Lead Solution Architect (Sandton) at Blue Label Telecoms

Description
Job Purpose

• Responsible for the development of Technology solutions and mapping the business requirements to systems/technical requirements to ensure they are in line with the enterprise architectural plans. 

Responsibilities

Team Management

• Engage with various leaders and Senior Manager Architect, to design solutions and create better enterprise frameworks
• Mentor and coach, the solution architects, promoting professional growth and skill enhancement
• Efficiently allocate team resources to optimize workflow and meet project deadlines
• Conduct regular performance assessments, offering constructive feedback and implementing improvement plans as needed
• Collaborate with HR to identify and attract top talent for the Solution architecture team
• Proactively address conflicts within the team, promoting a positive and collaborative work environment
• Implement effective conflict resolution strategies to maintain a cohesive and motivated team
• Facilitate regular knowledge-sharing sessions to ensure best practices are disseminated and adopted
• Encourage a culture of continuous learning and improvement

Strategy Implementation

• Collaborate with Senior manager enterprise to Develop, define, solution architect strategy aligned with overall business objectives
• Stay abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies to inform the evolution of solution architecture
• Lead the solution architects to develop detailed implementation plans for solution Architecture initiatives, considering timelines, resource requirements, and potential challenges
• Ensure alignment of solution architecture initiatives with the organization's strategic goals
• Establish metrics and KPIs and department objectives to measure the effectiveness of solution architecture processes

Solution Architect Support

• Limit choices available during development by choosing a standard way of pursuing application development creating, defining, or choosing an application framework for the application
• Recognize potential reuse in the organization or in the application by observing and understanding the broader system environment creating the component design having knowledge of other applications in the organization
• Subdivide a complex application, during the design phase, into smaller, more manageable pieces
• Grasp the functions of each component within the application
• Understand the interactions and dependencies among components
• Communicate these concepts to developers
• Assist Senior manager in the Review, develop and maintain the organization’s IT architecture
• Review and evaluate the current state of the organization’s architecture (‘as-is) in order to identify duplications, what is working, what is not working and measure the health of key business processes that are supported by the current architecture
• Build the transition architecture to connect the current to the future state by creating an iterative roadmap to get to the desired state
• Recommend and provide changes to the business in easily digestible iterative changes
• Work in liaison with business stakeholders to develop Business Architecture Roadmaps containing tactical and strategic initiatives to reach target business capabilities
• Identify and resolve dependencies and impacts across the architecture landscape
• Design solutions based on business requirements that align with Reference Architecture policies and standards
• Provide expertise in designing solutions for custom requirements
• Collaborate with internal/external stakeholders and conduct stakeholder reviews of architecture roadmaps and designs
• Assist Senior manager in determining Solution Architecture policy and standards definition and evolution and works with PMO to coordinate project pipeline management
• Engage relevant peers from other disciplines or domains during implementation of Solution Architecture/Design
• Accountable to build a defined life cycle around reviewing the future state enterprise architecture

Customer Centricity

• Coordinates contact with Business Partners as needed to assist with support activities
• Establish and maintain a positive professional relationship with Business Partners and customers
• Maintain regular and timely communications with Business Partners and customers
• Maintain strong working relationship with customers and Business Partners
• Work with customers and Business Partners to execute consistent service processes throughout the organization
• Establish a single point of contact for issue resolution and change management
• Drive customer centricity in levels of the organization

Work Collaboratively

• Build a culture of integrity, respect and understanding across the organisation
• Recognise outcomes which resulted from effective collaboration between teams
• Build co-operation and overcome barriers to information sharing, communication, and collaboration across the organisation
• Facilitate opportunities to engage and collaborate with external stakeholders (Retailers and POS Companies) to develop joint solutions
• Demonstrate ability to work and engage with various teams
• Demonstrate ability to communicate at all levels

Requirements
Behaviourial Competencies

• Assertive
• Analytical
• Flexible
• Tech Savvy
• Attention to detail
• Customer focused
• Evaluating problems
• Processing details and information
• Building relationships & Trust
• Communicating information

Leadership Competencies

• Ensures Accountability
• Managing others
• Allocating and managing resources
• Problem solving
• Demonstrate honesty and integrity.
• Develop people for long-term success
• Be an agent of change

Experience

• 8+ years’ experience Solution Architect role
• 3-5 years of leading the solution architect teams
• Knowledge of the relevant Information Technology governance and legislative framework (such as COBIT, ITIL, TOGAF, SDLC, ASAP, SOA)
• Strong Microsoft Office productivity tools knowledge (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook)
• Atlassian and Jira knowledge (advantageous)