IM Specialist Solution Architect at Sasol

Short Description / Purpose of Job

• Translates the business priorities and vision of the Product Owner into technical plans and implementations and works closely with the Product Owner and the Business Analyst early in the Demand process and brings in the technology considerations and opportunities in the demand evaluation.
• Oversee the delivery of designs all the way through to transitioning.
• Architect and design comprehensive solutions that meet business needs in support of given Product(s) by translating those needs into solution specific architecture and designs to create solutions that are aligned to the Product Owner’s or Project stakeholders’ vision and also to IM’s architecture standards and principles, and that leverage common solutions and services, as well as meet financial targets.
• Participate in solution evaluation and selection, buy vs. build decisions, and early-phase project estimates which contribute to the business case and reevaluate benefits realisation as required.
• Ensure that the solution integrates into the existing IM environment, whilst validating that they are fit for purpose and sustainable to operate.
• Support ongoing and regular reviews to monitor delivery and contribute to changes in strategy, vision, or approaches in the wider organisation to ensure awareness of alignment of the Technology landscape with business strategy and technology investment.
• Contribute into high level roadmaps for solutions.

Recruitment Description / Key Accountabilities

• Support Product and Project Teams regarding architecture related concerns and direction, as well as alignment to overall IT strategy
• Design architectures based on specific business constraints, requirements and dependencies.
• Translate requirements into high-level and detailed technical designs (e.g. Conceptual Architecture, Solution Architecture and Solution Design) that satisfy customer expectations and technology standards.
• Contribute to analysis and evaluation of business needs, product capabilities, and costs & benefits of the solution.
• Design architecture components, including design and documentation of architecture relevant system or software changes or enhancements to all assigned systems.
• Work with developers to support clear and complete understanding of the designs as the solution is developed.
• Work with the Quality Engineer to ensure all Non-Functional Requirements and other technical considerations are included in the test cases.
• Partcipate in the planning and organisation of people, infrastructure, communications and material components of a Product or Service, in order to improve its quality, the interaction between the Product/Service and customers and the customer's experience.
• Design processes as required, to align with new solutions including determining the workflow, equipment needs and implementation requirements for the process at hand.
• Work with other designers and architects to make sure that the architecture components interact to fulfill the requirements and meet performance goals.
• Develop prototypes with the Product Team to evaluate solution options.
• Contribute to Sustainable Architecture Practices.
• Make recommendations for target architecture, architecture strategy and vision as well as process changes, and gains acceptance and buy-in for them.

Formal Education

• University Bachelor's Degree

Min Experience

• 6+ relevant years
• Supply Chain experience (preferable)
• SAP and other technology platform exposure

Certification & Professional Membership

None

Competencies

Analytics: The systematic computational analysis of data or statistics

Business Acumen: An intuitive and applicable understanding of how a company or unit makes money.  Displays a thorough understanding of what drives profitability.  Maintains a market-focused approach to business.  Keeps an overall big picture understanding of the business and its interrelationships enabling a person to make better business decisions.  The ability to make good business judgments and quick decisions in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome.

Collaboration: The action of working with someone to produce something

Critical reasoning: The action of critically thinking about something in a logical, sensible way and taking all factors into consideration.

Customer Focus: A continuing focus on the needs and requirements of customers and clients, anticipating their needs, remaining sensitive to customers while performing services for them, responsive to customer needs.

Execution capability: The underlying ability to execute a strategy/project or day to day work

Integration: The consolidated view with various parts, circumstances, legislation, landscapes or aspects linked or coordinated.

Partnering: The development and perpetuation of successful and mutually-beneficial relationships where customers and others become business partners with common goals, positive attitudes, cooperative work styles, open communications and team spirit.

Problem Solving: Is a step-by-step process of defining a problem, searching for information, and testing a series of solutions until the problem is solved. In involves critical thinking, analysis and persistence.

Project Management: The process of planning, organizing, and managing tasks and resources to accomplish a well defined objective, usually within constraints of time, resources, and cost.

Self-Mastery: Takes accountability for driving own growth through developing self-awareness, reflecting, seeking  feedback and self-correcting

Strategy: The direction and scope of an organization or subject (e.g., information technology, transportation, finance, marketing, product) over the long-term which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations.

Tech Savvy: Knowledge of the Information Technology Industry including trends, emerging technology, best practices, competition, regulations, and legislation.