Job Description

General InformationInformation pertaining to the general requirements of this position are detailed below:
Job Title
Lead Solution Architect
Job Category
Technical
Preferred Highest Education
Degree in Business Management, Computer Science, Engineering and/or IT Sciences
Monthly Remuneration
Market-related
Reports to
Chief Architect
Type of Employment
Full-timeDescription of BusinessAbsa Bank is a South African and Pan African based company specializing in Retail and Corporate Banking. We have a vision to inspire positive change in South Africa and our African countries and organizations by making a difference in the lives of individuals.
To maintain our leading edge, Absa plays an active role in the Payments Community. Absa is a member of PASA (Payments Association of South Africa).Organizational Culture / Work EnvironmentWhile we support individualism, we also strongly believe in the power of effective teamwork. Our working environments are highly collaborative and energized, all with a view to stimulate creativity and promote a shared purpose to serve our clients with excellence, professionalism, and care.Academic and Work RequirementsThe following qualifications and work experience are required for this position:Qualifications
A Degree in Business Science, Engineering, Computer Science and/or IT. Preference would be given to a candidate certified in TOGAF or a similar Framework.Work Experience
The Candidate needs to have:

• 5 years + experience in Payment Solution/End-to-End Architecture (ideally in the South African Banking industry.)
• Experience in the bank or finance related industry
• 5 Years Developer experience
• 3-5 years experience in System analysis & design
• UML modelling (e.g. Archimate)

Skills

• TOGAF 9 or 10
• Modelling experience in EA tools, like iServer
• Business acumen
• Holistic thinking
• Analytical thinking
• Problem solving
• Demonstrated leadership
• Requirements gathering, analyze & synthesize then solution (requirements gathering & solutioning)
• Planning
• Result oriented
• Strategic thinking and problem solving
• Presentation skills - selling your story
• Accuracy
• Time management
• Customer centric
• Relationship building
• Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams
• Running and participate in RFx

Beneficial skills

• business change design
• business process optimization
• business strategy
• benefits analysis
• systems behavior
• solution modelling
• system integration
• application design
• data design
• ICT industry standards
• service design
• architecture principles design
• architecture views and design
• Experience in Salesforce architecture
• Experience in AWS/Azure architecture
• Experience in cloud native core banking architecture
• Experience in project budgeting and business case compilation

Duties and Responsibilities

• Design, build and deploy payment services projects as per the roadmap of our business units;
• Deliver the most recognized payment methods in each market & innovative payment methods working closely with technology providers;
• Analyse different technical options to deliver the payment architecture, in alignment with the global/local payments roadmap, functional constraints and the e-commerce solutions landscape defined as part of the company strategy;
• Perform workload estimation and prototype development together with the development teams.
• Coordinate in some projects the development activities to ensure consistency between as-built solutions and their design;
• Delivery of Solution Designs taking into account timeline and budget constraints.
• Engage and collaborate with technical stakeholders (Architecture, Security, Infrastructure) to get the solution design approved and in line with IT strategy.
• When applicable, assist the development manager in the coordination of development activities to get a solution in line with technical design documentation.
• Provide appropriate documentation and coaching to the project team and provide assistance during installation / deployment phase.
• Ensure efficient knowledge transfer and ramp up time for new on- and off-shore developers.
• Industrialization is integrated in the design of the solution when possible to be easily rolled out in other context without major developments;
• Work to assure Online and Offline international payment acceptance for all brands and markets;
• Use continuous improvement methodologies to grow revenue, reduce costs and mitigate risk;
• Work to mitigate risk when it comes to payments acceptance. Assure PCI and ISO principles. Work with Fraud / Risk business teams and prepare plans for data breach response plans and DRP related to payments acceptance.
• Advocate the adoption of best practices to ensure standardization across the organization in processes and solutions and collaborate with cross functional business units and other functional teams to drive end-to-end process consistency, maturity & effectiveness.

What we're looking for:

• Strong Software Architecture background and knowledge of agile development practices with a history of technical leadership
• Experience across the entire software development life cycle from inception, through build to production
• You appreciate and acknowledge the impact of system design decisions on scalability, resilience, and supportability
• Experience of API design and architecture patterns, messaging technologies (Kafka, MQ)
• Exposure to modern application frameworks (Spring boot Java etc)
• Exposure to Open Banking architecture framework

Wed welcome the following desirable skills and experience:

• Knowledge of delivery of microservices to production

• Exposure to Systems Thinking

• Exposure to Docker and container orchestration tools e.g., Kubernetes
• Knowledge in one or more of the following: API Economy; Big Data; Cloud/Open Source; Automation/Robotics; Blockchain
• An understanding of any of the following Payments areas: SA Domestic Payments (Cheques, Faster Payments, ); International Payments (SWIFT/SEPA);
• Legal, Regulatory & Mandatory projects in Payments areas
• New Payments Architecture

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