About

25+ years turning business vision into architecture that actually gets built — from global pharma to Big Four consulting to federal government, now available to your organization without the overhead of a traditional consulting firm.

Professional Background

I'm Christian Kobsa, founder and principal architect of Digital Enterprise Architecture Advisors.

My path into enterprise architecture wasn't a straight line, and I think that's an asset. I started as a software engineer in the mid-1990s, spent years as a business analyst before "business architecture" was even a common job title, and over the past two-plus decades worked my way through delivery, governance, and strategy roles — inside global pharma, Big Four consulting, federal government, and Fortune 500 operations. That range shapes how I work today: I've been the person accountable for whether an architecture actually ships, not just the person who diagrams it.

Most recently, I spent over five years as Lead Solution Architect at Roche Pharma, where I designed a Gartner-aligned Digital Integration Hub — event-driven microservices knitting together Roche's AWS cloud platform, its Mulesoft API layer, and core systems of record. Before Roche, I built and led architecture engagements at EPAM Systems and Ernst & Young, and worked across organizations including Dycom Industries, ADP, the U.S. Veterans Administration, UPS, McKesson, and the CDC — re-architecting HR operations, redesigning global workplace processes, and modernizing legacy systems at enterprise scale. Along the way, that work also produced a U.S. patent for a network security event management system, TOGAF certification at the business architecture level, and a handful of white papers on where I think AI is taking the discipline next.

I hold U.S. permanent residency (Green Card) with a U.S. address, giving me full W-2 eligibility and seamless collaboration with American organizations, alongside EU residency in Germany and Italy. I run DEAA as a boutique practice serving clients across the U.S. and Europe, with strong EST overlap and a delivery model built for distributed teams.

How I Work

I partner with business and technology leaders to build architecture that drives measurable outcomes, not documentation for its own sake. My work is grounded in TOGAF-based governance and business capability modeling, but the goal is always the same: designs that are technically sound and organizationally realistic — the kind that survive budget cycles, leadership changes, and the gap between the roadmap and what teams can actually execute.

Business-first. Architecture exists to serve the business model — not the other way around. Pragmatic. Simple, understandable structures beat theoretical perfection every time. Transparent. Decisions, trade-offs, and risks are made explicit, not buried in a deck. Collaborative. Architecture is a team sport. My job is to build alignment, not dictate from a whiteboard.

Multilingual & Cross-cultural Expertise

I am a multilingual communicator with native German and fluent English, along with conversational proficiency in Italian. This enables me to operate effectively across diverse teams, cultures, and stakeholder groups — a critical advantage in global transformation programs.

Beyond the Client Work

I write regularly on where enterprise architecture is heading as AI reshapes the operating model, not just the tech stack — recent pieces cover AI-enabled business capabilities, agentic architecture frameworks, and what EA leadership looks like in an AI-augmented organization.
Read the white papers

Work Authorization & Engagement Model

I hold full U.S. work authorization (Green Card) and full EU work authorization as a German citizen, and I support clients through several engagement models — W-2 employment, W-2 contract/interim roles, independent consulting through DEAA LLC, or Corp-to-Corp.
See engagement options

Whether you need a second opinion on a target architecture, hands-on leadership through a transformation, or fractional coverage while you build out an internal EA function, I'd be glad to talk through where you are and whether I'm the right fit.
Schedule an Intro Call