Viviana Echeverry is an enterprise architect and digital transformation leader whose work sits at the intersection of technology strategy, innovation, and business outcomes.
Currently serving in a global digital enterprise architecture role at IKEA, she has built a career focused on designing and scaling digital capabilities that drive real organizational impact.
Known for her perspective on emerging technologies – particularly AI, enterprise architecture, and the future of work – Echeverry regularly shares insights on how organizations can move beyond experimentation to deliver measurable value through technology.
A member of Women in Architecture, she serves as out latest interview subject for the pages of A&G.
Question: How did you get your start in technology?
Answer: I started my career as a developer, working hands-on building applications. That experience gave me a strong technical foundation and a real understanding of how systems come together in practice.
As I progressed, I became increasingly interested in the challenges that were slowing teams down — especially around integrations, duplication of effort, and lack of standardization. That curiosity led me to shift my focus from building individual applications to designing the foundational capabilities behind them.
Over time, I naturally moved into architecture, where I could have a broader impact by enabling teams to build faster and more consistently through strong data and integration foundations.
Q: What is your role at your company?
A: I work in a strategic architecture role focused on data and integration, particularly within customer domains.
My focus is on shaping the foundational layers — data platforms, integration frameworks, and governance models — that enable product teams to deliver efficiently at scale.
A big part of my role is creating alignment across a decentralized organization: helping teams move autonomously while ensuring that what they build fits into a coherent and sustainable technology landscape.
Q: What areas of technology have you developed the most expertise in?
A: My main areas of expertise are:
- Data architecture and data foundations
- Integration architecture, especially API-first and event-driven approaches
- Integration platforms and reusable capabilities
- Technology governance and operating models
- Customer data ecosystems
I specialize in building the “invisible layer” of technology — the foundations that make everything else easier, faster, and more scalable. Particularly in integrations, I focus on reducing complexity and enabling interoperability across domains.
Q: Tell us about your philosophy?
A; My philosophy is that good architecture should empower teams.
I strongly believe in investing in solid foundations — especially in data and integrations — because they are key to enabling speed and consistency at scale. When done right, these foundations make the best practices the easiest path for teams to follow.
I also believe in guided autonomy: teams should have the freedom to move independently, but within a framework that ensures alignment and long-term sustainability.
And finally, I believe architecture is not just about technology — it’s about communication, influence, and creating clarity in complex environments.
Q: What trends are you tracking in these areas and why?
A: There are a few trends I’m particularly excited about:
- API-first and event-driven architectures
These are becoming essential to building scalable, loosely coupled systems and enabling real-time interactions across domains.
- Maturation of integration platforms
Integration is increasingly being treated as a product, with platforms that enable reuse, abstraction, and faster delivery.
- Data as a product and decentralized ownership
This shift is key to scaling organizations, but it only works with strong foundations in interoperability and governance.
- AI embedded in data and integration layers
AI is not just a layer on top anymore — it’s becoming part of the core platforms, which raises the bar for data quality and trust.
- Evolution of governance models
Moving from control-based governance to enablement-focused models that support speed without losing alignment.
These trends matter because they fundamentally change how we design and scale technology in modern organizations.