As the Department Manager of Solution Architecture, you will build and lead a team of Solution Architects and collaborate closely with various stakeholders to drive technology solutions that enable and drive targeted business outcomes while adhering to architectural best practices and standards. Your leadership and expertise will be instrumental in shaping the solutions landscape of the organization. Your primary focus will be on proactively and holistically leading Solution Architecture activities, ensuring that the portfolio of solutions aligns with business objectives, architectural governance, and standards. You will build, mentor, and lead a team of Solution Architects to interpret business needs, assess technology, apply technology effectively, develop conceptual architectural diagrams, and provide enterprise guidance.
Strategic Leadership:
Develop and communicate a clear strategic vision for the Solution Architecture department aligned with the organization's business objectives.
Provide thought leadership in driving technology solutions that support the long-term goals of the enterprise.
Collaborate with executive leadership to ensure that solution architecture initiatives align with the overall corporate strategy.
Talent Development:
Build and nurture a high-performing team of Solution Architects by providing mentorship, coaching, and professional development opportunities.
Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement within the department.
Identify and develop emerging leaders within the team to ensure a robust leadership pipeline.
Stakeholder Engagement:
Engage with C-suite executives, business leaders, and other stakeholders to understand their strategic priorities and technology needs.
Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, providing insights and recommendations on technology investments and opportunities.
Influence decision-making at the highest levels of the organization to ensure alignment with architectural best practices.
Architectural Governance:
Establish and enforce architectural governance processes that ensure compliance with architectural standards and policies.
Lead the development of architectural principles, guidelines, and standards that shape the organization's technology landscape.
Provide oversight to ensure that architectural decisions and designs adhere to the enterprise's future-state architecture vision.
Strategic Partnerships:
Cultivate strategic partnerships with technology vendors, service providers, and industry experts to stay at the forefront of technological advancements.
Collaborate with external partners to assess and adopt best-of-breed solutions that align with the organization's strategic goals.
Negotiate and manage vendor relationships to optimize value and performance.
Risk Management:
Identify and mitigate technology risks that may impact the organization's ability to achieve its strategic objectives.
Establish contingency plans and resilience strategies to ensure business continuity in the face of technological challenges or disruptions.
Provide leadership in crisis management and decision-making during technology-related incidents.
Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, system analysis, or a related field required.
Minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience, experience in at least two IT solution development disciplines strongly preferred.
Understanding of strategic and emerging technology trends.
Familiarity with product management, agile principles, and development methodologies.
Previous leadership and/or management experience.
Must demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills, strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to clearly and effectively present complex information to all levels of employees, management, and clients.
Knowledge of various aspects of a technology architecture like integration, network, data, and security strongly preferred.
Knowledge of information principles and processes strongly preferred.
Understanding and knowledge of system development life cycle methodologies (such as waterfall, spiral, agile software development, rapid prototyping, incremental, and DevOps)
Understanding and knowledge of IT service management (ITSM) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) strongly preferred.
Knowledge of different modeling languages (such as UML and ArchiMate) strongly preferred.
Understanding of IT standards and controls
Understanding of application development methodologies and infrastructure and network architecture strongly preferred.
Organizationally savvy, with the ability to navigate organizational politics.
Knowledge of various backend development languages
Knowledge of various database technologies like MySQL, MongoDB and Oracle
Knowledge of various front-end web development languages like JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
Experience in the C4 model or related methodologies
Skilled at influencing, guiding and facilitating stakeholders and peers with decision making.
Ability to articulate new ideas and concepts to technical and nontechnical audiences.
Ability to understand the long-term ("big picture") and short-term perspectives of situations.
Ability to translate future-state business capabilities and requirements into solution architecture requirements.
Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and IT development teams.
Technology neutral: remains unbiased toward any specific technology or vendor choice and is more interested in results than personal preferences.
Motivated and driven by achieving long-term business outcomes.
Ability to work effectively in a team environment and lead cross-functional teams.