Solutions Architect

Role:      Solutions Architect

The successful jobholder will be expected to:

• Use appropriate tools, including logical models of components and interfaces, to contribute to the development of systems architectures in specific business or functional areas.
• Produce detailed component specifications and translates these into detailed designs for implementation using selected products.
• Provide advice on technical aspects of system development and integration (including requests for changes, deviations from specifications, etc.) and ensure that relevant technical strategies, policies, standards and practices are applied correctly. Provide input to the strategic direction of technology investments to assist in the development of the enterprise architecture to maximize the return on technology investment, participate in governance/stewardship of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Microservices Architecture (MSA), Application Programming Interface (APIs) artifacts and definitions, including enterprise services, API management, data, business events/topics, contracts and associated publish/subscribe participants.
• Specify and design large or complex systems, select appropriate design standards, methods and tools, consistent with agreed enterprise and solution architectures and ensures they are applied effectively.
• Review others' and Vendor systems designs to ensure selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources, and integration of multiple systems and technology
• Evaluate and undertake impact analysis on major design options and assess and manage associated risks and ensure that the system design balances functional, service quality and systems management requirements.
• Contribute to selection policy for architecture components, weigh alternatives and identify the most effective solutions taking into account wider business context, explore a range of possibilities and creative alternatives to contribute to systems, process and business improvements and finally implement systems and processes that underpin high quality research and analysis.
• Monitor the market to gain knowledge and understanding of currently emerging technologies, identify new and emerging hardware and software technologies and products and potential value to the organization.
• Document policies, procedures and reference architectures on Intranet and communicate updates to appropriate staff. Provide best practice recommendations for project implementation and designing policies and procedures to support the recommendations.
• Attend code reviews to ensure that platform-specific standards and best practices are followed.

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Provide team support in project delivery; 

systems development, solution architecture Design, architecture reviews, architecture assessment, component development, ICT tools evaluation, vendor review, employs modeling as a framework;

mentorship guidance, manage team expectations, organize for one on one sessions and manage communication within the team with regard to timely project updates.

· Ensures that the solution architectures align with the roadmaps established by enterprise architecture, and that they adhere to the enterprise architecture principles.

Qualifications, Skills & Attributes

The successful jobholder will be required to possess the following qualifications: -

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Statistics, Actuarial Science and/or related fields
• 2 - 3 years' professional experience in IT solution 

architecture, development of APIs on Enterprise service bus (ESB), Docker and Kubernetes experience is desirable
- Solid grasp of design patterns and principles, particularly Object-Oriented Design (OOD), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Microservice Architecture (MSA) and Event-Driven Architecture (EDA).
- Excellent software development skills – Java, Spring framework, JBoss, Websphere Application Server, C#, Oracle databases, DevOps, SOA/ESB, Cloud based solutions (AWS, Azure or Google) Android, REST, XML/RPC, CORBA, Business process management (BPM), Active MQ, Kannel
- Experience on systems Core Banking Systems and integrations to Mobile money transfer, USSD/SMS, Omni Channel, Internet Banking, ERP, CRM and other systems in a financial services ecosystem a MUST.
- Familiarity with Unified Modeling Language (UML) and possesses knowledge of ancillary technologies in use at, such as Java, Eclipse, Oracle, or an ability to quickly learn any of these if needed.
- Possesses a strong customer service attitude, excellent communication skills, exhibits a passion for learning and continuous improvement. Takes responsibility for acquiring new skills and broadening knowledge
- Exhibits a commitment to the utilization of defined standards and processes with entrepreneurial flair with strong business acumen.
- High level of mathematical aptitude and strong problem-solving skills, logical, analytical and investigative mind, together with creative abilities, A wild duck  - out of the box thinker.
- Ability to handle complex information with accuracy and attention to detail.