PURPOSE OF POSITION:

Individuals in the Architect I role are expected to facilitate the development of the right future-state architecture and ensure its effective adoption. They provide overall direction, guidance and definition of architecture programs that effectively support business strategies. This role will also advocate and support the enterprise’s IT strategies, identify and analyze enterprise business drivers, analyze the current IT environment to detect critical deficiencies, recommend solutions for improvement and develop strategies aligning IT to the business. They must have significant business knowledge and have one or more areas of technical expertise in which they concentrate. These technical areas may include network, security, applications and systems software, data and Internet.

Individuals in this role work on highly complex projects that require in-depth knowledge of two or more specialized architecture areas such as network, security, applications, information, systems and Internet and business segments.

They work on multiple projects as a project leader or internal consultant. They are viewed as an expert and provide knowledge and counsel to others.

Individuals in the Architect job family interface across all business areas, acting as visionaries to proactively assist in defining the direction for future projects. They conceive strategies, solutions, build consensus, and sell/execute solutions. They are involved in all aspects of the project life cycle, from the initial kickoff through the requirements analysis, design and implementation. Additional responsibilities may include the establishment of the overall architectural viewpoints and the establishment and oversight of organization standards and policies. Architects identify major system interfaces, build e-business capabilities, and identify existing architecture weaknesses and opportunities for systems.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Solutions Architecture:

• Assists in the development of solutions that deliver capabilities to the enterprise.
• Analyzes enterprise business drivers to determine corresponding change requirements.
• Assists in the implementation of an ESA based on enterprise business requirements and IT strategies.
• Assists in defining the principles to guide solution decisions for the enterprise.
• Coordinates solution architecture implementation and modification activities.
• Assists in the evaluation and selection of software product standards, as well as the design of standard software configurations.
• Consults with application or infrastructure development projects to fit systems or infrastructure to architecture.

Architecture Roadmap:

• Assists in the analysis, design, and development of a roadmap and implementation plan based upon a current vs. future state in a cohesive architecture viewpoint.
• Works with Lead Architect to assure architectural alignment.

Architecture Requirements:

• Gathers and analyzes data and develops requirements at project level.
• Aligns architectural requirements with IT strategy.
• Assesses near-term needs to establish business priorities.

Quality Assurance: Analyzes information to evaluate the effectiveness of controls, determine the accuracy of reports, and monitor the efficiency and security of operations.

Standards:

• Supports and participates in developing policies, standards, guidelines and procedures.
• Designs standard software configurations.
• Promotes the EA process, outcomes and results.

Governance:

• Participates in the EA and domain’s architecture Governance process.
• Reviews exceptions and makes recommendations to architectural standards at a domain level.

Reuse:

• Identifies opportunities for reuse.
• Supports the development of architectural models or views.

Architecture Improvements:

• Analyzes the current architecture to identify weaknesses and develop opportunities for improvements.
• Identifies and when necessary, proposes variances to the architecture to accommodate project needs.

Architecture Compatibilities:

• Consults with project teams to ensure compatibility with existing solutions, infrastructure and services.
• Manages the design of systems.

Consulting:

• Provides strategic consultation to clients and IT teams.
• Participates in quality reviews and provides feedback.
• Advises on options, risks, costs versus benefits, system impacts, and technology priorities.
• Works with business leaders to understand business requirements and help them understand how technology tradeoffs influence strategy.
• Consults on business-facing projects and maintains knowledge of their progress.

Communications:

• Keeps IT’s technology and service managers aware of key customer issues, identifying and resolving potential problems and conflicts.
• Sells the architecture process, its outcome and ongoing results.

Oversight:

• Coordinates architecture implementation and modification activities.
• Assists in post-implementation continuous-improvement efforts to enhance performance and provide increased functionality.
• Ensures the conceptual completeness of the technical solution.
• Works closely with project management to ensure alignment of plans with what is being delivered.

Research:

• Researches and evaluates emerging technology, industry and market trends to assist in project development and/or operational support activities.
• Provides recommendations based on business relevance, appropriate timing and deployment.

Tool Selection: Identifies the tools and components used for a project from the approved enterprise toolset.

Finance:

• Recommends expenditures based on the size, scope, and cost of hardware and software components.
• Assists in developing business cases.

Chance Management:

• Recommends changes that impact strategic business direction.
• Supports change management initiatives.

Project Status:

• Collaborates with project management on reporting project status, issues, risks and benefits.
• Meets with project leaders to ensure progress towards architectural alignment with project goals and requirements.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Computer Engineering, Systems Analysis or a related field. Or equivalent work experience.
• Typically has 7- 8 years of experience in multiple IT areas with 2 - 3 years of relevant domain experience (data, network, application, systems, etc.)
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally, as necessary.
• Effective in written and verbal communication in English.

Preferred Skills, Knowledge and Experience:

• Requires advanced to expert level knowledge and understanding of architecture, application design, systems engineering and integration.
• Prior experience working with API driven architecture and integration stacks (Mulesoft, TIBCO, etc.) preferred but not required.

Source:https://careers.wvi.org/jobs/united-states/information-technology/solutions-architect-i/12643