Infrastructure Solution Architect at Absa Bank Limited

Job Summary

• To develop technical solution and architectures to problems and opportunities presented by Business, considering functional and non-functional aspects of such solutions and utilizing available technology assets.
• The role will act as the Solutions architect for major system projects and will provide technical direction and proposals to meet business requirements or cover existing functionality and designs gap.
• Additionally, the role is responsible for maintaining the availability and reliability of IT infrastructure to ensure that IT can effectively meet service targets in accordance with planned business operational objectives; to ensure that proper end to end solution design and functionality is achieved and released into the production environments.

Job Description

Key Accountabilities

Architecture design - 65%

• Apply relevant research methodologies, tools, and techniques to gather information effectively and purposefully
• Provide specialist advice and support in area of accountability to ensure that identified solutions and recommendations are appropriate and effective.
• Deliver IT architecture and Solution analysis services as per agreed performance contract
• Understand and apply existing best practice frameworks to assist in the implementation of identified subject matter processes and standards.
• Identify and recommend new innovative ways of achieving quality results
• Optimize the availability of the IT infrastructure to deliver cost effective improvements that deliver tangible benefits to business units and customers
• Provide a range of IT availability reporting to ensure that agreed levels of availability, reliability and maintainability are measured and monitored on an ongoing basis
• Take actions to achieve reductions in frequency and duration of incidents that impact Infrastructure Services availability
• Ensure shortfalls in Infrastructure Services availability are recognized and appropriate corrective actions are identified and progressed
• Create and maintain a forward-looking availability plan aimed at improving the overall availability of IT services and infrastructure components to ensure that existing and future availability requirements can be met
• Organize and maintain a regular availability review process with both key business and IT representatives
• Initiate and coordinate actions required to maintain or improve availability of IT infrastructure.
• Act as a coordination point for changes to availability levels of IT infrastructure when needed.
• Establish measures and reporting that reflect business, user and IT support requirements with regards to IT Infrastructure availability
• Participate in Change Control meetings to assess and authorize changes from an availability perspective
• Assist in SLA negotiation efforts from an availability capability standpoint
• Define the key targets of availability required for the applications and their components that underpin a new or enhanced IT application as the basis for an SLA agreement
• Analyse and review actual availability levels achieved against SLAs and OLAs
• Maintain an awareness of technology advancements and best practices that support application availability

Solution Analysis - 20%

• Translate documented business requirements into functional and non-functional technical requirements for development/implementation.
• Support project management and provide technical oversight on projects to ensure that requirements are in alignment with business strategies and business architecture roadmap/framework
• Translate strategic initiatives into delivery-focused change initiatives, while translating business processes and issues into effective conceptual and logical models.
• Reviewing development to ensure what is delivered is in line with technical requirements and business intent
• Set baseline through introduction of standards and working practices such as coding standards, design principles and tools.
• Experimenting by building prototypes, frameworks and foundations to be consumed by the technical team.
• Propose and keep a repository of solutions and architectural improvements.
• Participating in technology selection and identifying fit for purpose technology solutions.

Business Liaison - 10%

• Identify service needs for the Business Units represented to IT
• Escalate Business unit service issues to the Service Manager
• Communicate service status on service issues to the Business Unit
• Assist in SLA negotiation efforts with Business Unit(s)
• Report on quality of services rendered to Business Unit(s)

Risk Management - 5%

• Build relationship with country Technology Risk and Compliance team and provide support wherever required.
• Contribute and deliver to the improvement of the risk profile by delivering improved governance, risk management, controls and compliance requirements.
• Devise and implement an effective plan to deliver a satisfactory risk and audit profile for Operations & IT and achieve audit and assurance targets.
• Proactively identify solution design & delivery risk & associated mitigating strategies throughout the development / initiative lifecycle
• Apply the organization risk & governance frameworks
• Ensure solution designs align to the organizations regulatory, compliance & governance frameworks
• Proactively involve / engage chapter & guild leads in solution decision making, applying an enterprise-wide lens to product & service development
• Deliver on time & on budget (always).

People 10%

• Participate in peer & dev team reviews (code, solution, testing etc.) and transfer knowledge and capability across delivery teams for improved solutioning & evolving architectural practices
• Work as a high-performance contributor as part of agile delivery teams across the organization & continuously improve skills & knowledge in agile / other practices for successful delivery.
• Build & evolve the architectural capability of Delivery teams across the business through active coaching & information / knowledge sharing

Education and experience required

• Undergraduate or higher in Computer Science or any other Technology related field.
• IT infrastructure planning and operations experience
• 7 years minimum IT experience
• Experience in digital financial services from either Telco or Financial Institution companies.
• Experience in solutions development lifecycle management using waterfall, agile & hybrid methodologies.

Subject Matter Expert Qualifications

• ITIL Certification.
• Any cloud certification.
• Network certification – Specialist in Enterprise Design and implementations.
• Firewalls, switching and routing certifications
• Excellent understanding of Infrastructure.
• Minimum of 4 years’ service management experience

Knowledge and skills

• Translate Bus Requirements to Tech Solutions
• Cloud expertise
• ITIL - Governance Framework