IT Solutions Architect – 12 months contractor

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Job Title: IT Solutions Architect – 12 months contractor
Location(s): Harlow or Glenrothes


Summary of Role:
The solutions architect proactively and holistically leads and supports EA activities that guide the development and management of a portfolio of solutions. Solutions include projects, products, systems (including applications, technologies, processes, and information), shared infrastructure services and shared application services.

The successful candidate will be able to develop a deep understanding of business requirements, goals, objectives, capabilities, value-streams, and processes. The solutions architect provides the necessary leadership, analysis and design tasks related to support the development of technology solutions to ensure that solutions meet business needs and align with architectural governance and standards.

Main Duties:
The Solutions Architect will demonstrate competencies across four key areas:

Translates Business Strategy and Requirements into Solutions Architecture
Understands business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determines corresponding enterprise system designs and change requirements.
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, market trends, and determines any potential impact on the enterprise.
Provides deliverables such as 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 Solutions Design and Analysis
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 high level architectural designs to guide and contextualise 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.
Manages and develops the architecture for a broader scope of projects or products, working closely with application architects that manage and design architecture for a single project or product or initiative.
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).

Orchestrates Solutions Delivery
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 organisational impact (for example, on skills, processes, structures or culture) and financial impact of the solutions architecture.

Facilitates and Collaborates to Deliver Business Outcomes
Works closely with the program management office (PMO) or project management office to ensure the execution of plans corresponds with what is being promised throughout the project or product lifecycle.
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 and programme 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.

Candidate Requirements:

Essential:
Skilled at influencing, guiding and facilitating stakeholders and peers with decision making.
Ability to articulate new ideas and concepts to technical and nontechnical audiences and understand the long-term ("big picture") and short-term perspectives of situations
Ability to translate future-state business capabilities and requirements into solution architecture requirements
Ability to propose and estimate the financial impact of solution architecture alternatives
Ability to work creatively and analytically to solve business problems and propose solutions
Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade others
Technology neutral: remains unbiased toward any specific technology or vendor choice, and is more interested in results than personal preferences
Displays intellectual curiosity and integrity
Motivated and driven by achieving long-term business outcomes
Ability to work effectively in a team environment and lead cross-functional teams

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