M-Pesa Africa - Software Architect at Safaricom Kenya

About the Role

You will work closely with Agile Release Trains (ARTs) helping them implement enablers that define, explore and evolve our solutions. You will help plan and develop the Architectural Runway in support of new business Features and Capabilities by actively participating in Program Increment (PI) planning, System Demos and Inspect and Adapt (I&A) events. You will have an overarching appreciation for Agile Architecture in SAFe promoting a set of values, practices and collaborations that support the active, evolutionary design and architecture of our systems.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Intentional Architecture design 

• Provide software architecture and designs using industry standard notations, such as UML and Data Flow Sequences 
• Provide guidance for inter-team design and synchronise architectural implementation activities of systems
• Define a set of purposeful architectural strategies and initiatives which enhance solution design, performance, and usability 
• Provide guidance for inter-team design and synchronise architectural implementation activities of systems 
• Designing software architecture that enables testability, deploy-ability and releasability 
• System Design ie Create high-level software architecture blueprints and design specifications for applications. o Define the overall structure of the application, including the choice of frameworks, platforms, and tools.

Emergent design 

• Provide the technical basis for a fully evolutionary and incremental implementation approach helping developers and designers respond to immediate user needs allowing the architectural design to evolve.

Architecting for DevOps and Release on Demand 

• Ensuring solutions are architected for continuous deployment and delivery by decoupling deployments from releases 
• Defining a Minimum Viable (“just enough”) Architecture supporting the creation and evolution of systems and systems interfaces 
• Fostering architecture as code through common naming conventions, attributes and annotations 
• Build quality in by automating architectural compliance checks 
• Promoting and building trust in the Continuous Delivery Pipeline for Agile Release Trains to independently explore and test ideas in a true production environment

Support Alignment 

• Collaborating with Systems, Security, and Data Architects to ensure discrete solutions created by ARTs and Suppliers fit into and support the larger capabilities of the overall solution ▪ Participate in backlog refinement and prioritisation sessions 
• Define enabler capabilities and NFRs 
• Participate in regular Architect Sync sessions to ensure consistency in emerging designs and managing trade-offs across all ARTs and Shared Service teams

QUALIFICATIONS

• Science/Computer Science/Engineering related degree or equivalent work experience 
• 5+ years technical background inclusive of software architecture, software design, software development lifecycle
• Ability to read code and map code to Software Designs
• Producing High- and Low-Level designs (using industry standard notations such as UML) for Software Solutions required to run Tier 1 Business Critical Applications
• Expertise in deploying, configuring, and supporting Software into Dev, Test, and Operations environments 
• API and middleware design and build experience 
• Experience of implementation projects 
• Strong understanding of security principles, standards, and frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST, and CIS Controls. 
• Proficiency in multiple programming languages (e.g., Java, C#, Python, Rust).