Solutions Architect Specialist at Absa Bank Limited

Job Purpose

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.

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: (Maximum of 6)

• Translate Bus Requirements to Tech Solutions (Solid)
• Cloud expertise (Solid)
• ITIL - Governance Framework (Solid)
• Strategic Thinking (Solid)
• Understand the IT service delivery within a corporate environment (Advanced)
• Negotiation Skills (Solid)
• Communication Skills (Written and Verbal) (Solid)
• Conceptual thinking, ability to analyse, make decision and initiate action (Solid)

Competencies: (Maximum of 6 competencies)

• Agile ways of working (Meets all the requirements)
• Business Analysis (Meets all the requirements)
• Solution Design and Architecture (Meets all the requirements)
• Commercial mindset - (Meets all the requirements)
• Creative and innovative thinking (Meets all the requirements)
• Openness to change (Meets some of the requirements and would need further development)