Solutions Architect (Senior) at Discovery Limited

Key Purpose

• Understand and analyze business requirements and provide solution proposals based on a deep knowledge of current systems capabilities, as well as a broad knowledge of available industry-relevant solution components.

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to

Relationship Management:

• Builds relationships with key customer stakeholders in the Vitality global businesses in order to build trust that will help to ensure deliverables stay on track
• Builds relationships with key systems stakeholders within the Vitality Systems teams to create a collaborative environment in which all stakeholders can constructively work towards and achieve common goals

Requirements Analysis:

• Critically analyses stated customer requirements and acts as a consultant in providing considered feedback based on knowledge of business and systems environments in order to deliver exactly what the customer specified
• Contributes to the Business Requirements Document

Solutioning / Designing:

• Facilitate Fit\Gap analysis and requirements gathering
• Reviews functional design artefacts
• Creates solution design artefacts which include the proposed paradigm and technology, as well as providing priority ranking of the architectural system qualities (re-usability, performance etc.)
• Breaking down high-level system components into lower-level functional components for smaller teams to develop
• Identifies and intervenes to reduce the impact of risks on the delivery teams
• Engages with systems architects and development teams to ensure a smooth transition from the proposed solution into the SDLC and through implementation to final release
• Translate logical designs into physical designs taking into account the target environment, performance requirements, existing systems and any potential safety-related issues
• Making design decisions based on business requirements, which take into consideration functional and non-functional requirements of the system
• Facilitate migration planning to move from source to target architecture seamlessly
• Request Technical Debt Dispensation, if required

Coding:

• Implement the designed solutions in the required development language (typically Java) in accordance with the Vitality Group standards, processes, tools and frameworks.

Testing and Post Release Support:

• Investigate, analyze and drive resolution of reported defects
• Continues to be involved post-release in ensuring that the solution satisfies customer needs, both functional and architectural

Governance and Continuous Improvement:

• Participate in review board meetings to assess and provide input to new proposed solutions
• Ensure standards are enforced and are aligned with overall strategic architectural objectives
• Involvement in developing guidelines and standards and coaching through participation in internal forums to improve methodologies, internal processes and overall architectural rigor
• Research and development – conduct structured search and evaluation of market offerings and technologies to stay abreast of technology and competition
• Contribution to enterprise architecture competency
• Reviewing code to ensure adherence to coding best practices and standards

Personal Attributes and Skills

• Leadership & teamwork
• Negotiation skills
• Time Management
• Logistical Analysis
• Professional Communication (written, verbal/presenting and listening)
• Creativeness
• Innovation
• Stakeholder Management
• Tenacity
• Risk Management
• Conflict Resolution

Technical Skills 

• In depth working knowledge of Java language features 
• Knowledge of design patterns and the ability to recognize and apply them 
• Solid understanding of Object Orientated programming fundamentals
• High standards for delivery  
• Solution Architecture 
• Knowledge of different Architecture Styles
• Structured and analytical problem solver 
• Process Mapping 
• Software testing pack design, functional testing 
• Clean code thinking 
• Coach and mentor to junior teammates  
• Understanding of Agile principles  
• Knowledge of Mobile App Development

Education and Experience

Required:  

• Matric  
• Informatics Degree or Diploma advantageous  

Experience:  

• 10+ years’ experience developing Java applications and at least 2 of those in a solution/system architect role

Knowledge:  

• A high-level understanding of common frameworks in the Java technology stack 
• Spring 
• Hibernate 
• Junit 
• SOA 
• Microservices 
• Docker 
• Kubernetes
• Data Modelling 
• UML 
• SQL 
• SoapUI (SOAP) / REST client (JSON) 
• Kafka  
• Zookeeper 
• Zuul 
• Eureka 
• Obsidian 
• Kibana 
• FluentD 
• Git
• Bitrise