Title : Senior IT Architect and Delivery Lead-62909 (NeDHHS)

Location: Lincoln, NE

24 months contract

Job Type : C

Job Overview:

The Senior IT Architect will be responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining the cloud delivery team s IT infrastructure to support the holistic development and management of assigned projects and programs.

This role requires a deep understanding of IT systems, architecture frameworks, and best practices as well as projects, products, systems, shared infrastructure services, and shared application services. The ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker with strong technical expertise and the ability to lead complex projects to support the development of technology solutions that align with architectural governance and standards.

Scope of Activities:

The Sr. IT Architect will demonstrate competencies across four key dimensions:

Translates Business Strategy into Solutions Architecture

• Understands business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determines corresponding enterprise system designs and change requirements to drive the organization's targeted business outcomes.
• Understands emerging technology trends and disruptions and the practical application of existing, new, and emerging technologies to enable new and evolving business and operating models.
• Translates business and technical requirements into an architectural blueprint to achieve business objectives and creates and maintains architectural documentation, including blueprints, roadmaps, and diagrams.
• Provides deliverables like standard definitions, reference models and architecture designs to help the architecture review board (ARB) assess the impact of new and ongoing technology investment on the business and IT estate.
• Acts as a consultant on a broad range of technologies, platforms and vendor offerings to drive targeted business outcomes.

Leads Solutions Design and Analysis

• Leads evaluation, design and analysis for the implementation of a solutions architecture across a group of specific business applications or technologies as well as providing guidance and mentorship to the IT teams in those applications.
• Creates architectural designs to guide and contextualize solution development across products, services, projects, and systems (including applications, technologies, processes and information).
• Creates reference architectures focused on detailed design principles, decision points, detailed APIs, major systems and dependencies between business and IT.
• Manages and develops the architecture for a broader scope of projects or products, working closely with application architects that manage and design architecture for a single project or product or initiative.
• Analyzes the business-IT environment (run, grow and transform the business) to detect critical deficiencies, legacy and technical debt, and recommends solutions for improvement (systems of record, differentiation and innovation).
• Experience in leading and successfully implementing architecture for large complex solutions

Orchestrates Technology Delivery

• Designs and directs the governance activities associated with ensuring solutions architecture assurance and compliance.
• Defines the principles, guidelines, standards and solution patterns to ensure solution decisions are aligned with the enterprise's future-state architecture vision.
• Facilitates the evaluation and selection of software product standards and services, as well as the design of standard and custom software configurations.
• Supports EOL (end of life) product decisions to maintain, refresh or retire products, services or systems (including applications, technologies, processes and information).
• Monitors the current-state solution portfolio to identify deficiencies through aging of the technologies used by the application, or misalignment with business direction.
• Identifies the organizational impact (for example, on skills, processes, structures or culture) and financial impact of the solutions architecture.
• Ensure IT systems and infrastructure comply with industry standards and regulatory requirements to support robust security measures that protect agency data and systems as well as conduct regular related security assessments and audits.

Facilitates and Collaborates to Deliver Outcomes

• Communicates complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders effectively to ensure the execution of plans corresponds with what is being promised throughout the project or product lifecycle.
• Ensures a robust architectural runway that can support future business requirements throughout the product lifecycle.
• Provides consulting support to application architects within teams to ensure the project or product is aligned with the overall enterprise architecture.
• Consults with application and infrastructure development projects and products to fit systems or infrastructure to architecture and identify when it is necessary to modify projects to accommodate the architecture.

Required Credentials and Experience:

• Bachelor's or Master s degree in computer science, information-technology, engineering, system analysis or a related study, or equivalent experience
• Minimum of ten years of experience in at least two IT solution development disciplines, including technical or infrastructure architecture, network management, application development, middleware, database management or cloud development
• Exposure to multiple, diverse technologies, platforms and processing environments as well as proficiency in software development methodologies, tools, and emerging trends.
• Strong knowledge of cloud computing, virtualization, networking, and security.
• Excellent analytical, decision making, communication, and interpersonal skills.

Preferred Credentials and Experience:

• Experience working in a relevant industry
• Experience developing architecture blueprints, strategies and roadmaps
• Experience delivering presentations to senior-level executives and technical audiences
• Relevant certifications and training

Skills:

• Knowledge of various development languages including Java/JavaScript, HTML, and React
• Knowledge of various database technologies like Cosmos, MySQL, MongoDB and Oracle
• Knowledge of various aspects of an enterprise technology architecture like business, information, data, network and security
• Understanding and knowledge of system development life cycle methodologies (such as waterfall, spiral, agile software development, rapid prototyping, incremental, synchronize and stabilize, and DevOps)
• Excellent understanding of application development methodologies and infrastructure and network architecture
• Ability to work with developers in an in-and-out outsourced environment

Competencies

• Organizationally savvy, with the ability to navigate organizational politics.
• Skilled at influencing, guiding and facilitating stakeholders and peers with decision making.
• Ability to articulate new ideas and concepts to technical and nontechnical audiences
• Ability to understand the long-term ("big picture") and short-term perspectives of situations
• Ability to translate future-state business capabilities and requirements into solution architecture requirements
• Ability to propose and estimate the financial impact of solution architecture alternatives
• Ability to work creatively and analytically to solve business problems and propose Solutions
• Ability to quickly comprehend the functions and capabilities of new technologies

Characteristics

• Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and IT development teams.
• Technology neutral: remains unbiased toward any specific technology or vendor choice, and is more interested in results than personal preferences
• Displays intellectual curiosity and integrity
• Motivated and driven by achieving long-term business outcomes
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment and lead cross-functional remote/virtual teams