Senior Solutions Architect

GCI's Senior Solutions Architect is responsible for defining and communicating a shared technical and architectural vision to ensure the system or solution under development is fit for its intended purpose and consistent with intended customer experience. Focuses on business requirements and solution technologies to achieve specific business outcomes. Creates deliverables that develop the enterprise portfolio of target and current-state solutions in alignment with corporate strategy and goals. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AT ALL LEVELS:

 

Solution Architecture Engagement

• Elicit business drivers and business capabilities as solution context and identify the organizational and financial impact of solution options
• Understand how all parts of the business model work together including people, processes, and technology
• Describe the structure, characteristics, behavior, and other aspects of solution options, and recommend the best fit-for-purpose solution to stakeholders. 
• Understand business and technical limitations and constraints, and support business owners in making the necessary decisions to reconcile these restrictions with solution goals.
• Engage with business owners and project team to resolve complex organizational, technical, and business problems related to solution selection and implementation.
• Provide consulting support to technical architects and engineers to ensure that solutions are aligned with the overall enterprise architecture.
• Work closely with program management, project management, and release train engineers to ensure execution of plans corresponds with solution intent.
• Ensure overall solution and solution roadmap address compliance concerns, technical debt mitigation, risk reduction and continuous improvement.

Solution Selection and Design

• Provide specifications according to which the solution is defined, managed, and delivered
• Aggregate and reconcile technical requirements and constraints across multiple disciplines and departments as part of solution architecture development
• Analyze non-functional requirements and ensure solution selected and designed will meet standards and fit the existing enterprise environment.
• Review solution and define or call out dependencies that will drive implementation coordination.
• Document all solution architecture design and analysis work; update solution architecture repository as needed.
• Support solution retrospectives and help define post-launch operational support, including support models and KPIs.
• Oversee or consult on technical architecture design, modification, or execution activities, particularly for complex and/or shared technology solutions.

Guidance and governance

• Implement architectural guidance and governance tools, frameworks and processes. 
• Define the principles, guidelines, standards and solution patterns to ensure solution decisions are aligned with the enterprise architecture vision.
• Understand and apply industry frameworks to solution architecture, including TMForum and TOGAF.
• Engage in GCI’s overall solution and enterprise architecture community.
  • Takes initiative in communication and collaboration among remote and onsite teams.
  • Ability to accurately read, write, and respond to routine business correspondence such as emails, chat messages, policies, procedures, reports.
  • Ability to accurately communicate information virtually and in-person in a clear and concise manner to a range of audiences.
  • Ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively to all audiences.
  • Knowledgeable in the areas of solutions strategy and development.
  • Excellent organizational and technical problem-solving skills and resources.
  • Relentlessly persistent and positive in pursuit of good architectural decisions and direction.
  • Strong knowledge of current architecture methodologies and systems technologies and standards. 
  • Ability to translate desired business capabilities and requirements into solution architecture.
  • Excellent at timely and thorough architecture documentation and modeling.
  • Technology neutral and results-oriented, unbiased toward any specific technology choice.
  • Ability to research and gain deep understanding of various technologies quickly and thoroughly.
  • Basic knowledge of financial models and budgeting and able to estimate the financial impact of technical architecture alternatives.
  • Experience in architecture modeling techniques and tools (Archimate modeling language highly desired).
  • Application and engagement of Lean/Agile frameworks and practices.
  • Business process