IT Solutions Architect at Safaricom Kenya

Brief Description

Reporting to the Software Engineering Lead, the position holder will be the liaison between business system users and the technical team in as far as building automated business solutions is concerned. The role holder will also be responsible for gathering, detailing, and documenting business requirements into solution designs for business users and technical developers. Propose ways in which the existing processes and systems can be used or changed to meet new business requirements as well as identify internal systems integrations needed to meet business requirements. They must have significant business knowledge and have one or more areas of technical expertise in software development, solution architecture and/or enterprise architecture. They are viewed as a solution expert and provide knowledge/counsel to software engineers.

Responsibilities

• Develop new user-facing features
• Carry out full business requirements discovery that includes interviewing relevant stakeholders and end users i.e., requirements elicitation
• Collect, classify, analyze and document business requirements as per set standards.
• Create solution designs to meet business requirements by exploiting the functionality available in IT systems already in Safaricom, or by filling missing gaps with appropriate new systems, in accordance with enterprise architecture.
• Lead a project team composed of designers and developers to drive the business needs and expectations by ensuring business intent is understood and delivered by IT.
• Ensure best practices are adhered to such as reusability, monitoring, performance, security etc.
• Collaboratively oversee the development of solutions as per agreed architecture, evolving them throughout the delivery in the face of changing requirements and feedback from the team.
• Collaboratively develop test-driven business requirements and functional specifications with business, technical, and testing team members.
• Participate in technical/functional evaluation of bids for new systems.
• Ensure sensible consensus is reached for all requirements/specifications and help business, IT, and test leads to have the same mutual understanding thereof.
• Liaise with other sections/departments in the delivery of services and projects as well as maintain good working relations between the Squad & Tribe team and all stakeholders.
• Provide support to the Business Unit by assisting in the development/reviewing/translating of User Requirement Specifications into a baseline BRD (Business Requirements Document) and building design documents.
• Promote proper release planning, guaranteeing adherence to business needs, change management governance and priorities.
• Follow a prioritization process that is transparent and understandable for all parties involved.
• Participate in innovation to improve delivered products and services and to explore new technologies and their applications to the enterprise space.

Qualifications

• A “hands-on software architect” capable of sharing software development experience with the rest of the team, which in turn helps them better understand how the architecture is viewed from a development perspective.
• Expert-level development in at least 1 language such as Java, Python, NodeJs, GO or .NET.
• Mastery of at least one Web Framework and for their language of choice
• Deep knowledge and use of fundamental database concepts
• Ability to run user requirement workshops and capture complex business requirements across multiple domains.
• Strong business acumen and leadership mindset with ability to communicate and influence others.
• Has analytical skills to picture an end-to-end solution derived from a design document
• Ability to drive initiatives without any formal authority in an ambiguous environment
• Exposure to multiple, diverse technologies and processing environment
• Certification in Solution Architecture, TOGAF and Certification in Public Clouds will be an added advantage
• Prior experience in ecommerce platform development will be an added advantage
• Prior experience in Agile ways of working will be an added advantage