Solution Architect

Job content

As a business, Hermes is driven by our four values of; Do the right thing, Dare to be different, Strive for more and Be customer obsessed. It’s because of these values that we are the UK’s leading consumer delivery service handling over 630 million parcels per year and still growing and our IT team help to drive that growth.

Hermes has undergone a significant transformation moving from a parcel-centric business to a customer-focused business. There continues to be significant investment into IT realising Hermes’ vision of being a digital business with data being a significant enabler for the Hermes Business Strategy.

As a result of our continued growth, the Hermes Architecture team have a brand new role for a Solution Architect.

Overview

As a Solution Architect, you will work alongside business sponsors, product owners and engineering teams following an agile development methodology.

The Solution Architect will take responsibility for the design and delivery of the solution whilst adhering to a set of agreed principles, guardrails, patterns and building blocks for use by the delivery teams; and assuring via governance and other stakeholder management it conforms to strategy and roadmaps.

You will be responsible as part of the architecture practice for developing the overall technical vision, providing technical advice and guidance, working closely with engineering to translate the requirements and aspirations of the business into technical solutions, whilst aligning to the long-term strategic vision.

Key Accountabilities

Contributes to the development of solution architectures in a specific business, infrastructure or functional areas. Identifies and evaluates alternative architectures and the trade-offs in cost, performance and scalability.

Contributes to the creation and review of the enterprise and business architecture which meets the strategic capability requirements of the business.

Takes responsibility for understanding client or business requirements, collecting and documenting data and information, delivering analysis and problem resolution. Identifies, evaluates and recommends solution options.

Adopts and adapts appropriate systems design methodology, tools and techniques selecting from predictive (plan-driven) approaches or adaptive (iterative/agile) approaches, and ensures they are applied effectively.Designs large or complex system components using appropriate techniques following agreed architectures, design standards and patterns. Identifies and evaluates alternative design options and trade-offs.

Investigates and reports on hazards and potential risk events within a specific function or business area. Makes recommendations and assesses and manages associated risks.

Reviews others’ proposed information systems designs, to ensure compliance to the organisations obligations and adherence to overall strategy & architecture.

Reviews the selection of appropriate solutions, technology, and integrations of multiple systems, either internally or through the RFI/RFP process.

Continually identify areas of commonality across the enterprise to optimise and revise where necessary to align against strategic objectives.

Ensures that the system design balances functional and non-functional requirements.

Contributes to the development of systems design policies and standards and selection of architecture components.

Implements stakeholder engagement/communications plan. Deals with problems and issues, managing resolutions, proposing or implementing corrective actions, lessons learned and the collection and dissemination of relevant information.

Collects and uses feedback from customers and stakeholders to help measure the effectiveness of stakeholder management. Helps develop and enhance customer and stakeholder relationships.

Acts as a trusted advisor providing specialist and technology expertise to stakeholders thereby facilitating the right decisions to be made or highlighting areas of risk where appropriate.

Providing consultancy services to internal customers and development teams by offering ’4th’ line support, strategic guidance, and ensuring architecture principles, patterns and design are realised.

Contribute to and maintain the common architectural repository and relevant architectural artefacts producing documentation of a high quality to enable decisions or drive delivery. Ensuring all decision points, building blocks, design principles, design rationale, roadmaps and all interdependencies are understood, documented and communicated, where appropriate.

Provides orientation, mentoring, and support for junior team members, new starters, and colleagues interested in Architecture by evolving the technology landscape through architectural excellence.

Potential for line management duties that will include but is not limited to setting goals, driving and reviewing progress.

Demonstrates the ability to work across multiple domains, on numerous projects, against challenging timescales, and different stakeholder groups.

Behavioural Competencies

The behavioural competencies within the Architecture team are aligned to the SFIA7 core responsibilities. The Solution Architect role is aligned to the competency indicator ’Enable’, which is SFIA level 4.

SFIA Levels are broken down into four areas; Autonomy, Influence, Complexity, Knowledge and Business Skills. These competencies are designed to clearly show a progression path within a role.

Technical Skills And Knowledge Requirements

The skill competencies within the Architecture team are aligned to the SFIA7 core capabilities and the Solution Architect role is primarily aligned to the competency indicator ’Enable’, which is SFIA level 4.

Knowledge & Experience

Has a thorough understanding of recognised generic industry bodies of knowledge and specialist bodies of knowledge as necessary. Has gained a thorough knowledge of the domain of the organisation. Can apply the knowledge effectively in unfamiliar situations and actively maintains own knowledge and contributes to the development of others.Maintains an awareness of developing practices and their application and takes responsibility for driving own development.

Works ons a broad range of complex technical or professional activities, in a variety of contexts. Investigates, defines and resolves complex issues.

Actively maintains knowledge in one or more identifiable technical specialism including participation in related external activities. Provides detailed and specific advice regarding the application of their specialism(s).

Supports monitoring of the external environment and assessment of emerging technologies to evaluate the potential impacts, threats and opportunities to the organisation. Rapidly absorbs new information and applies it effectively.

Organises knowledge assets and oversees the lifecycle of identifying, capturing, classifying, storing and maintaining assets. Facilitates sharing, collaboration and communication of knowledge.

Ensures implementation and records management policies and practices.

Takes responsibility for the accessibility, retrievability, security, quality, retention and ethical handling of specific subsets of data. Assesses the integrity of data from multiple sources. Provides advice on the transformation of data/information from one format or medium to another.

Technical & People Skills

Communicates fluently, orally and in writing, and can present complex information to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Publishes information content selecting appropriate channels and formats for the stakeholder audience. Maintains and updates content management processes.

Applies a range of analytical techniques in consultation with experts.

Performs research to build on and refine outline ideas. Collects and analyses qualitative and quantitative data as required. Creates research reports to communicate research methodology, findings and conclusions.

Plans, schedules and monitors own work to meet time and quality targets.

Familiarity with a variety of Enterprise Architecture (EA) tools, methods, standards and techniques, such as use cases, object-oriented analysis & design and selects appropriately. Provides advice and guidance to support adoption of methods and tools and adherence to policies and standards.

Designs software components and modules using appropriate modelling techniques following agreed software design standards, patterns and methodology. Creates and communicates multiple design views to identify and balance the concerns of all stakeholders.

Fully understands the importance of security to own work and the operation of the organisation. Seeks specialist security advice when required to support own work or work of immediate colleagues.

Communicates information security risks/issues to business managers & others.

Experience with analysis in an agile/ scrum team to describe requirements in terms of Themes, Epics, User Stories and acceptance criteria. An understanding of terms such as backlog, burndown, and velocity.

Knowledge of systems integration standards including ESB, SOA, JSON, XML, Micro Services, APIs and messaging solutions.

Knowledge & Experience Of Testing For Non-functional Requirements.

Knowledge and experience of build, deployment, change and release processes and automation.

Experience of web technologies, enterprise software platforms and database driven applications such as Java EE/ Oracle.

Experience of designing and deploying scalable, highly available, and fault tolerant systems on AWS or similar cloud-based technology.

Impact & Influence

Works under general direction within a clear framework of accountability. Exercises substantial personal responsibility and autonomy. Plans own work to meet given objectives and processes.

Influences customers, suppliers and partners at domain level. May have some responsibility for the work of others and for the allocation of resources. Makes decisions which influence the success of projects and team objectives. Collaborates regularly with team members, users and customers. Engages to ensure that user needs are being met throughout.

Assesses and reports on how different tactical decisions affect sustainability. Evaluates factors and risks that impact on operational processes and strategic direction.

Qualifications

Desirable - AWS Associate Solutions Architect

Understanding of TOGAF or equivalent Architecture Frameworks.