Solutions Architect

Job Description

How Will Your Role Impact First Command?

The Solutions Architect (SA) reports to the Associate Director, Solutions Architecture in the BIS organization. The SA role focuses on collaboration and problem solving, ensuring that technology systems support the organization's business requirements and meet the needs of end users. The Solution Architect's primary focus is to work in conjunction with project teams to assist in systems design requiring integration with existing applications, systems, and/or platforms. The SA may be called upon to facilitate cross system discussions, develop specifications, and contribute to reusable design approaches.

The Solutions Architect requires knowledge and skills that are both broad and deep. To be effective the SA must have experience on multiple hardware platforms, software environments, and be comfortable with complex systems design. The SA must be a senior technologist who has been in design and implementation leadership roles on multiple projects throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The SA must be able to clearly and concisely communicate ideas and share information with executive staff, business sponsors, and technical resources in the vernacular of each group. It is imperative that the members of the Architecture team collaborate with business representatives and technical project teams, enabling effective and efficient solutions that align with the business objectives. The SA role will work to set and align architectural direction with business strategies. It is advantageous that this person has performed a variety of different roles within technology organizations and understands the intricacies of launching a production system.

What Will You Be Doing?

• Collaborate with technical, project, and business stakeholders to solve business needs and ensure solution architecture is aligned with business drivers
• Provide consultation and strategic direction within assigned area of expertise
• Help to develop, maintain, and communicate the enterprise application framework
• Champion the creation and adoption of reusable technology assets to improve effectiveness and efficiency
• Participate in development and review of the Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan for solutions in area of responsibility
• Participate in industry forums and proactively evaluate technology market trends for area of responsibility
• Ensure that all systems and architectural documentation are kept up to date with current and future states
• Initiate and facilitate proofs of concept to assess new technology, where and when applicable
• Produce high level system design documents to facilitate hand over to project and support teams
• Participate in design reviews to assist in ensuring uniform enterprise application design standards

What Skills/Qualifications Do You Need?

Education

• College Degree in computer science or information systems preferred

Work Experience

• 6-8 years of progressive experience in a technology environment, including application development
• 3-5 years of experience with systems analysis and design
• 2-3 years of experience in a leadership role (team lead, etc.)

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills required

• Excellent written and verbal communication with the ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Critical thinking and problem solving skills
• Self-motivated with strong sense of accountability, initiative, and the ability to work collaboratively to attain results that meet the business needs
• Ability to design major architectural aspects of an application covering all areas of architectural domains (User, middleware/services, data, and infrastructure)
• Strong understanding of network, computing infrastructure, software, and application development environments

• Must have strong knowledge of key enterprise applications and data flow

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