Solutions Architect

Administrative Office of the Courts • Olympia, WA

18d • Hybrid

About The Position

Develops options and recommendations for information technology designs and solutions to meet business requirements and resolve identified business problems within Washington’s judicial branch of government. Reporting to the Architecture and Strategy Manager, this expert level professional works under general supervision and decision-making is carried out according to established guidelines and defined rules/procedures, although some areas require interpretation and/or development of possible approaches. Interacts regularly with executive leadership, agency management, all levels of division staff, and staff assigned to specific projects.

Requirements

• A Bachelor’s degree in an information technology discipline; Master’s degree or post-graduate work preferred; AND: At least four ( 4) years of senior level experience in development and design of complex IT systems including substantive experience providing architectural guidance and/or supervision to developers/teams as an Architect or Lead Developer/Engineer; Substantive experience working across expansive, multiple areas of software, hardware, networking, and integration of diverse technology areas for architecting front-end, back-end, data analytics or cloud-based solutions using a variety of appropriate technologies.
• Leadership and interpersonal skills to work across boundaries and to establish and maintain professional working relationships with co-workers, management, and others; mentors and works effectively with people of different abilities/skills by using a high level of Emotional Intelligence
• Ability to effectively communicate both orally and in writing; ability to communicate proficiently in written reports as well as delivering information through presentations
• Proficient in utilizing Microsoft 365 products, including Teams, Outlook, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, and others, with expertise appropriate to the responsibilities of the role.
• Communication skills that facilitate effective, appropriate information exchanges at all levels within the AOC and the Washington Courts
• Ability to present complex ideas and designs to a variety of technical or non-technical stakeholders
• Strong facilitation/negotiation skills; ability to interface with and influence people at multiple levels within the organization.
• Skill in research methods and practices
• Understands customer expectations and ensures work meets those expectations
• Ability to estimate project effort, staffing, and financials; skill to manage time, and resources to accomplish goals and objectives
• Ability to logically integrate information to form effective goals, objectives, timelines, action plans and solutions; prioritization; effective time management
• Ability to identify, analyze and resolve problems in a consultative manner bringing problems together with recommendations for solutions
• Ability to multi-task and effectively coordinate multiple projects simultaneously
• Ability to identify risks and outcomes associated with courses of action; ability to develop action plans/strategies for the purpose of ensuring the desired outcome
• Ability to accomplish work objectives in cooperation with agency, court and state colleagues and officials
• Ability to achieve excellent results with little need for direct/oversight
• Ability to accept personal responsibility for the quality and timeliness of work
• Ability to exercise judgment and make timely, sound, strategic decisions and recommendations consistent with organizational objectives
• Broad IT generalist knowledge with an understanding of applications, data, and hardware; along with proven skills, business acumen, and discipline to ensure alignment among solution, business, and IT architecture
• Proficient in all aspects of designing and constructing application systems; as well as in developing requirements, use cases, and design specifications for new and existing applications.
• Strong project management knowledge and understanding of the software development life cycle such as waterfall, SCRUM, and/or Agile.
• Ability to adjust priorities in rapidly changing environments, work well under pressure, and provide technical leadership in multiple projects concurrently.
• Proven ability to work effectively with business analysts, other architects, application development and testing staff, project managers and managers within a large matrix organization.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree or post-graduate work preferred

Responsibilities

• Converts business requirements into a design that becomes the blueprint for IT solutions being created to solve identified business problems; ensures that technology solutions are cohesive, align with the organization’s technology standards, strategic IT roadmaps, and meet the customer needs; employs effective reusable application design and software engineering strategies and best practices.
• Serves as the solution lead to assess available project information to understand the scope of project, the current IT and business environment, objectives and priorities of the organization by using the Information Technology Governance (ITG) intake process.
• Validates and/or defines and documents the proposed, high-level solution.
• Analyzes technical risks and advises on risk mitigation strategies.
• Identifies resource skills needed to deliver the proposed solution.
• Provides information and expertise to the Project Manager and Business Analyst to assist with development of a high-level project schedule, resource plan for the project, and project costs.
• Prepares for the delivering of the application or system by evaluating and selecting the methodologies and tools.
• Analyzes available assets (frameworks, reference architectures, etc) to bridge the gap between the as-is architecture and the to-be architecture.
• Understands and applies knowledge of complex technology environments and solution architecture practices across the necessary analysis, technical architecture, and design tasks to develop well-integrated, cost-effective solutions for the business problems in the assigned projects.
• Works with the Business Analyst to document/refine requirements (functional and non-functional) and to addresses compliance requirements.
• Establishes high-level models that guide solution architecture design, sub-architecture, or deployment; and reviews with all interested parties.
• Adheres to IT standards.
• Collaborates with Enterprise Architects and Project Managers to optimize and balance long range architectural objectives and project constraints while maintaining customer value streams.
• Defines and documents the actions needed to close architecture gaps in support of business objectives.
• Participates in reviews of the designs, prototypes, and other technical deliverables to ensure they fulfill requirements and meet standards.
• Refines architectural decisions, at a project level, related to the infrastructure, data architecture, application architecture, patterns and designs, and security; to include: Developing conceptual models and performing gap analysis. Identifying services to be developed and integrated into IT solutions. Ensures the end-to-end service architectural roadmap to address the standard service and customization options. Defines and implements plans to address the service's integration points with other services.
• Leads the overall design and works with the development teams and stakeholders during design.
• Provides guidance and oversight on work performed by the development team.
• Ensures the progression of the solution development through to implementation and customer acceptance and rollout to production.
• Participates in solution design reviews and other project related checkpoints.
• Analyzes, learns, and applies new technology and architecture trends in alignment with the AOC Enterprise Architecture direction.
• Continuously enhances the AOC solution architecture knowledgebase by creating reusable common design patterns and solutions.
• Independently prepares written materials and gives oral presentations to project stakeholder groups and AOC leadership to communicate and educate stakeholders on solution recommendations and technology options.
• Provides input for ISD planning.
• Performs other duties as required.

Benefits

• commitment to employee growth
• work-life balance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior