develop and maintain reusable architecture patterns for the main payment domains, including Bancontact’s Acceptance Environment for Wero, the Bancontact Pay app back-end, the mobile contactless infrastructure to support HCE and Apple Pay, the Certification Platform and mobile payment flows. 
  • Organise and lead regular architecture reviews with ATS and relevant stakeholders. 


2. Architecture review and validation of new assets (CORE + SECURE)

Formal review and governance of new assets 

  • Operate the architecture review process for new assets, components, integrations and major changes impacting the Bancontact ecosystem. 
  • Own and maintain the architecture review template and methodology used across the organisation. 
  • Ensure that critical new components or integrations carry a documented architecture review before go-live or formal implementation decisions. 
  • Provide timely architecture opinions on submitted review files. 
  • Lead major architecture reviews across the ecosystem, such as card authorisation interface infrastructure, HCE, Wero, E2E Issuer Testing, Certification Platform evolution, ECPC-related evolutions or PSP/acquirer integrations. 
  • Ensure architecture reviews cover architectural fit, security, resilience, operational impact, monitoring, certification, vendor dependency, rulebook impact, reversibility and roadmap alignment. 

3. Strategic payment architecture, ECPC and roadmap contribution (CORE) 

Roadmap contribution and standardisation representation 

  • Contribute actively to Bancontact's technology roadmap by translating market, scheme and technical evolutions into concrete architecture options and recommendations. 
  • Produce strategic architecture notes that lay out options, impacts, risks, dependencies, cost considerations and a clear recommendation. 
  • Present architecture recommendations in ATS roadmap, management or Executive Committee (Exco) contexts. 
  • Could represent Bancontact in standardisation bodies like ECPC, actively contributing to the CPACE specifications for card, HCE and kernel, as well as the related testing and certification framework. Translate ECPC outcomes and decisions into internal impacts, recommendations or architecture updates. 
  • Contribute to strategic topics such as card authorisation interface infrastructure evolutions, Digital Euro, mobile contactless payment use cases, Wero acceptance, tokenisation, certification evolution and future scheme capabilities. 
  • Link architecture contributions to the FAST, CORE, SECURE strategy. 


4. Certification Platform and test architecture evolution (CORE) 

Long-term positioning of the Certification Platform 

  • Ensure that the Certification Platform remains a strategic asset for certification, testing and sandbox usage, and clarify its long-term positioning. 
  • Maintain ongoing follow-up with suppliers, including financial follow-up. 
  • Ensure the platform remains aligned with the latest Bancontact (authorisation and mobile authentication) protocol versions and relevant certification needs. 
  • Drive the adoption of test automation across relevant operational scopes. 
  • Assess multi-lab options as part of the platform's long-term positioning. 
  • Manage vendor and platform risk to avoid critical blockers on priority projects. 
  • Maintain a long-term positioning note covering scope, usage, vendor dependency, financial model and evolution options. 


WITH THESE SKILLS AND MINDSET, YOU WILL THRIVE IN OUR TEAM  

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate, willing to convey our brand values in everything he/she undertakes in his/her daily job. 

Technical 

  • Strong expertise in payment technologies, including cards, mobile payments, tokenisation and payment architectures (EMV, ISO 8583 standards) 
  • Proven experience in enterprise architecture, with the ability to design scalable, secure and future-proof payment ecosystems 
  • Deep understanding of payment scheme specifications, rulebooks and certification frameworks 
  • Familiarity with the Mobile Contactless Infrastructure, HCE, Apple Pay/OEM Pay and related token platforms is a strong asset 


Operational and interpersonal 

  • Strategic mindset with the ability to translate market trends into actionable architecture decisions and roadmap contributions 
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to assess complex technical trade-offs 
  • Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence at senior and executive level 
  • Ability to structure decision-making (options, risks, recommendations) and communicate clearly and concisely 
  • Experience working with international standardisation bodies (e.g. ECPC, EMVCo) 
  • Autonomous, pragmatic and delivery-oriented, with a strong sense of ownership and accountability 
  • Strong executive and external communication skills, with a structured, concise and decision-oriented style 
  • Fluent in English (written and spoken), Preferably bilingual NL/FR, one between NL/FR is a must 

WHAT WE OFFER YOU  

You will join a team of professionals with a shared mission: we are dedicated to bringing easy and leading-edge payment experiences to the Belgian community while ensuring the highest level of security and compliance with industry regulations.  

Yes, that’s quite a challenge. But rest assured, you can rely on your colleagues. We are proud of our welcoming, positive, and innovative environment!  

We offer you a salary package in line with your competences and experience, and the possibility to grow your skillset based on your ambitions. We support hybrid working via fixed office days per team. Moreover, you’re always welcome to work from our office, where you can enjoy fresh fruit, morning conversations at the coffee machine and of course our company events.  

Bancontact Company is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration regardless of gender identities, age groups, ethnicities, origins, sexual orientations, parenthood, religious beliefs, disabilities, and backgrounds. If you require adjustments or accommodations at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know so that we can support your participation. 

Interested to join us? Then send your CV and cover letter to jobs@bancontact.com