What are the responsibilities and job description for the Systems Architect position at WSSC Water?
This is a non-merit system, eemployment-at-will, long-term contract position.
The Systems Architect is responsible for managing a variety of infrastructure platforms with a good understanding of cloud technologies, virtualization and converged infrastructures, networking, and related software. He/she will design and standardize the Commission infrastructure and provide strategic coordination and tactical governance. The incumbent must understand the Commission’s business and be able to dive deeply into technology issues to define the IT systems architecture that supports the Commission’s and CIO’s strategy. The Systems Architect partners with technical and business groups to ensure that IT system performance standards adhere to enterprise service level agreements. He/she advises the CIO and IT management about technology trends and best practices. They are also responsible for providing subject matter expertise across technology/functions to drive implementation of technology strategy and roadmap direction and works closely with technical leads to build system infrastructure and application solutions.
Essential Functions
- Understands, helps to refine, advocates for, and supports the implementation of WSSC Water’s overall IT strategic plan that includes both business projects and IT foundational projects
- Helps promote innovation and the use of technology to optimize business processes and enhance informed decision-making
- Works with vendors to evaluate various technologies including setting up Proof of Concept (POC), evaluation criteria, managing professional services resources for design, architecture and implementation
- Presents architectural design concepts and solutions to all levels in the organization as well as works with all stakeholders to build consensus and drive decision making
- Collaborates with technical team and actively involves key stakeholders in selecting the infrastructure framework
- Defines, establishes, and implements technology migration strategies for applications or architectures
- Provides analytical and systems expertise in a broad range of disciplines to support the design, installation and maintenance of technology solutions across the enterprise to meet business needs
- Develops and facilitates strategies in the area of systems, data and application integration, ensuring that interfaces are properly identified, designed, and implemented
- Participates in the holistic solution definition across all architecture domains
- Analyzes the current business and IT environment to identify critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement
- Analyzes industry, technology and market trends to determine their potential impact on the enterprise; recommends solutions that aligns with the business strategy
- Consults with program/project teams to fit solutions to architecture across all viewpoints
- Identifies organizational requirements for the resources, structures and cultural changes necessary to support the architecture
Other Functions
- Works collaboratively across enterprise to build a roadmap defining how the organization will migrate to the envisioned future state architecture over time
- Serves as the subject matter expert and advisor on technology strategies and recommendations to promote best practices and ensure alignment with the future state architecture
- Participates in architectural efforts at all levels and continuously assesses project architecture for improvements based on lessons learned from implementation projects
- Ensures enterprise application’s design aligns and evolves with strategic architectural direction; leverages the company’s technical infrastructure environment, including legacy application, to maximize operational performance and business value
- Reviews all hardware/software decisions made within WSSC Water
- Evaluates new software and hardware to determine usefulness and compatibility with existing software and hardware
- Performs related duties as required
Work Environment And Physical Demands
Business casual office environment
Required Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities
- Experience in designing architectures for on-premises/multi-cloud computing technologies, including infrastructure, networks, elastic scalability, high-availability, backup/recovery and disaster recovery, software application and design
- Knowledge of developing infrastructure governance strategies, ensuring compliance with industry standards, and efficiently managing spend
- Skill in collaborating with application development, operations and security teams to recommend best practices and ensure alignment with the future state architecture
- Ability to lead large, complex system implementations and engage with executive-level staff and technical experts
- Experience in creating technical statements of work (SoW) for procurement of goods and services
- Ability to identify, assess and recommend emerging technologies in the space of cloud, AI/ML, cybersecurity, analytics and other technologies to drive business benefits
- Ability to present reports, justifications, cost and timeline projections to senior management for the on-boarding of new technology
- Skill in effectively managing vendor relationships and performance
- Knowledge of database technology, software technology, systems analysis, research techniques, systems development standards, quality and cost controls
- Ability to implement technology-enabled business change in a complex business environment
- Ability to assess program and project integration architectures for non-compliance and define corrective actions
- Knowledge of hyper-converged infrastructure, virtualization platforms, storage platforms and operating systems
- Knowledge of operational technology (OT) systems such as SCADA, and internet of things (IoT) solutions both on-premises and in the cloud
Minimum Education, Experience Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline
- 8 years’ IT architecture experience in hardware and software planning, design and security that includes the following:
- Expertise architecting major cloud computing platforms such as AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI including networking, storage, security, virtualization and financial management to meet evolving business needs
- Experience in TOGAF, Zachman, NIST or similar architecture frameworks, including
recommending and leading the implementation of a best-in-class EA management
software to oversee, manage, maintain, document, and communicate, over 5 layers
of enterprise architecture - Comprehensive understanding and experience managing complex cyber security/ resilience challenges in the critical infrastructure sector
- Management of large scale, application analysis, design, development and integration projects
- Experience in the design, development, and implementation of scalable and secure enterprise-wide solutions, encompassing applications, infrastructure, data, and integration layers
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills Excellent written and verbal communication skills
-
OR
- High school diploma (or equivalent)
- 12 years’ IT architecture experience in hardware and software planning, design and security that includes the following:
- Expertise architecting major cloud computing platforms such as AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI including networking, storage, security, virtualization and financial management to meet evolving business needs
- Experience in TOGAF, Zachman, NIST or similar architecture frameworks, including recommending and leading the implementation of a best-in-class EA management software to oversee, manage, maintain, document, and communicate, over 5 layers of enterprise architecture
- Comprehensive understanding and experience managing complex cyber security/ resilience challenges in the critical infrastructure sector
- Management of large scale, application analysis, design, development and integration projects
- Experience in the design, development, and implementation of scalable and secure enterprise-wide solutions, encompassing applications, infrastructure, data, and integration layers
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
