Principal Spec Digital & IT Architecture at Vodacom

Role Purpose

The Digital & IT Principal Architect role based within Technology.

Role purpose: 
The Digital & IT Principal Architect works with Business, Digital & IT stakeholders in Vodacom Group, the Vodacom Markets and Vodacom South Africa to develop strategies, roadmaps and continuous modernisation plans that enables the Digital & IT portfolio to support current and future business capabilities in alignment with the Vodafone, Vodacom and Tech2025 strategies and guidance.
With a deep understanding of Technology Companies, Digital Platforms, Platform Businesses and IT Architecture the Digital & IT Principal Architect drives the maintenance and evolution of the emerging architecture that enables the Digital & IT strategy and business objectives for Vodacom South Africa, maximising the value of technology disruptions into current and future capabilities.
The Digital & IT Principal Architect drives design, engineering, reuse, application of patterns, and create Enabler Epics for the architectures that comprise the solutions, fostering adaptive design, and engineering practices, and drive programs and teams to rally around a shared technical vision. The role will continuously assess, value and size initiatives to inform the larger CxO community and drive decisions related to the development of architecture runways for Vodacom South Africa.
 

Your responsibilities will include:

Manage architecture vision and roadmap in alignment with the Digital & IT Architecture blueprint from Vodafone Group.
Develop blueprints and roadmaps with Business and Technology as a key custodian of Vodacom South Africa Digital & IT Architecture.
Oversee and lead the design, development, and deployment of Digital & IT architecture practices, standards, patterns and innovations in alignment with Group guidance.
Scout new technologies and vendors to enable innovation and identify technical enablers
Manage innovation and establish the capability to monitor new technology developments and trends in the industry
Provide thought leadership on foundational Digital & IT architecture best practices and disruptive technology trajectory and implications
Definition of long-term business, data and IT architecture strategy and roadmap
Ensure that all target architectures conform to regulatory, legal and adheres to “privacy by design” principles
Initiating key programmes to align to the Vodacom target architectures

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

Deep expertise in Digital & IT Architecture strategies, frameworks, practical application, detailed design, patterns and its implementation.
Excellent decision making, analytical, technical, and problem solving skills, with high levels of creativity and a practical approach that is principle-driven
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to distil complex technical concepts into simple terms, with strong persuasion skills to gain support for principles, standards and change
Excellent relationship building, teamwork, and collaboration skills that enables the provision of effective support and guidance across programmes
Practical experience and knowledge of Digital IT Architecture and its application in Financial Services, Digital Services and Telecommunications
Knowledge of business ecosystems, Tech2025 and the Golden Rules, SaaS, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), APIs, open data, microservices, event-driven IT and predictive analytics.
Familiarity with information management practices, system development life cycle management, IT services management, agile and lean methodologies, infrastructure and operations, Digital & IT Architecture and ITIL frameworks.
Capable and comfortable with balancing time between foundational Digital & IT Architecture, renovating the core of the IT estate, ensuring efficiency and predictability and IT Architecture efforts concerned with business and operating model design, technology innovation, speed, agility and flexibility to achieve a unified and flexible IT Architecture that meets the organization’s needs.

Must have qualifications: 
Grade 12 is esssential
Bachelor’s Degree or National Diploma in Computer Science, Information Systems or other related field is essential 
A minimum of 8years +  deep technical experience in for example Digital Platform Engineering, Software Engineering, IT Architecture design, frameworks and patterns, Integration, Open Digital Architectures and Business Support Systems
Experience in leading large cross functional teams in a scaled agile setup, operating and influencing effectively across the organisation and within complex contexts
Experience in business capability modelling and technical and solution architecture development in a digital business context
Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders.

Closing date for Applications: 12 July 2021