Solutions Architect - Robert Walters : Job Details

Solutions Architect

Northamptonshire (Hybrid)

Permanent Role: £85k Plus Car Allowance & Package

We have partnered with a leading supply chain & logistics business who are recruiting a Solutions Architect, responsible for collaborating with third-party vendors to ensure the design, development, and implementation of solutions that align with the strategic goals of the organisation.

Responsibilities of the Solutions Architect:

• Translates business strategy into solutions architecture which defines & develops IT solution/application strategies to enable the businesses goals
• Leads solutions design and develops and implements architectural principles, standards, policies and governance [Enterprise Architecture Design]
• Orchestrates solutions delivery and delivers advisory services and assurance to programmes/projects, driving prioritisation of enterprise-wide initiatives - ensures deliveries underpin, enable & realise business benefits [Technical Solution Design]
• Analyses and evaluates technology whilst driving continuous improvements [Architecture Authority]
• Understands business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determines corresponding enterprise system designs and change requirements to drive the organisation's targeted business outcomes.
• Understands emerging technology trends and disruptions and the practical application of existing, new, and emerging technologies to enable new and evolving business and operating models.
• Translates business and technical requirements into an architectural blueprint to achieve business objectives and documents all solution architecture design and analysis work.
• Analyses the technology industry, competitors and market trends, and determines their potential impact on the enterprise.
• Provides deliverables like standard definitions, reference models and architecture designs to help the architecture review board (ARB) assess the impact of new and ongoing technology investment on the business and IT estate.
• Acts as a consultant on a broad range of technologies, platforms and vendor offerings to drive targeted business outcomes.
• Leads evaluation, design and analysis for the implementation of a solutions architecture across a group of specific business applications or technologies based on enterprise business strategy, business capabilities, value-streams, business requirements and enterprise standards.
• Creates architectural designs to guide and contextualize solution development across products, services, projects and systems (including applications, technologies, processes and information).
• Creates reference architectures focused on detailed design principles, decision points, detailed APIs, major systems and dependencies between business and IT.
• Analyses the business-IT environment (run, grow and transform the business) to detect critical deficiencies, legacy and technical debt, and recommends solutions for improvement (systems of record, differentiation and innovation).
• Designs and directs the governance activities associated with ensuring solutions architecture assurance and compliance.
• Defines the principles, guidelines, standards and solution patterns to ensure solution decisions are aligned with the enterprise's future-state architecture vision.
• Facilitates the evaluation and selection of software product standards and services, as well as the design of standard and custom software configurations.
• Supports product managers in EOL (end of life) product decisions to maintain, refresh or retire products, services or systems (including applications, technologies, processes and information).
• Develops a roadmap for the evolution of the enterprise application portfolio from future to current state (as defined by the solutions architecture).
• Monitors the current-state solution portfolio to identify deficiencies through aging of the technologies used by the application, or misalignment with business requirements.
• Identifies the organizational impact (for example, on skills, processes, structures or culture) and financial impact of the solutions architecture.
• Works closely with the product owners and product managers to ensure a robust architectural runway that can support future business requirements throughout the product lifecycle.
• Provides consulting support to application architects within agile teams to ensure the project or product is aligned with the overall enterprise architecture.
• Consults with application and infrastructure development projects and products to fit systems or infrastructure to architecture and identify when it is necessary to modify projects to accommodate the solutions architecture.
• Supports a community of practice (CoP), guiding and helping agile teams, product owners, and application architects to align with the overall enterprise architecture governance and assurance.

Requirements for the Solutions Architect:

• SAP experience is essential
• Logistics/Supply Chain experience is preferred but not essential
• Degree education, ideally within in computer science, information-technology, system analysis or a related study, or equivalent experience
• Minimum five years of design and implementation experience in IT, with a deep knowledge in a minimum of two of the following technical disciplines: application development, application programming interfaces (APIs), middleware, database management and cloud technologies
• Good experience of IT Architecture (and underlying frameworks such as TOGAF) including the development (and ensuring adherence to) architecture principles and standards
• Solid understanding of product management, agile principles and development methodologies and capability of supporting agile teams by providing advice and guidance on opportunities, impact and risks, taking account of technical and architectural debt
• Good understanding of strategic and new and emerging technology trends, and the practical application of existing, new and emerging technologies to new and evolving business and operating models
• Experience developing architecture blueprints, strategies and roadmaps essential
• Experience delivering presentations to senior-level executives and technical audiences essential

Robert Walters Operations Limited is an employment business and employment agency and welcomes applications from all candidates