| Job Description: |
Job Overview
The technical software architect provides consultative enterprise architecture services to agile product teams. They are assigned to support one or more product teams and provide a broad range of services to the teams from supporting product strategy to providing guidance on individual architecture decisions.
A technical architect must have a broad understanding of architecture domains (business, information, application, technology, etc.) and know how to apply concepts from those domains to the specific needs of their product team(s) while respecting the architecture principles and guardrails of the enterprise at large.
They provide leadership in defining the product strategy in collaboration with the product manager and product stakeholders and ensure alignment between the business goals of the product and the technical architecture that supports it. They support distributed architecture decision making through regular consultation with product teams, identifying architecture decisions to be made and providing guidance on interpreting the reference architecture. They help product teams proactively identify technical roadblocks, identify appropriate resolutions to those roadblocks and coordinate with delivery teams to ensure delivery of value to the business.
Scope of Activities
The product architect is responsible to perform activities across four key dimensions:
Define Product Strategy and High-Level Design
● Understands the context of the supported product or product portfolio within the organization and its competitive landscape.
● Works with enterprise and business architects to document the business architecture that the product or product portfolio supports, including business capabilities, value streams and business processes.
● Collaborates with product (portfolio) owner, product manager and other product stakeholders to create a product strategy, identify investments and create roadmaps that support business goals and align to the minimum viable architecture (MVA).
● Works with product team(s) to define and maintain the high-level target product and product portfolio architecture.
● Supports product teams to integrate technology innovation by identifying opportunities for proof-of-concept work to deploy new technologies that would support, enhance, improve or replace the product or product functions or features support Architecture Decision Making
● Works with product team(s) to identify architecture decisions to be made.
● Identifies critical architecture decisions that require alignment to reference architecture.
● Provides guidance on architecture decisions based on enterprise guidance from reference architecture when available.
● Works with domain architects (information, application, security, etc.) when deeper domain knowledge is necessary to support decision making.
● Coaches and mentors team members on architecture thinking.
● Works with architecture community of practice to familiarize self with current enterprise guidance.
● Maintains high-level knowledge of enterprise application and technology portfolio to support contextual decision making.
● Collaborates with other emerging architect roles that support product management, including product line architects, portfolio architects and platform architects.
Manage the Architectural Runway
● Works with product team to identify needed capabilities and features to enable product development.
● Collaborates with product owner and product manager to coordinate implementation of product-specific enablers.
● Coordinates with enterprise architects and portfolio managers to prioritize development of needed enterprise enablers.
● Assists enterprise architects with evaluation of emerging technologies.
Support and Coordinate EA Practices Across Product Lines
● Serves as a member of architecture community of practice.
● Contributes principles, guidelines, standards and solution patterns to the MVA based on feedback and lessons learned during product development.
● Escalates product architecture decisions that are not compliant with MVA.
● Works with enterprise architects and other product architects to coordinate dependencies and shared capabilities across product lines.
Credentials and Experience
● Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, system analysis or a related study, or equivalent experience.
● Minimum of five years of experience in at least two IT solution development disciplines, including technical or infrastructure architecture, network management, application development, middleware, database management or cloud development.
● Exposure to multiple, diverse technologies, platforms and processing environments.
● Good understanding of strategic and emerging technology trends, and the practical application of existing and emerging technologies to new and evolving business and operating models.
● Good understanding of product management, agile principles and development methodologies and capability of supporting agile teams by providing advice and guidance on opportunities, impact, and risks, taking account of technical and architectural debt.
● Experience working in a relevant industry is helpful, but not required.
● Experience developing architecture blueprints, strategies and roadmaps.
● Experience delivering presentations to senior-level executives and technical audiences.
Skills
● Knowledge of various back-end development languages like .Net, Java, Go and Python.
● Knowledge of various database technologies like SQL and Oracle.
● Knowledge of various front-end web development languages like JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
● Knowledge of various aspects of a technology architecture like integration, network and security.
● Knowledge of information principles and processes.
● Understanding and knowledge of system development life cycle methodologies (such as agile software development, rapid prototyping, incremental, synchronize and stabilize, and DevOps).
● Knowledge of different modeling languages (such as UML and ArchiMate).
● Understanding of IT standards and controls.
● Excellent understanding of application development methodologies and infrastructure and network architecture.
● Excellent analytical, planning, organizational and technical and skills.
● Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
● Ability to work with developers in an outsourced environment.
● Meeting/discussion facilitation.
● Research.
Competencies
● Organizationally savvy, with the ability to navigate organizational politics.
● 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.
● Ability to propose and estimate the financial impact of solution architecture alternatives.
● Ability to work creatively and analytically to solve business problems and propose solutions.
● Ability to quickly comprehend the functions and capabilities of new technologies.
Characteristics
● Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and IT development teams.
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