Enterprise Architect

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

This role involves designing and optimizing complex systems, applications, and infrastructure to support our clients’ long-term goals. The Enterprise Architect collaborates with various stakeholders and IT leaders to provide technology guidance, as well as define architecture principles, standards, best practices and guidelines, ensuring the efficient and effective use of technology resources. The role of the Enterprise Architect is to enable business and IT leaders to make investment decisions that balance and prioritize current operational demands, disruptions, and opportunities with the longer-term strategic vision of the organization.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, or a related field.
• Honours or Master’s degree (advantageous).
• Professional certifications in enterprise architecture e.g., TOGAF, Microsoft Azure Solution Architect Expert Certification (advantageous).

Experience and Knowledge:

• 10 years of working experience in the relevant industry and/or discipline.
• Ability to engage at Exco / C-Level.
• Ability to analyse As-Is landscapes.
• Ability to define Target Architectures.
• Ability to define Transition plans and Roadmaps.
• Ability to establish / implement Architecture Governance Standards and Structure.
• Ability to work with Client project teams to guide them through the EA process.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Develop and maintain the enterprise architecture framework and strategy, considering business goals, industry best practices, and emerging technologies.
• Provides overall direction, guidance, and definition of IT architecture to effectively support the corporate business strategy.
• Supports all architectural disciplines and champions’ architectural initiatives.
• Reviews existing business processes and establishes metrics to improve business processes, as well as support of all architectural disciplines under their direction.
• Collaborate with business leaders, stakeholders, and IT teams to understand current and future business needs and define architectural solutions that meet those requirements. Also assist in understanding business requirements and help understand how technology tradeoffs influence strategy.
• Create and maintain architectural artifacts, such as architecture diagrams, roadmaps, and documentation, to communicate architectural vision and guide decision-making processes.
• Evaluate and recommend technology solutions, platforms, and tools that align with the enterprise architecture framework and support business objectives.
• Conduct technology assessments, feasibility studies, and cost-benefit analyses to evaluate potential architectural changes or investments.
• Lead the design and development of scalable, secure, and reliable systems and applications, ensuring adherence to architectural standards and best practices.
• Collaborate with project teams to provide architectural guidance and ensure the successful implementation of architectural solutions.
• Define and enforce architectural governance processes, including reviewing and approving project designs and changes to ensure compliance with established architecture standards.
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with architectural decisions, considering factors such as security, performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Stay updated on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices related to enterprise architecture, and provide recommendations for continuous improvement.
• Provides strategic consultation to business and IT leaders.

Competencies:

• Enterprise Architecture: Strong understanding of business processes, information flows, and technology landscapes within large organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to align technology solutions with business objectives and articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders. In-depth knowledge of enterprise architecture frameworks e.g. TOGAF, Zachman and their practical application.
• Modelling: Proficiency in architectural modeling languages and tools e.g., UML, ArchiMate (advantageous).
• Critical and Analytical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to evaluate complex systems and make data-driven decisions.
• Active Learning: Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
• Systems Analysis: Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
• Complex Problem Solving: Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
• Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions, includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events.
• Communication skills: Ability to engage with C-level stakeholders, both verbal and non-verbal and communicate a deep understanding of the business and a broad knowledge of technology and applications.
• Technical Literacy: Possess a high level of technical literacy, which helps determine how a software solution fits into an organization’s current structure and assists in the development of specifications and requirements. Extensive knowledge of current and emerging technologies, including cloud computing, microservices, APIs, data analytics, and cybersecurity.
• Leadership: Strong leadership and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence and engage stakeholders across various levels of the organization.
• Strategic Analysis: Ability to translate strategy and strategic objectives into measurable and executable projects
• Project Experience: Experience working on large projects incorporating processes, procedures and standards.