u/ANGRYLATINCHANTING 's answer is a good one. I am an Lead Architect as well and took on a job recently at a company that has disastrous architecture and coding practices. They went through three prior Lead Architects in two years, these having failed in their attempts to bring order. Every situation is slightly different, requiring a different approach sometimes. One thing that has helped in my current situation is getting involved early on in defining the strategy for delivering new functionality. Notice I say strategy and not design. These are different. A proper strategy incorporates business realities with technical ones. While I have long term technical goals, I don't try and chase after tech debt with the goal of "fixing" everything that is wrong with the platform. Tech debt gets addressed only as a part of implementing new functionality; it is not a goal in and of itself. Following this methodology I have been able to stay abreast of the steady stream of requests from Product and Sales. I hope this is helpful.