Principal Solution Architect

Additional Locations:
Full Time Remote - North Carolina

Job Description

Coordinate the design, maintenance, enhancement, communication and governance for solution architecture. Responsible for developing and reviewing key architecture deliverables, preliminary and high-level architecture models for software and infrastructure solutions under development. Develop and review architecture artifacts and manage adherence to architecture standards. Perform risk analysis, industry and technical trend analysis, vendor selection and oversight, and assist in defining strategic direction. Responsible for architecture leadership and must be able to expose and communicate enterprise opportunities across multiple corporate initiatives, provide leadership to the broader architecture community and to vendors, communicate at all levels of the organization and be a trusted advisor for the senior leadership levels of the company.

Those in the Senior Solutions Architect role may work in any of the following capacities:

• Serve as the senior architect on a given full Software Development Life Cycle project and vendor work; developing,maintaining and reviewing application architecture throughout the project. May include leading proof-of-technology activities.
• Serve as the senior architect responsible for the planning and design of both on-prem and cloud based infrastructure solutions. Drive adherence to existing and evolving security requirements to ensure a robust and secure environment for which to deploy applications.
• Serve as Project Lead Architect on a project team (PLA) (including users,developers and/or vendors), to plan, coordinate, analyze, design, review and implement application systems and/or enhancements to existing systems to meet current and future needs.

• Provide leadership in the development and adherence to all application standards, application portfolio strategy, service level agreements, and processes (i.e., Walkthrough and Approval processes, Program/System documentation, Status Reporting, Escalation, Change Management, Problem Management, Software Development Methodology, etc.).
• Ensure vendor work is accurately and thoroughly reviewed and also meets all applicable standards; identify gaps and/or opportunities in work to meet long term corporate goals.
• Contribute to and apply IT industry best practices.
• Participate in and/or lead a cross-functional IT Architecture group that reviews designs from an enterprise perspective.
• Participate in the design review process and support the overall Enterprise Architecture Management process. Also, influence and drive change to architecture processes, strategies and standards, as needed.
• Accountable for key design reviews and recommendations to management and IT governance, including: Selection and review of structural elements and their interfaces, by which a system is composed; Behavior as specified in collaborations about those elements; Composition of these structural and behavioral elements into larger subsystems; Architectural system that guides this organization; Architectural documentation creation and stewardship
• Support pre-project efforts in terms of working with the user team or vendor during meetings/presentations, crafting conceptual solutions, assisting with time estimates, and documenting designs.
• Develop Solution Architecture Models and Documentation (key written project deliverable) and/or oversee and approve the creation of architecture documentation.
• Provide technical expertise/coaching for others; facilitate the development and provide direction on integration design patterns around services and interfaces; and monitor application architecture related to other areas of IT, the business community, and outside vendors to ensure the relevance of architecture to meet business needs.
• Collaborate with the broader architecture community to provide input into IT strategies and standards.
• Research and facilitate the development and review of solution, integration, workflow, cloud, infrastructure (including software defined storage and networking) and/or web service standards.
• Provide architectural leadership that supports insightful decision making, drives efficiencies in the development process, and maximizes the quality of technical deliverables.
• Create or review IT plans that manage clear and realistic expectations of what technology can offer in terms of products, services, and delivery mechanisms.
• Establish, maintain and review enterprise architecture models to enable applications development and decision-supporting activities, consistent with IT plans.
• Support and mentor less experienced architecture staff.

Hiring Requirements
• Bachelor's degree or advanced degree (where required)
• 8+ years of experience in related field.
• In lieu of degree, 10+ years of experience in related field.