Integration Architect


Reference:
VAC-924
Job Titles:
IT, Telecomms and Communications
Salary:
£60,000 to £70,000 per annum
Benefits:
Extensive Benefits
Town/City:
Solihull
Contract Type:
Permanent

Description

Role Purpose:


To ensure company strategy is enabled by an effective Integration Architecture; achieved primarily through the delivery of IT Strategies that describe clear business enablement and technology innovation opportunities that gives IT and the wider business something they can easily understand, prioritise and activate.

This is a role demanding high standards and a robust approach to the management of technical risk. The role of the Integration Architect is predominantly to:

• design and own the Integration-specific aspects of enterprise & solution architectures
• govern the Integration process across all phases of delivery and day to day service
• provide quality assurance and provide technical leadership to a team of developers in the design, build, test & operation of Integration solutions enabling a consistent and cohesive team approach
• manage third-party relationships around end-point systems involved in end-to-end Integration

The Integration Architect will need to influence senior business stakeholders with the vision of how technology and our technology partners can deliver business goals using proven methodology and critical thinking that enables great communication and engaging relationships with all key stakeholders.

Experience & Skills Required:


• Experience as an Integration specialist or lead on at least one major Integration project and hands on experience of implementing at least 2-3 other significant Integration solutions
• Excellent communication & influencing skills with proven ability to lead teams and deliver innovative solutions to complex problems
• Experience in a broad range of Integration offerings, including but not limited to: Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Integration / SaaS and SOA service-based Integration, messaging systems, legacy Integration
• Understanding, and preferably some implementation experience of API Management toolsets
• Delivery experience of at least two Integration (cloud / on-premise) and API Management products (e.g. Mulesoft, WSO2, Dell Boomi, RedHat JBoss, SAP HANA Cloud Integration, Microsoft BizTalk)
• Good understanding of Integration and application architectures
• Ability to build vendor relationships and to manage third parties
• Ability to critically evaluate technical solutions and architecture from a business impact/value and IT operational delivery perspective
• Familiarity with the disciplines of software development such as configuration & release management and source code & version controls
• Have a broad knowledge of IT and deep, demonstrable expertise in at least one Integration technology
• Experience of software development waterfall and Agile lifecycles 

Specific Areas of Role Accountability:

Business Relationships

• To build and maintain strong working relationships with the functional leader base
• To have a broad understanding of innovation and strategy within the integration area which can benefit the organisation
• To ensure that the functional areas engage fully in defining the future technology strategy for the company’s IT, approving / contributing directly as appropriate

IT & Vendor Relationships

• To become a Trusted Advisor to IT stakeholders
• To build and maintain strong working relationships with all Strategic Suppliers and Benchmarking Organisations (e.g. Gartner)
• To drive the company’s vendors to provide maximum value in short and long term
• To have a broad understanding of innovation and strategy of each vendor to the benefit of the company
• To ensure that suppliers engage fully in defining the future technology strategy for IT, approving / contributing directly as appropriate

IT Strategy Roadmap

• Provide Design Principles to help the business with integration context when making decisions
• To help generate a prioritised roadmap of IT Strategies for delivery, based on a combination of Business, Functional and IT Strategies – critical thinking being at the heart of your contribution.

IT Strategy Delivery

• To ensure that IT strategy objectives are clearly stated and understood, the scope clearly defined and success criteria understood and agreed
• To identify business risks within the strategy and propose mitigation plans in order to eliminate risk to the company
• To lead approval of a strategy to ensure timely delivery by the appropriate team within IT
• To manage any spend with third parties associated with the delivery to approved budget
Innovation
• To build relationships with other CPG organisations for the purposes of thought leadership and / or lessons learned sharing
• To identify from IT industry trends, strategic suppliers and other CPG organisations innovation opportunities for integration internally
• To ensure that the company can achieve the maximum benefit from its existing Integration Architecture by reusing or further leveraging existing investments

Project Delivery

• Identify where Integration Architecture guidance is required and to secure alignment of any solution with the overall integrity of the Enterprise Architecture
• Design and own the Integration-specific aspects of enterprise & solution architectures
• Govern the Integration process across all phases of delivery
• Provide quality assurance and oversee technical teams in the design, build, test & operation of Integration solutions

 People and Financial Management:

• 4 - 5 reports
• Responsibility in helping shape the roadmap that will require allocation and prioritisation of capital and
resources

 Qualifications Required:

• Degree or equivalent