Senior Specialist: Data / Information Architect (x2) at The South African Revenue Service (SARS)

Job Purpose

• To provide expertise, advice and support in practice formulation and associated best practice improvement tactics, by being responsible for the application domain as a key domain within the overall enterprise architecture. This entails the design, creation, deployment and management of the organisation's application and software architecture and for defining and modelling the manner in which applications are built/procured, integrated and managed across different environments, for different business purposes to achieve effectively on organisational objectives.

Education and Experience

Minimum Qualification & Experience Required

• Bachelor's Degree / Advanced Diploma (NQF 7) in Information Technology, Informatics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering AND a minimum of 8 to 10 years' experience in Information Technology , of which 3-4 years at specialist level  

# Alternative

• A Senior Certificate (NQF 4) AND a minimum of 15 years’ experience in an Information Technology, of which 3-4 years at senior specialist level?

Minimum Functional Requirements

• At least 5 years' experience in an Application Architecture discipline.
• Experience and knowledge Enterprise Architecture frameworks, Toolsets and MS Office.
• Relevant Architecture Certification (Togaf).  Modelling and mapping technical skills.

Job Outputs:

Process

• Analyse and make recommendations about improvements to specialist systems, procedures, policies and practices. (I)
• Contribute to the optimum utilisation of org. resources, advising on effective planning and development of area of specialisation resource plans. (I)
• Develop a single practice area in alignment with operational activity and procedural frameworks and ensure tactical implementation. (I)
• Draw on own technical or professional expertise, knowledge and experience to identify and recommend tactical solutions to defined problems in practices. (I)
• Integrate business information, compare, analyse and produce reports to identify trends, discrepancies and inconsistencies for decision making purposes. (I)
• Optimise goal achievement through tactical strategy implementation and optimisation of practises, processes and systems across an internal value chain. (I)
• Plan for value-added, continuous practice and system improvements to deliver on objectives to enhance tactical implementation and excellence. (I)
• Proactively identify interconnected problems, determine its impact and use to develop best fit alternatives; best practice implementation solutions. (I)
• Recommend changes to optimise processes, systems, practice areas and associated procedures and execute the implementation of change and innovation. (I)
• Translate top-down policy, apply modification in relation to own practice area and communicate impact to relevant stakeholders. (I)
• Identify and investigate specific technologies, products, methods and techniques to assess their potential benefit to the organisation.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of emerging technology trends and developments in areas of interest to the organisation by reading relevant academic research, publications, suppliers' information, attending conferences, seminars and direct contacts.
• Take responsibility for overall applications design methodologies; lead the development of component specifications and detailed designs from applications architectures.
• Document rationale for key decisions (e.g. ARB decision records, technology evaluations) and disseminates guidelines to stakeholders.
• Coordinate design activity between the application systems administration, application systems engineering and service delivery functions to ensure consistency.
• Define application standards, catalogues, policies, capabilities etc. for approval via the appropriate governance structures i.e Architecture Review Board and/or Solution Review Board. Through multiple initiatives, drive the rationalization of the data environment for optimised strategic delivery.
• Develop and maintain the Enterprise Application Architecture blueprint and roadmap that defines SARSs target application landscape in line with the Modernisation Programme.
• Ensure that applications architectures balance functional, service quality and application system management requirements as indicated by the business strategy requirements.
• Establish standardised architecture frameworks, best practices, and design patterns (e.g. promoting interoperability, Digital by Design, security-by-design, reuse of services) to guide development teams.
• Produce and curate comprehensive architectural documentation and ensure knowledge sharing of architecture decisions.
• Produce multi-year roadmaps for modernising legacy applications (e.g. mainframe and bespoke systems) into modern platforms, ensuring phased implementation plans are aligned with strategic business priorities and emerging technology opportunities.
• Provide expert architecture oversight during solution delivery, ensuring that each project design is aligned with the target EA and SARSs modernisation goals and validates that the solutions design incrementally builds towards the desired future state and closes identified capability gaps.

Governance

• Develop and /or align governance and compliance policies for own practice area to identify and manage risk exposure liability. (I)
• Lead the enforcement of SARSs enterprise architecture governance processes to ensure all application solutions are aligned with SARSs strategic objectives and Modernisation Programme.

People

• Integrate new knowledge and transfer skills attained through formal and informal learning opportunities in the execution of your job. (I)
• Provide specialist know-how, support, advice and practice thought leadership in area of expertise. (I)

Finance

• Implement and monitor financial control, management of costs and corporate governance in area of specialisation. (I)

Client

• Develop and ensure implementation of a practice that builds service delivery excellence and encourages others to provide exceptional stakeholder service. (I)
• Participate in the specialist practice community and contribute positively to organisation knowledge management. (I)
• Provide authoritative, specialist expertise and advice to internal and external stakeholders. (I)
• Ensure that there are clear engagement models with all stakeholders, and continually and carefully manage relationships with stakeholders.

Behavioural competencies

• Accountability (V)
• Analytical Thinking
• Attention to Detail
• Commitment to Continuous Learning
• Conceptual Ability
• Expertise in Context
• Fairness and Transparency (V)
• Honesty and Integrity (V)
• Organisational Awareness
• Problem Solving and Analysis
• Respect (V)
• Trust (V)

Technical competencies

• Application Development and Maintenance
• Business Knowledge
• Computer Literacy
• Customer Relationship Management
• Data Architecture
• Data Collection and Analysis
• Efficiency improvement
• Functional Policies and Procedures
• IT Knowledge
• IT Project Management
• Reporting
• Verbal Communication
• Enterprise Architecture (IT) Proficient in - (Applied theory).
• Break down objects or ideas into simpler parts and find evidence to support generalisations.
• Compile component ideas into a new whole or proposed alternative solution.
• Can perform the actions associated with the skill without assistance and is recognised within own organisation as "a person to ask" when difficult questions arise regarding this skill.
• Focus is on broad issues;
• Capable of coaching others;
• Participate in senior level discussions regarding this competency;
• Has consistently provided ideas and perspectives on process or practice improvements;
• Assist in the development of reference and resource materials in this competency.