Finance Domain Architect at Boardroom Appointments

Key purpose:

• As a recognized authority of financial management and accounting solutions, the Domain Architect strategically advises on and drives the Finance strategy that underpins all business solutions, creates the architecture for these platforms and leads the realization of the architecture roadmap into the target state. Deep subject matter knowledge of general finance solutions including SAP and S/4 Hana and technical knowledge of SAP ERP architectures as applicable to the Retail business domain is essential.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Consult on the Finance strategy, develop roadmaps and reference architectures, and govern the technology selection in support thereof.
• Serve as the Finance domain architecture and design authority for all project and operational stakeholders, and ensure architecture quality across all solution platforms enabled by customer-facing solutions.
• Provide expert Finance guidance, ensure solution architectures and designs are in line with the Finance strategy and technology standards and conduct architecture and design reviews as part of the Architecture Review Committee.
• Contribute to solution architecture and design standards and SDLC governance requirements.
• Develop and maintain an understanding of the technology strategy and business priorities for Finance in the enterprise.
• Develop Company Finance landscape roadmap and blueprints in line with the strategic business direction
• Maintain, socialize and enforce Finance System standards, keeping technology stakeholders up to date with changes in the technology standards highlighting potential impact to the enterprise.
• Be clearly identified as the Finance Systems authority for all technologies and provide technical guidance and leadership in technology proposals, RFIs, RFPs, and project teams.
• Keep abreast of the latest Finance technology trends and emerging technologies, determine the potential impact on the enterprise, and drive adoption as deemed appropriate.
• Create and present reference architectures as advice on the Finance architecture strategy for the organization.
• Partner with the Enterprise Architect and other Solution Architects in support of the definition and development of the overall enterprise solution landscape.
• Detect critical deficiencies in Finance architectures and recommend improvements.
• Work with external service providers to drive projects to successful implementation.
• Review external and internal designs for Finance systems from a risk and technology perspective
• Ensure applicable Architecture and Design reviews are conducted for Retail solutions in line with the defined IT governance and processes.
• Provide architectural oversight and guidance to development teams to ensure high-quality technical solution designs during the detailed design, build, test and deploy phases that conform to architecture principles and standards.
• Mentor solution architects / senior developers / designers / business analysts.
• Define and develop the overall Finance architecture landscape in partnership with other Domain Architects and Solution Architects.
• Review proposed solution architectures ensuring alignment with architecture principles, the architecture framework, Finance reference architectures, set technology standards and identify critical gaps, and recommend improvements.
• Give guidance and advice to peers in respect to Finance solution designs ensuring the designs conform to industry best practices and standards.
• Engage all stakeholders to obtain agreement on proposed Finance solutions and work closely with business stakeholders, Business Analysts, System Analysts and Project Managers to architect and implement retail solutions.
• Define a framework for Solution Architecture and develop the policies and procedures and templates to guide and govern the Solution Architecture processes.
• Develop and maintain solution architecture principles and quality compliance criteria to guide technology decisions.
• Develop and set solution modeling standards and guidelines.
• Define a set of metrics to measure and report on the performance of the various solution architecture processes.

Qualifications and experience:

• Degree in Information Systems / B Sc Computer Science (or similar)
• TOGAF certification
• Working experience within the IT industry.- 10-15 yrs
• Working experience in SAP with at least 5 project lifecycles- 10 - 15 yrs
• An in-depth functional understanding of SAP Retail, SAP Master Data, Pricing, Procure to Pay, Order to Cash. Inter module integration and back-office Retail Finance. - 5-10yrs
• Retail industry experience with an understanding of retail business processes. - 5 yrs
• Understanding of different methods of SAP integration (ALE/IDOC, enterprise services, MFT, SAP PI, SAP CPI, etc.) - 5+ yrs
• Worked on projects across multiple applications, SAP and non-SAP- 5+ yrs
• Experience with all aspects of IT projects from business analysis, architectures, system analysis and design through development, testing, implementation, and production support (SDLC). - 5+ yrs
• Excellent design and architecture skills and proven track record delivering well designed complex enterprise class systems.- 5+ yrs
• Excellent technical development and be able to mentor others to improve their design and development skills.- 3+ yrs
• Identification and formulation of solution architecture and solution alternatives and their assessment. - 5+ yrs
• Demonstrated expertise in a variety of application development methodologies and practices. - 5+ yrs
• Experience developing and architecting object-orientated applications using multiple programming languages and paradigms - 5+ yrs
• Lead a team through an architectural development process and collaborate with application development teams, architects and other members of the software development team.- 2-3 yrs
• Experience with current research and standards in Solution Architecture.- 2-3 yrs
• Experience in high volume data and files processing, in a batch and real time, integration environment.- 3+ yrs
• Project management experience of mid-sized projects - 2-3 yrs
• Experience in defining IT Architecture strategies in the Finance domain - 3-5yrs

Job related knowledge and skills:

• Architecture and solution design (UML, OO, SOA, etc.)
• S/W frameworks and methodologies (Agile, TOGAF, etc.)
• Solid track record in successful delivery solution architecture
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and logical skills
• Excellent team-working, inter-personal skills
• Develop of proposals and excellent written communication & presentation skills
• Excellent organisation and facilitation skills
• Strong conflict management skills
• Commercial & business understanding of retail industry
• Understanding of SAP Retail applications: SAP Retail; SAP MIM; SAP PMR; SAP Planning for Retail; SAP CAR
• Understanding of SAP Financial applications: SAP Finance, Controlling; S/4 HANA; SAP HANA; SAP BPC; GRC (Group Risk and Compliance)
• Understanding of financial solutions in a non-SAP environment