By Holt Hackney
Nadzeya Stalbouskaya is a Technology Architect at International Airlines Group (IAG Transform), where she designs clarity out of complexity across enterprise systems, governance, and digital transformation. Known for her advocacy on architecture debt, she bridges business and technology while shaping strategies for Data and AI adoption. With roots in engineering and programming, she built her career independently and now shares her expertise as a speaker and mentor, committed to empowering the next generation of architects.
What follows is our exclusive interview with Nadzeya, who wrote the following article last month for A&G.
Question: How did you get your start in technology?
Answer: My passion for technology started early. At 15, while many of my peers were still deciding on their future, I entered college to study programming. That decision shaped the rest of my life. My very first steps were as a backend developer, nearly 20 years ago. I still remember those days vividly the long hours of coding, the excitement of making things work, and the frustration when they didn’t. But those challenges only fueled me.
Technology was evolving quickly, and I evolved with it. I became an engineer- programmer and eventually pursued a master’s degree in technology. Each step gave me a new layer of understanding. It wasn’t just about learning to write better code, it was about learning how systems interact, how they scale, and how they fail. That persistence gave me a strong technical foundation that still stands out among my colleagues today.
Looking back, my journey wasn’t just about titles or diplomas. It was about developing independence. I didn’t have mentors guiding me step by step, I built my own path through curiosity and determination. That early experience taught me resilience: how to keep going even when things felt overwhelming, and how to see opportunities where others saw obstacles.
If I had to define it, I’d say my career in technology began not with a job title, but with a mindset: the belief that learning never stops. Every bug I fixed, every system I designed, every exam I passed was another brick in the foundation. That same mindset still drives me today.
Q: What is your role at your company?
A: I currently hold the position of Technology Architect at IAG Transform, the transformation arm of International Airlines Group. My role is both technical and strategic, I help ensure that technology doesn’t just serve the business today but continues to evolve in line with tomorrow’s needs.
On a day-to-day basis, my responsibilities range from developing and optimizing architecture frameworks to defining KPIs and governance models for our architecture teams. One of the areas I am particularly involved in is the creation and oversight of Governance Disaster Recovery Plans. These plans are not just about compliance; they are about building resilience into the very fabric of our systems so the organization can adapt and recover quickly when faced with disruption.
But my role doesn’t stop at internal responsibilities. I also actively represent IAG Transform at conferences, seminars, and professional events across Europe. These opportunities allow me to contribute to the broader enterprise architecture community while also strengthening the visibility of our company’s brand and, naturally, my own personal brand as an advocate for sustainable and intelligent architecture.
At the same time, I invest heavily in my own growth. I see great potential in the convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data with enterprise architecture. For me, the real challenge is not just adopting new technologies but integrating them into resilient, well-governed systems. I believe that the architects of the future will be those who can bridge strategy, data, and AI in a way that enables innovation without creating chaos.
In short, my role is about balance: balancing the present with the future, technology with people, resilience with innovation. Whether I’m refining disaster recovery strategies, mentoring colleagues, or speaking at a European summit, my goal remains the same to design clarity out of complexity and to help shape technology that truly supports business transformation.
Q: What areas of technology have you developed the most expertise in?
A: My expertise has always been broad, but over the years it has grown into something even more holistic. I work at a high architectural level across all of our enterprise domains: finance, people & culture, procurement, security, governance, data & analytics, digital workplace, and cloud. Each of these areas comes with its own priorities and complexities, but my role is to see how they connect, align, and evolve together.
In finance, for example, I’ve worked extensively with SAP platforms (S/4 HANA, BTP, etc.), treasury systems, and reporting tools. In people & culture, we rely on Workday, Concur, SmartRecruiters, etc. In security, I’ve been deeply involved with CrowdStrike, Qualys, etc., while in governance and compliance we work with ServiceNow, SailPoint, and more. In data and analytics, I collaborate with teams using Snowflake, Power BI, etc., preparing the ground for AI-driven initiatives.
What connects all of these is not the tool itself, but the architecture. My expertise lies in ensuring these platforms don’t become isolated silos but instead function as part of a resilient ecosystem. That requires a deep understanding of integration, governance, risk management, and scalability.
Right now, my special focus is on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. Many of our platforms from SAP BTP to Snowflake are already laying the foundation for AI-driven innovation. The challenge is not adopting AI in isolation, but designing systems that make it reliable, explainable, and useful. For me, this is where architecture matters most: without structure, AI becomes chaos at scale.
So, if I were to define my expertise, I would say it is about connecting technology domains into a coherent architecture, preparing them for the next wave of innovation, and ensuring that the latest technologies from AI to cloud are not just implemented, but implemented wisely.
Q: What trends are you tracking in these areas and why?
A: There are many conversations in the technology community about “the next big thing,” but I believe three trends stand out as not just fashionable topics, but transformational forces that will define the future of enterprise architecture.
- Architecture built on Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is often discussed in terms of use cases: chatbots, automation, predictive analytics, but its impact on architecture runs much deeper. I see the next evolution of enterprise architecture as being AI-assisted by design. That means AI tools will not only help organizations analyze data but also help architects identify hidden dependencies, measure architecture debt, and even simulate the impact of future changes before they are made.
This shift changes the architect’s role from reactive to proactive. Instead of discovering problems only after they occur, AI-powered architecture will allow us to anticipate risks, highlight weak points, and optimize systems in real time. For example, imagine governance not as a manual review process but as an intelligent assistant that continuously checks compliance against principles. For me, AI is not just a “feature” to add into systems, it’s the new foundation for how we design, validate, and evolve architecture itself.
- Visibility of Architecture Debt. The second trend is the growing recognition of architecture debt as a critical factor in transformation. Technical debt has long been a familiar concept developers and engineers know exactly how shortcuts today become problems tomorrow. But architecture debt is different: it is hidden in silos, in duplicated platforms, in poorly integrated processes. It doesn’t appear in a code review, yet it quietly slows down the entire organization.
I strongly believe that making architecture debt visible will become one of the architect’s most important responsibilities. Leaders need tools, metrics, and dashboards that expose where debt is accumulating and how it impacts strategic outcomes. For example, instead of saying “our systems are complex,” we should be able to measure how many integrations lack documentation, how much duplication exists in our platforms, or how data lineage gaps increase risk in reporting. The organizations that succeed in the next decade will be those that not only recognize architecture debt but actively manage it as part of their governance strategy.
- Cloud Ecosystems and the Power of Data. The third major trend is the shift from isolated systems to cloud-native ecosystems, powered by data as the central asset. Moving to the cloud is no longer about cost savings, it’s about agility, scalability, and the ability to experiment quickly. But without the right architectural governance, cloud adoption can lead to fragmentation rather than innovation. That’s why I see cloud ecosystems and data governance as inseparable.
Data has become the fuel of every business decision, but it only delivers value when it is structured, traceable, and reliable. Big Data and AI rely on clean metadata, consistent lineage, and well-defined integration points. This is why one of my key focus areas is not just technology adoption, but the architecture around it: making sure our cloud platforms, data flows, and governance models work together to support the business, not overwhelm it. In practice, this means designing cloud architectures that are resilient, cost-optimized, and aligned with business strategy, while ensuring that data remains a trusted foundation for AI-driven innovation.
Together, these three trends (AI-driven architecture, visibility of architecture debt, and cloud/data ecosystems) are not just shaping the future of IT. They are reshaping the very role of the architect, moving us from builders of systems to designers of clarity, resilience, and sustainable innovation.