Senior Enterprise Solutions Architect - NR Consulting LLC
Lisle, IL
About the Job
Role: Senior Enterprise Solutions Architect
Location: Lisle IL
Job Overview
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, systems (including applications, technologies, processes, and information), shared infrastructure services and shared application services.
They understand the concepts of business goals, objectives and business outcomes, business capabilities, value-streams, and business processes and their importance in solution architecture. 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. They create deliverables for managing the organization's portfolio of "to be " and "as is " solutions — including systems (applications, processes, information, and technology), shared infrastructure services, and shared application services and components to enable and drive targeted business outcomes.
Scope of Activities
The Solutions Architect will demonstrate competencies across four key dimensions:
Interpret Business Needs
● Translates business and technical requirements into an architectural blueprint to achieve business objectives and documents all solution architecture design and analysis work.
● 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.
● Understands business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determines corresponding enterprise solution designs and change requirements to drive the organization's targeted business outcomes.
● Example deliverables: requirements traceability document, business process/capability impact assessment (stretch), business process diagrams (stretch)
Assess Technology
● Monitors the current-state solution portfolio to identify deficiencies through aging of the technologies used by the application, or misalignment with business requirements.
● Supports product managers in end-of-life product decisions to maintain, refresh or retire services, or systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information.
● Understands emerging technology trends and disruptions and their practical application to enable new and evolving business and operating models (stretch)
● Analyzes the technology industry, competitors, and market trends, and determines their potential implications for a given solution (stretch)
● Analyzes the business-IT environment to detect critical deficiencies, legacy, and technical debt, and recommends solutions for improvement (stretch)
● Facilitates the evaluation and selection of software product standards and services, as well as the design of standard and custom software configurations.
● Consults with application and infrastructure development projects and products to fit systems or infrastructure to architecture and identify when it is necessary to modify designs to accommodate the solutions architecture.
● Example deliverables: Current state architecture documentation, vendor assessment for RFP, contribution to cost/benefit analysis, contributions to proof-of-concept implementation (stretch)
● Apply Technology
● 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.
● 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 (stretch)
● Develops a roadmap for the evolution of the enterprise solution portfolio from current to future state, as defined by the solutions architecture (stretch)
● Acts as a consultant on a broad range of technologies, platforms, and vendor offerings to drive targeted business outcomes.
● Creates architectural designs to guide and contextualize solution development across products, services, projects, and systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information (stretch)
● 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.
● Provides consulting support to application architects within agile teams to ensure the project or product is aligned with the overall enterprise architecture.
● Example deliverables: Solution documentation, enterprise target state architecture (stretch), application/platform strategy (stretch)
● Provide Enterprise Guidance
● Provides deliverables like standard definitions, reference models and architecture designs to support architectural governance to assess the impact of new and ongoing technology investment on the business and IT estate.
● Supports a community of practice (CoP), guiding and helping agile teams, product owners to align with the overall enterprise architecture governance and assurance.
● Designs and directs the governance activities associated with ensuring solutions architecture assurance and compliance (stretch)
● Defines the principles, guidelines, standards, and solution patterns to ensure solution decisions are aligned with the enterprise's future-state architecture vision.
● Example deliverables: solution scorecard, enterprise reference architecture components
Credentials and Experience
● Bachelor's degree in computer science, information-technology, engineering, system analysis or a related study, or equivalent experience
● Minimum of fifteen years of experience working in IT at increasing levels of responsibility.
● Minimum of ten years of experience in the following IT solution development disciplines, including technical architecture, application development, middleware, database management or cloud development
● Exposure to multiple, diverse technologies, platforms, and processing environments
● Good understanding of strategic and emerging technology trends, and the practical application of existing and emerging technologies to new and evolving business and operating models
● Good understanding of product management, agile principles and development methodologies and capability of supporting agile teams by providing advice and guidance on opportunities, impact, and risks, taking account of technical and architectural debt
● Experience working in a relevant industry is helpful, but not required.
● Experience developing architecture blueprints, strategies, and roadmaps.
● Experience delivering presentations to senior-level executives and technical audiences.
Skills
● Knowledge of various backend development languages like .NET, Java, Go and Python
● Knowledge of various database technologies like SQL Server, MongoDB, and Oracle,
● Knowledge of various frontend web development languages like JavaScript, JavaScript frameworks like React, Node or Vue
● Knowledge of various aspects of a technology architecture like Integration, Data, Application, Network and Security
● Knowledge of information principles and processes
● Knowledge of financial models and budgeting
● Understanding and knowledge of system development life cycle methodologies (such as waterfall, spiral, agile software development, rapid prototyping, incremental, synchronize and stabilize, and DevOps)
● Understanding and knowledge of IT service management (ITSM) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
● Knowledge of different modeling languages (such as UML and ArchiMate)
● Understanding of IT standards and controls
● Excellent understanding of application development methodologies and infrastructure and network architecture
● Excellent analytical, planning, organizational and technical and skills
● Excellent written and verbal communication skills
● Ability to work with developers in an outsourced environment.
Competencies
● Organizationally savvy, with the ability to navigate organizational politics.
● Skilled at influencing, guiding, and facilitating stakeholders and peers with decision making.
● Ability to articulate new ideas and concepts to technical and nontechnical audiences.
● Ability to 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.
● Ability to quickly comprehend the functions and capabilities of new technologies.
Characteristics
● Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and IT development teams.
● 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.
.
Location: Lisle IL
Job Overview
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, systems (including applications, technologies, processes, and information), shared infrastructure services and shared application services.
They understand the concepts of business goals, objectives and business outcomes, business capabilities, value-streams, and business processes and their importance in solution architecture. 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. They create deliverables for managing the organization's portfolio of "to be " and "as is " solutions — including systems (applications, processes, information, and technology), shared infrastructure services, and shared application services and components to enable and drive targeted business outcomes.
Scope of Activities
The Solutions Architect will demonstrate competencies across four key dimensions:
Interpret Business Needs
● Translates business and technical requirements into an architectural blueprint to achieve business objectives and documents all solution architecture design and analysis work.
● 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.
● Understands business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determines corresponding enterprise solution designs and change requirements to drive the organization's targeted business outcomes.
● Example deliverables: requirements traceability document, business process/capability impact assessment (stretch), business process diagrams (stretch)
Assess Technology
● Monitors the current-state solution portfolio to identify deficiencies through aging of the technologies used by the application, or misalignment with business requirements.
● Supports product managers in end-of-life product decisions to maintain, refresh or retire services, or systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information.
● Understands emerging technology trends and disruptions and their practical application to enable new and evolving business and operating models (stretch)
● Analyzes the technology industry, competitors, and market trends, and determines their potential implications for a given solution (stretch)
● Analyzes the business-IT environment to detect critical deficiencies, legacy, and technical debt, and recommends solutions for improvement (stretch)
● Facilitates the evaluation and selection of software product standards and services, as well as the design of standard and custom software configurations.
● Consults with application and infrastructure development projects and products to fit systems or infrastructure to architecture and identify when it is necessary to modify designs to accommodate the solutions architecture.
● Example deliverables: Current state architecture documentation, vendor assessment for RFP, contribution to cost/benefit analysis, contributions to proof-of-concept implementation (stretch)
● Apply Technology
● 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.
● 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 (stretch)
● Develops a roadmap for the evolution of the enterprise solution portfolio from current to future state, as defined by the solutions architecture (stretch)
● Acts as a consultant on a broad range of technologies, platforms, and vendor offerings to drive targeted business outcomes.
● Creates architectural designs to guide and contextualize solution development across products, services, projects, and systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information (stretch)
● 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.
● Provides consulting support to application architects within agile teams to ensure the project or product is aligned with the overall enterprise architecture.
● Example deliverables: Solution documentation, enterprise target state architecture (stretch), application/platform strategy (stretch)
● Provide Enterprise Guidance
● Provides deliverables like standard definitions, reference models and architecture designs to support architectural governance to assess the impact of new and ongoing technology investment on the business and IT estate.
● Supports a community of practice (CoP), guiding and helping agile teams, product owners to align with the overall enterprise architecture governance and assurance.
● Designs and directs the governance activities associated with ensuring solutions architecture assurance and compliance (stretch)
● Defines the principles, guidelines, standards, and solution patterns to ensure solution decisions are aligned with the enterprise's future-state architecture vision.
● Example deliverables: solution scorecard, enterprise reference architecture components
Credentials and Experience
● Bachelor's degree in computer science, information-technology, engineering, system analysis or a related study, or equivalent experience
● Minimum of fifteen years of experience working in IT at increasing levels of responsibility.
● Minimum of ten years of experience in the following IT solution development disciplines, including technical architecture, application development, middleware, database management or cloud development
● Exposure to multiple, diverse technologies, platforms, and processing environments
● Good understanding of strategic and emerging technology trends, and the practical application of existing and emerging technologies to new and evolving business and operating models
● Good understanding of product management, agile principles and development methodologies and capability of supporting agile teams by providing advice and guidance on opportunities, impact, and risks, taking account of technical and architectural debt
● Experience working in a relevant industry is helpful, but not required.
● Experience developing architecture blueprints, strategies, and roadmaps.
● Experience delivering presentations to senior-level executives and technical audiences.
Skills
● Knowledge of various backend development languages like .NET, Java, Go and Python
● Knowledge of various database technologies like SQL Server, MongoDB, and Oracle,
● Knowledge of various frontend web development languages like JavaScript, JavaScript frameworks like React, Node or Vue
● Knowledge of various aspects of a technology architecture like Integration, Data, Application, Network and Security
● Knowledge of information principles and processes
● Knowledge of financial models and budgeting
● Understanding and knowledge of system development life cycle methodologies (such as waterfall, spiral, agile software development, rapid prototyping, incremental, synchronize and stabilize, and DevOps)
● Understanding and knowledge of IT service management (ITSM) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
● Knowledge of different modeling languages (such as UML and ArchiMate)
● Understanding of IT standards and controls
● Excellent understanding of application development methodologies and infrastructure and network architecture
● Excellent analytical, planning, organizational and technical and skills
● Excellent written and verbal communication skills
● Ability to work with developers in an outsourced environment.
Competencies
● Organizationally savvy, with the ability to navigate organizational politics.
● Skilled at influencing, guiding, and facilitating stakeholders and peers with decision making.
● Ability to articulate new ideas and concepts to technical and nontechnical audiences.
● Ability to 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.
● Ability to quickly comprehend the functions and capabilities of new technologies.
Characteristics
● Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and IT development teams.
● 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.
.
Source : NR Consulting LLC