Solution Architect

A solution is a combination of products and services that addresses a specific business problem and achieves expected business benefits. The Solution Architect is responsible for mapping business requirements to systems and technical requirements for the overall design of an information management solution.

The Solution Architect must consider both current requirements and future (often unstated) directions. Having this perspective helps to ensure that the architecture can adapt to changing needs.

The Solution Architect is an expert in several categories with hands-on experience in multiple industries and across several disciplines. The Architect has a broad understanding of Databases, a variety of hardware platforms including mainframes, distributed platforms, desktops, and mobile devices, and an understanding of a variety of Operating Systems.

The Solution Architect is self-motivated, has a track record in data integration technologies, is organized and analytical, adept at working in a dynamic team environment, and able to handle multiple priorities.

Responsibilities

• Understand Business Challenge- Clearly understand business challenges, their impact, and the type of solution need to effectively address the challenges.
• Innovate & Evaluate Potential solutions- Act as visionary, strategist, thought leader for a solution area, survey market for insights, directions, vendors, and conduct Proof of Concepts to evaluate options for possible future solutions.
• Create Solution Design- Design “best in class” enterprise solution to overcome a specific business problem, utilizing tools and technologies available in the enterprise.
• Standardize and Maintain Solutions- Participate in Enterprise Architecture Board Reviews (EARB) to present, evaluate, certify solutions to support multiple internal projects. Example- certifying Data Virtualization solution to support Enterprise Virtualization projects.
• Map requirements with Solutions- Identify existing patterns and guide teams on selecting the appropriate solution for the given constraints
• Facilitate Solution Adoption- Help Project Managers with implementation plan estimates and provide knowledge sharing and guidance to development teams.
• Develop Enablement- Ensure availability of team enablement materials, create training plan, documentation and best practices of various tools involved in supporting the solution.
• Help Internal teams- like Marketing etc. teams to develop materials and position strategies for solution area.
• Share Knowledge- Seek authorship opportunities like writing best practices, whitepapers, and blogs about the disciplines of Solution Architecture.
• Support Solution Piloting- Oversee aspects of project life cycle, from initial kickoff through requirements analysis, design, and implementation phases for projects within the solution area until the solution area is fully established.
• Facilitate Quality Assurance- Provide knowledge to the QA team to support quality control for services within the solution area.
• Participate in Technology Conference- Participate in conferences to understand the new trends and techniques available to build new solutions within the scope of the specific Solution area.

Qualifications/Certifications

• Ability to understand business requirements and convert them into solution designs.
• Understanding of industry standard data integration architectures.
• Understanding of enterprise integration tools and technical solution components.
• Strong Business Analysis and problem-solving skills.
• Familiarity with Enterprise Architecture Frameworks and Methodologies (Proact/Zachman/TOGAF or equivalent).
• Strong presentation and communication skills.
• Good judgment and pragmatic approach to delivering solutions that optimizes architecture activities across company needs, business constraints and technological realities.
• Be familiar with Agile (Scrum) and Velocity project methodology and practices.
• A team player keen to work with others at various levels across the enterprise.
• Ability to approach problems from a system view and visualize full picture solutions