Solutions Architect

About the role

Reporting to the Solutions Architecture Lead, the Solutions Architect (SA) is accountable for proactively and holistically leading or supporting activities related to the development of IT's Solution Architecture. The role involves creating deliverables that provide solution direction for supporting the bank's organizational and strategic portfolio of programs/projects, depicting current, transition and target state solutions. The Solutions Architect determines the most appropriate technology to resolve business problems built around enterprise architecture guardrails to aid teams responsible for project planning, implementation and operational support, and provides guidance to technical implementation teams and stakeholders as part of overall project delivery.

Key responsibilities

• Understand, apply and advocate Enterprise Architecture guardrails including architecture principles, patterns, technology standards and non-functional requirements
• Create and maintain solution patterns that serve as a reference for reusability and standard for applicable use cases
• Understand business drivers and capabilities and determine corresponding solution architecture and change requirements to deliver target business outcomes
• Recommend appropriate solutions and processes to improve operational efficiency based on gap analysis
• Perform continual assessment of current state solutions to identify technical debt and transition to new or emerging technologies
• Provide solution consultancy support to application and infrastructure owners to ensure alignment with overall solutions architecture
• Present and seek approval of solution architecture from defined approving channels and key stakeholders
• Work closely with solutions architecture lead, enterprise architects, program managers, infrastructure and security architects to ensure execution of architecture plans align with enterprise strategy
• Ensure actual implementation is aligned with defined solution architecture with no critical deviations
• Proactively identify, escalate and manage technical risks and issues of the solution architecture

About you

• At least 8 years of experience in IT software/services definition, build, and management
• At least 2 to 3 years of experience in Solution Architecture practice responsible for development of overall solution vision supporting business oriented or strategic IT-driven projects
• Understanding of solutions delivery lifecycle, agile methods and processes
• Proven capability to support project and delivery teams by providing guidance on opportunities, impact and risks
• Understanding of financial services, payments or insurance industry is an advantage
• Good understanding of strategic, new and emerging technology trends and practical application to business and operating models
• Good knowledge of application development, middleware, system integration, infrastructure, database management, data governance, security and IT operations
• Excellent analytical, technical and problem solving skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to communicate in both technical and business language
• Exceptional interpersonal skills including teamwork, facilitation and negotiation