Solution Architect

Position Title: Solution Architect

Contract Term: 6 months with opportunity for extension

Schedule: Full-Time – On-site

Senior Level Position

Typical Tasks

• Leads cross-enterprise architectural activities to manage and simplify the IT landscape;
• Leads governance activities associated with ensuring solution compliance; confirms alignment of solutions with Enterprise Architecture principles and guidelines;
• Defines the principles to guide solution decisions for the enterprise; defines development guidelines and standards to be utilized in application development and integration;
• Leads the implementation of solution architecture based on organization's business requirements and IT strategies;
• Reviews business drivers and strategies, understands the implications to applications and interfaces, and identifies/mitigates risks to solutions;
• Approves modification of the solution architecture to accommodate project needs;
• Oversees ongoing quality activities across the enterprise; champions related improvement initiatives related to design quality;
• Consults with project teams to fit projects to enterprise architecture;
• Directs the research and evaluation of emerging technology, industry and market trends;
• Confirms recommendations are based on business relevance, appropriate timing and deployment complexity;
• Leads the development and execution of a communication and education plan for the IT solution architecture; responsible for the overall training and development of the solution architect team;
• Advises on options, risks, costs versus benefits, system impacts, and technology priorities;
• Champions the architecture process, its outcome and ongoing results; considers potential impact to solution architecture;
• Collaborates with other IT teams in the management of technical change, verification of testing results, and monitoring of technical standards compliance and deployment;
• Consults with application or infrastructure development projects to fit systems or infrastructure to architecture; collaborates in the evaluation and selection process for application packages;
• Develops methods to integrate systems that interact and extend across organizational and functional lines;
• Manages exceptions to architectural standards at a specialized/portfolio level;
• Contributes to the IT strategy and alignment to business requirements;
• Participates in IT system strategy development, including environmental analysis, opportunity identification, value cases and business innovation portfolio development;
• Assists in defining the principles to guide solution decisions for the enterprise;
• Designs the implementation of solution architecture based on organization's business requirements and IT strategies; defines models, including solution patterns for repeatable and reusable ways, to guide solution decisions;
• Develops the solutions viewpoint, in which business, information and technology viewpoints are synthesized into solutions that deliver capabilities to the organization;
• Analyzes, designs, and develops roadmaps and implementation plans based upon a current versus future state in a cohesive architecture viewpoint;
• Develops policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures;
• Identifies and proposes variances to the architecture to accommodate project needs; collaborates with Enterprise Architecture to find alternate solutions when necessary;
• Performs ongoing architecture quality review activities relative to specific portfolio;
• Reviews key customer issues with technology and service managers to identify potential solutions or improvements that are relevant to the solution architecture;
• Identifies the tools and components within area of specialization based on the enterprise toolset and can define exceptions as warranted;
• Serves as a team lead
• Provide knowledge transfer to County internal team members by leading knowledge transfer sessions.
Training and Experience:
Sufficient education, training, and experience to demonstrate the possession and direct application of the following knowledge and abilities.
Possession of a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Computer Engineering, System Analysis or a related field,

and

Fifteen (15) years of IT and business/industry work experience including architecture design and deployment, systems life cycle management, and infrastructure planning and operations. At least five (5) years of this experience must have been at the level comparable to the County's Solution Architect classification.

OR

Training and experience equivalent to a Bachelor's degree. Relevant analytical, administrative, lead, supervisory or management experience that includes interpreting rules and regulations, gathering data and formulating recommendations, and report writing can substitute for education on a year-for-year basis;

and

Seventeen (17) years of IT and business/industry work experience including architecture design and deployment, systems life cycle management, and infrastructure planning and operations. At least five (5) years of this experience must have been at the level comparable to the County's Solution Architect classification

Reguired experience and PREFERRED CERTIFICATION:
• TOGAF 9.X
• Archimate
On-Site Requirements: On-call help may be required.