E2E Solution Architect- Platform Hosting

About the position

Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, is the parent company for Ahold Delhaize's U.S. companies, including its local brands, Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop, and the U.S. services companies, Retail Business Services, Peapod Digital Labs and ADUSA Supply Chain. When considered together, the local brands of Ahold Delhaize USA comprise the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast and the fourth largest grocery retail group in the nation, operating more than 2,000 stores and distribution centers across more than 20 states and serving millions of customers each week through a uniquely local omnichannel experience. The Ahold Delhaize USA company team includes just over 100 associates across all East Coast office locations. The Solutions Architect II is responsible for translating business requirements into solution architecture deliverables. They collaborate closely with the Architecture Community and Application/Product teams to ensure that business needs are understood, assessed, and translated into feasible, effective technological solutions. This is a strategic role, focusing on complex solution design across multiple projects or products. The Solution Architect II will be involved in setting technical direction, mentoring other solution architects, and engaging product leaders and business stakeholders. They are expected to have a broader vision, aligning with the greater architecture community. Solution Architects engage closely with stakeholders to grasp the business requirements, analyze the technical feasibility of proposed solutions, and create detailed architectural designs that address functional and non-functional requirements. When designing the solution, they consider scalability, security, performance, and integration factors, ensuring its alignment with enterprise architecture guidelines and strategic goals.

Responsibilities

• Acts as a trusted advisor to business stakeholders, product teams, and development teams, providing recommendations and influencing decision-making processes for IT solutions and value stream optimization.
• Collaborates with Enterprise Architects to align solution architecture with enterprise architecture standards and vision.
• Responsible for developing and reviewing the solution architecture (blueprint) for products and value stream, including interaction requirements for specific components, subsystems, and interfaces within the application or solution.
• Designs future-proof and scalable solutions, considering all hardware, infrastructure, and data constraints.
• Drives simplicity in IT solution design by re-using assets; degree of asset re-use across the enterprise.
• Aligns with cross functional areas to ensure the user story or product backlog item meets a set of team-established criteria as to whether the story is ready for a sprint.
• Contributes to the creation of IT/Architecture standards and guidelines to define the overall solution architecture.
• Mentors and provides direction to Solution Architects and other technical team members.
• Responsible for identifying non-functional requirements to ensure the architectural design meets the required performance, security, scalability, availability, and other quality attributes.
• Leads the assessment and adoption of new technologies and methodologies that can provide a competitive advantage.
• Ensures license efficiency and compliance with vendor guidelines.
• Reviews IT solution design for every new or changed solution and ensures alignment with enterprise architecture standards, policies, and procedures.
• Supports the program & project delivery teams to embed security, privacy, and regulatory needs into the solution.

Requirements

• Master's degree in computer science or Technical field and/or Business-related field; equivalent trainings/certifications/experience will be considered.
• 8+ years of equivalent experience in relevant job or field of technology.
• 5+ years of equivalent experience in an advanced role or technical capacity, leading technical workshops, creating designs and architecture documentation.
• 5+ years' experience directly responsible for guiding, training or onboarding team members in relevant technologies, capabilities or skills.
• 5+ years of Practical Experience in IT Architecture (i.e., solution architecture) or senior solutions design roles.
• Deep experience in Hybrid Cloud environments. Data Center Infrastructure, Hosting Models, and BC/DR strategies.
• Ability to demonstrate skills balancing the design of proper infrastructure platforms.
• Excellent leadership skills with the ability to lead others, influence outcomes, facilitate meetings, negotiate and achieve results.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, collaboration and presentation skills.
• Exceptional analytical, problem solving and critical thinking skills.
• Security First mindset.

Nice-to-haves

• Post graduate degree advanced training and or certifications in relevant field/s of study preferred.
• Relevant professional certifications (e.g., TOGAF, ArchiMate, Network Solution Architect).
• Experience in retail or grocery preferred.
• Experience with network monitoring tools.
• Strong knowledge of Security frameworks (e.g. NIST, ISO 27001, CIS).
• Knowledge of budget planning and financial management, esp. a product or application cost to acquire and run.
• Experience interacting with Infrastructure, network, and security aspects.