Senior Cloud Platform Solutions Architect

GCI's Senior Cloud Platform Solutions Architect will overall be responsible for guiding and setting infrastructure service lines' technical direction and architecture in all aspects of the Software-Defined Infrastructure Life Cycle. This includes selection of the technology, product roadmap creation and maintenance, facilitating proof of concept trials, defining architectural runways and event horizons, identifying and articulating business value, and assisting with day two operations. This must be done while providing oversight and guidance to ensure software development best practices are used and aligning teams around a cohesive product roadmap. This role ensures collaborative, hands-on work with the various teams to ensure practical, well thought out solutions are selected, produced, and held to a high degree of quality, with a focus on customer centricity and business agility. These roles will not solely focus on departmental aspirations but companywide initiatives and work across multiple business units. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AT ALL LEVELS:

Align engineers, Release and Solution Train Engineers, Scrum Master / Team Coaches, and Product Owners / Managers to a shared technical direction.

• Elaborate the solution vision, validate technology assumptions, evaluate implementation alternatives, and converge on the final solution using architectural runways with defined event horizons. Define the solution context, its supporting infrastructure, and lifecycle processes. Communicate the solution context to the release and solution train engineers, those groups on the agile release train, and shared services, vendors, as well as suppliers (if applicable) to implement a viable solution.
• Provide an architecture that supports the strategic direction and collaborate at planning interval (PI) boundaries as well as during execution of the work to provide context, often in the role of Epic Owner, to align the organization to the value the solution delivers.
• Champion innovation and demonstrate technical relevance through Proof of Concepts (POC's) and Minimal Viable Products (MVP).
• Formulate architectural intent for the solution through experimentation, then define the architectural concept of the solution. Include critical technologies and their use, the structure of the solution in terms of its subsystems, and any other context necessary for engineers to understand the architectural intent.
• Define the architectural direction while fully understanding that the actual solution design will evolve due to the implementation and that the original architectural ideas will undergo multiple adjustments by being validated in practice.
• Achieve progressive exploration of the solution intent and context, based on learning milestones established on the architectural runway.

Identify and respond to technology-enabled business opportunities by providing a solution definition that is practical and articulates the technical possibilities that represent value to the business. 

• Define solution capabilities with an understanding of the underlying architecture and technological strategies for implementation. Next, plan the necessary architectural enablers to support the business value. Articulate the business value of the proposition.
• Evaluate technology tradeoffs by assessing various possible technology alternatives and implementation approaches. Seek a productive balance between the implementation cost and business value. Define compliance requirements and solution non-functional requirements (NFRs) based on the business need and necessary technology tradeoffs. Example NFRs are regulatory compliance and standards, security policies, and other immutable guardrails for the solution to adhere to.
• If a System Team is available, enable solution integration testing by providing guidance on the optimal development infrastructure. Assist the System Team with solutioning how to perform continuous deployment and integration using the infrastructure available. Verify with the System Team the solution adheres to the non-functional requirements (NFRs), particularly related to security and compliance.

Own the creation of the solution roadmap using a highly collaborative process. 

• Evolve the roadmap utilizing ongoing communication, coordination, and cooperation across different people and teams involved in engineering the development of the solution.
• The roadmap of the solution should match the reality and constraints of what the teams on the release or solution train deliver by relying on load versus capacity, flow metrics, and unforeseen impediments to forward progress.

Define and communicate architectural changes as well as their impact on those engineers involved in the development effort.

• Prepare and update the architecture vision and roadmap.
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