Principal Solutions Architect at Discovery Limited

Key Purpose

Define solutions architecture and BI architecture and responsible for the overall portfolio of solutions for Discovery Insure.

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to

• Advise on the selection and use of appropriate design standards, technology stack, operating framework, data management, processes and tools and their effective application
• Analyse the technology industry and market trends and determine their potential impact on the domain and the enterprise
• Build a strong network among peers and internal and external stakeholders
• Co-ordinate design activity between the systems architecture, application development and service delivery functions to ensure consistency
• Conduct compatibility analysis with existing solutions and contribute to the organisation's enterprise architecture technology and vision, and ensure alignment with the group strategic architecture direction
• Define the analysis and measurement frameworks for compliance of major projects with the core architecture principles and regulatory standards
• Develop high-level solution designs compliant with target architectures and standards for their specific domain of expertise to support the end-to-end business solutions
• Ensure that all architectural artefacts are maintained in the most current state and never allowed to become obsolete
• Ensure that relevant senior management are aware of technology trends and developments, and advise them on the commercial implications
• Help to improve enterprise architecture design techniques and to promote the discipline
• Interface with teams from business process engineering, business analysis, software development, testing, integration, deployment, and support and ensures overall governance of development best practices
• Mentor internal and external stakeholders on the use of the tools, framework and artefacts
• Support the development of the solution by working with specialists, architects, and development team to oversee the development of the solution
• Work with business customers, business analysts, and senior management from a business perspective, while communicating the salient technology implications
• Establish an Architecture Steering Committee to approve and monitor projects and ensure compliance with Architecture guidelines
• Responsible for solving integration problems and synching technology frameworks across the organization's business units

Skills/Knowledge

• Advanced technical knowledge
• Strong systems, Infrastructure, Software Development, Cloud Development, DevOps practices and BI architecture background
• Business domain knowledge
• POPIA

Competencies

• Action orientated and full of energy for the things he/she sees as challenging; not fearful of acting with a minimum of planning; seizes more opportunities than others
• Is compassionate – genuinely cares about people; is concerned about their work and non-work problems; is available and ready to help; is sympathetic to the plight of others not as fortunate; demonstrates real empathy with the joys and pains of others
• Is inspirational leader who live the values and believes in the core purpose
• Treats others with care, dignity and respect
• Ensure that the business case prevails
• Has a bias for action
• Understand that people are Discovery's greatest asset
• Build an environment for optimal performance
• Set ambitious goals and implement the highest standards
• Is a master of communication
• Never stops learning
• Expresses strong beliefs and views, yet is open-minded and supports the chosen path of the collective

Education and Experience

• Matric
• Tertiary qualification in IT
• Minimum of 15 years’ experience within IT industry.
• Systems architect and/or BI architect experience
• Experience in Cloud migration from legacy systems to native Cloud Architectures and Microservices