Platform Architect-Cloud

Company
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Join the Solution Architecture team for Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, helping advance the FedLine™ network to support the next generation of payments technology. FedLine provides critical payment and informational services to thousands of financial institutions across the United States, and our solutions are designed to be secure and resilient to support approximately $4 trillion/ day in payments transactions.
This Solution Architect role is focused on the architecture and implementation guidance for the cloud platform that supports our suite of customer solutions. This individual will be working to establish the patterns for deployment, hosting, access, monitoring, etc., across all systems that are hosted in that platform, while also maintaining our security posture.
As part of their responsibility, this person will work with other architects, as well as staff in Platform and Product Engineering, our National IT infrastructure teams, and security architecture, to establish the roadmap for those solutions to fully utilize the capabilities of the cloud platform.
The Solution Architect is a technical leader responsible for researching, analyzing, proposing, and architecting requirements-based products and solutions that align with the business and technology needs of the enterprise. The Solution Architect collaborates with business stakeholders, technology providers, and other architects to develop technology and information architectures, strategies, and roadmaps. The level of work required is advanced and staff must be able to work under minimal supervision. This job does not have any direct reports.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Develops and maintains solution/product architectures for specific business areas in compliance with applicable enterprise architectures
• Provides oversight on the architecture and design of specific solutions within a line of business
• Participates in assignments concerning development of target conceptual and logical architectures for products and solutions
• Participates in project and architecture reviews to evaluate and ensure that the design being applied meets policies, principles, standards, and business/technology needs and roadmaps.
• Reviews and aligns product choices to ensure that enterprise architecture standards, service quality and availability, and cost efficiency are met.
• Maintains knowledge of emerging technology trends and utilizes this knowledge to design innovative solutions that support and drive business objectives and technology roadmaps.
• Contributes to the definition and analysis of requirements for the enterprise and applying available and emerging technologies to support tactical and strategic business objectives.
• Researches and recommends changes to foundational/target architectures.
• Evaluates products and technologies and their alternatives for use in proposed solutions.
• Builds and maintains a strong understanding of the enterprise's IT systems and architectures.
• Interfaces with stakeholders across the enterprise to evaluate new products/technologies and possible implementation of business enabling and cost-effective solutions.
• Influences and communicates with all levels of the FRS on business, information, and complex technical subjects and roadmaps.
• Serves as top-level organizational expert for at least one architecture discipline (ex. Business, Information/Data, Application, Infrastructure, Network, Security).
• Actively participates in FRS System level or cross business workgroups.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Your Background

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Software Architecture, Information Systems or other related fields or equivalent work experience
• Seven or more total years of experience in multiple information technology disciplines
• Three or more years of experience in solution/systems architecture

• Must have prior experience with cloud architecture, including migration into cloud from traditional data centers.
• Must have a working knowledge of encryption and networking.
• Must have experience with Continuous Delivery in a cloud environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to clearly explain options and alternatives, and rationale for associated recommendations.
• Ability to illustrate and communicate concepts in words and diagrams efficiently and concisely.
• Basic business analysis skills such as being able to create technical specifications from imprecise business requirements.
• Ability to abstract core elements or components of solution or business need and propose common/re-usable services.
• Broad knowledge of Information Technology Systems, with strong understanding of the relationship between business processes, applications, operating systems, storage platforms, security systems and networks.
• Ability to learn quickly and apply new knowledge in a fast-paced, business, and technical environment.
• Understanding of enterprise and service design patterns and best practices.
• Prior experience designing fault tolerant or self-healing data systems, highly scalable products or systems, and multi-tenant products and systems.
• Experience with Agile Development Methodologies and Practices, such as Scaled Agile Framework, a plus.
• Prior experience with banking/financial services/government systems, a plus.

What we Offer

• Comprehensive benefits package includes medical, dental, vision, prescription drug coverage, 401k savings plan, retirement plan, paid time off, transit benefit, onsite gym and subsidized cafeteria
• A learning environment with opportunities to gain new skills and grow your career Other

Requirements

• All Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and receive a booster shot within 30 days of being eligible to do so, unless the Bank grants an accommodation based on medical condition or sincerely held religious belief.
• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.
• This position has additional screening requirements due to the information accessed while performing the job. These additional screenings would be initiated at the time of offer acceptance and can take approximately two months to be completed. The screening covers areas such as education/employment verification, criminal history, credit history, and reaches out to your references and people that know you well.
• As a condition of employment, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago employees must comply with the Bank's ethics rules, which generally prohibit employees, their spouses/domestic partners, and minor children from owning securities, such as stock, of banks or savings associations or their affiliates, such as bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies. If you or your spouse/domestic partner or minor child own such securities, and would not be willing or able to divest them if you accepted an offer of Bank employment, you should raise this issue with the recruiter for this posting, who can provide you contact information for our ethics official if necessary

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. employment, you should raise this issue with the recruiter for this posting, who can provide you contact information for our ethics official if necessary.
Full Time / Part Time
Full time
Regular / Temporary
Regular
Job Exempt (Yes / No)
Yes
Job Category
Information Technology
Work Shift
First (United States of America)
The Federal Reserve Banks believe that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as an organization, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. The Federal Reserve Banks are committed to equal employment opportunity for employees and job applicants in compliance with applicable law and to an environment where employees are valued for their differences.
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