Solutions Architect

Gauteng, JHB - Northern Suburbs
- Market - Related Annually Cost To Company (Market related)
- One of South Africa's Banking Giants is looking for Solutions Architects to fulfil the role of Subject Matter Expert and senior Advisor on all matters relating to Solutions Architecture for their respective product.

**Purpose Statement**:

- To conceptualise, design, and articulate, end-to-end and full-stack solution designs in relation to specific business value.
- To forge a link between the existing enterprise architecture and the solution design of any particular initiative, and guarantee the solution designed meets the company’s architecture standards and architectural vision.

**Solutions architecture conceptualisation and design.**
- Evaluate the business value requirements by consulting closely with internal stakeholders i.e., Product Head, Product Owners and Business Analysts, project team, and business leaders.
- Evaluate the ecosystem, non-functional and architectural requirements by consulting closely with internal support stakeholders i.e., Technology Services, Technology Strategy, Platforms and Enterprise Architecture.
- Conceptualise and articulate solution designs in relation to specific business value propositions and architectural standards and guidelines including but not limited to the following categories:

- SDLC optimisation
- Operations optimisation
- User interfaces
- Integration and interoperability
- Systems and bespoke components
- Data
- Infrastructure and Cloud services
- Safety and Security
- Compliance
- Reliability
- Business continuity
- Facilitate the creation of a delivery roadmap and work breakdown structure to help the team with the most efficient delivery pipeline.
- Coach team members on architecture within the SDLC.
- Research and analyse new technology trends and analyse how these can be used to support their product’s business initiatives.
- Maintain awareness of opportunities provided by new architectural and technological solutions to address challenges or to enable new ways / design avenues and new ways of working.
- Participate in the evolution of architectural standards and patterns.
- Responsible for facilitating adherence to the Bank’s enterprise architecture, architecture standards and architecture/design patterns.

**Product architectural health.**
- Monitor and report on the health of the overall architecture as implemented throughout product delivery from inception through to production operations.
- Identify architectural and implementation risks and advise on the implementation of corrective actions where risks are detected.
- Facilitate and participate in architectural reviews of new and existing solutions as well as vendor proposals.
- Refine architecture throughout product delivery.
- Actively collaborate in and contribute to Architecture Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and Communities of Practice (CoPs) activities.
- Share architectural health metrics with stakeholders along the functional and non-functional value chain.

**Stakeholder and design relationship management.**
- Communicate and collaborate to achieve alignment amongst business stakeholders and technological delivery and operations teams.
- Work closely with business leaders, Enterprises Architecture, CoEs and COPs, other SMEs, and vendors/external parties.
- Mediate between parties to resolve architectural challenges.

**Qualifications**:
Grade 12 National Certificate / Vocational + A relevant tertiary qualification

**Solution Architect I**

**Experience**
8+ years’ IT Delivery experience,
_including a minimum of_:

- 4+ years proven working experience in software engineering and development (Cobol and/or Java and/or.NET and/or Python and/or JavaScript)
- Experience in designing solutions but not necessarily fully independent for end-to-end and full stack design

**Ideal**
**Knowledge**
Solid understanding of:

- Banking business model
- Business process modelling
- Business analysis
- Cloud architectures
- Big data
- DevOps development culture and principles
- Various development technologies (Preferably. Cobol, Java,.NET, JavaScript, and Python ecosystems

**Experience**
In addition to the minimum experience:

- 4+ years’ proven experience as a Solutions Architect
- Financial Services experience

**Solution Architect II**

**Knowledge and Experience**
- Systems architecture principles (IT technologies and software architecture)
- Systems analysis and design
- Agile systems development processes (CI/CD standards and agile delivery methods)
- A solid understanding of modern software development environments
- Component-based and Service-oriented Architecture
- Designing and delivering resilient solutions
- Policies, standards, patterns, and best practices
- Financial Services solutions environment

**Experience**
- 10+ years’ experience in IT delivery, including a minimum of 2+ years’ experience in architecture.
- 4+ years’ experience in solution design.
- Experience must be in