Solutions Architect

Discovery Limited; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading investment firm in Johannesburg seeks a Senior Technical Expert to conceptualize digital solutions that align with business strategies. The ideal candidate has over 15 years of IT experience, a strong background in digital application solutions, and excellent problem-solving skills. This role emphasizes collaboration with various stakeholders and staying updated with emerging technologies.

Benefits

Opportunities for professional development

Employee wellness programs

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in designing and implementing both Digital (WEB and Mobile) and bespoke application solutions.
• Strong experience in working with data structures and mapping of the data.
• Minimum of 15 years’ experience within IT industry.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of digital solutions aligned with strategic goals.
• Collaborate with technical architects to ensure IT architecture meets business needs.
• Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies.

Skills

Analytical skills

Problem solving

Technical architecture design

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Information Systems

TOGAF certification

Tools

SOAP

REST

XML

JSON

Job description

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

About Invest

Launched in 2007, Discovery Invest offers the full range of investment products for any client need, providing access to our top performing range of Discovery funds as well as a wide selection of leading local and international fund managers. Recently, Discovery Invest launched a unique offshore offering to enable South African investors unparalleled ease in accessing international investment opportunities. Discovery Invest is seeking to leverage the shared-value model to promote financial health and freedom for millions of South Africans. Through unique behavioural incentives and benefits, we reward clients for positive investment behaviour with extra investment returns. Discovery Invest is the only shared value investment platform in the country maximizing client outcomes before and after retirement. It is important for our employees to provide world class service to our internal and external clients, thereby ensuring long and sustainable relationships.

Key Purpose

Senior technical person who can conceptualise solutions and lead the design and implementation of digital solutions that align with the strategic goals and business requirements.

Ensure alignmentof digital solutions with enterprise standards, industry best practices, and evolving technology trends.

Objectives and Responsibilities of this role

• Participate in evaluating and understanding different technology solutions. Develop capabilities and need to be involved in technology decisions and implementations.
• Translate architecture requirements into solution design artefacts e.g. architectural solution diagrams and context diagrams.
• Reviews requirements and sign off specs to ensure alignment with business and information technology architecture, goals and objectives.
• Recommend improvements to existing systems and processes.
• Advise on the selection and use of appropriate design standards, technology stack, operating framework, data management, processes and tools and their effective application.
• Ensure adherence to architectural standards/principles, product-specific guidelines and usability design standards both internally and at a Group level. Build best practices and develop competence.
• Collaborate with technical architects to determine information technology architecture aligns with overall business need.
• Present and explain complex technical concepts in an understandable way to various stakeholders.

• 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 strategic architecture direction.
• 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
• Support the development of the solution by working with specialists, architects, and development team to oversee the development of the solution.

• Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies.
• Analyse the technology industry and market trends and determine their potential impact on the domain and the enterprise.
• Anticipate future needs and design forward-thinking solutions.

Education and Experience

• Extensive experience in designing and implementing both Digital (WEB and Mobile) and bespoke application solutions.
• Solid experience in custom fully integrated workflow processes with various integration endpoints and trigger, outbound communications and a MIS component.
• Solid experience in writing functional and technical specifications, process flows and source-to-target mappings.
• Extensive experience working with WEB services e.g. SOAP, REST, and understanding when to apply them.
• Strong experience in working with data structures e.g. ODS. And mapping of the data.
• Extensive experience in data integration using XML and Json.
• Experience in domain modelling.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Software architecture design experience.

• Matric

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Information Systems
• TOGAF certification
• Minimum of 15 years’ experience within IT industry.

Required Competencies

• Values Driven
• Optimistic
• Learn on the Fly
• Resilient
• Instills Trust
• People Savvy
• Problem Solver
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Action orientated
• Build an environment for optimal performance

Preferred skills

• Advanced technical knowledge

• Strong database fundamentals and data mapping knowledge
• Work collaboratively

• Strong systems, Infrastructure, Software Development architecture background

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.