Vacature

Functional Architect

Brussel

Solliciteer

Our client is continuously working on its applications to enhance them.

Together with the usual recurrent effort (maintenance), there are a lot of projects to realize in the coming years.

The department is responsible for building and maintaining all IT applications for the

HR, Facilities, CIO, CRO, CFO and Customer/Referential related functions.

For the team we are actively searching a Functional /Solution Architect who will make the link between the business team (delivers business requirements) and its colleagues (functional and technical analysis & programming).

The main activities of this team are:

  • Solution & Application Architecture (Functional & Technical) Design and Analysis

  • Architecture Reference (Functional & Technical) documentation

  • Functional Support and Coaching of the development team

  • Application Design end-to-end Monitoring

  • System testing (support to Test Managers)

  • Improve the process, the tools used.

The Solution Architect deals on a daily basis with senior management, peers and junior staff, both internally and externally, with business and professional skills in Information Technology.

To function effectively, the Solution Architect is required to conceptualize and think abstractly, work and manage in a technically complex and heterogeneous environment, and effectively communicate with all levels of management.

 

Tasks

Update of the as-is architecture

  • You complete and maintain the architecture schemas based on interviews with all stakeholders

Architecture & Application Lifecycle Management

  • You maintain a high-level vision of our functional and application architecture

  • You define current and target state application architecture aligned with requirements of the various business and technology initiatives, ensuring the necessary coherence in applications architecture.

  • You improve and maintain the processes, the tools used to realize our functional architecture analysis.

Requirements & Solution definition

  • On some projects, you are responsible for gathering & consolidating the business requirements: this includes not only documenting & analysing, but also negotiating, prioritizing, alternatives proposals, definition & organization of the approach for collecting & consolidating the requirements to lead to a consistent & reliable solution.

  • You have the ability to analyse, define, design and propose solutions to business problems at the highest level of complexity or in areas calling for significantly innovative approaches.

  • The solutions you propose take into account not only the business requirements, but also the application development standards & the operational constraints & risks.

Analysis & Design

  • During development of the target architecture, you compare application options according to function, technology and cost, make a recommendation and develop potential migration paths to the target state model

  • You understand the functional and technical architecture

  • You realize the functional architecture analysis and estimate the implementation cost for requirements

  • You hand over the functional architecture analysis to the functional and technical analysts and deliver further support if necessary

  • You integrate the relevant stakeholders (business / domain experts / …) in the analysis & design process to ensure knowledge transfer & coaching.

Realization

  • During the realization phase of applications, you follow up the compliance of architecture with standards and support architecture responsibilities as part of the standard project lifecycle

  • You are responsible for the functional coherence of your domains: determination,

  • implementation and follow up of functional concepts, integration of business needs in existing software solutions

  • You advise the different actors during the implementation phasing and bring a functional coaching to the functional development points of contact

Client relationship / Stakeholder management

  • You assist the team manager and project leaders in the customer’s relation.

  • You establish and maintain working relationships with technology management, business management, program sponsors, key business clients, and infrastructure management. These objectives are meant to clarify what is typically expected from an IT Architect, they are not limitative or exhaustive.

 

Ideal Profile

  • Language: English - Fluent; Dutch or French - Fluent

  • Education: IT (master in Computer Sciences, IT engineer,…)

Business experience

Mandatory

  • Strong interest for Business Process Analyses (2 y - 5 y)

  • Good knowledge in modelling applications and processes (2 y - 5 y)

  • Functional Analysis (2 y - 5 y)

Preferable

  • Knowledge on Insurance

Technical experience

Mandatory

  • Mastering of MS-office tools (2 y - 5 y)

  • Understanding of relevant technologies and development life cycles (2 y - 5 y)

  • Familiar with integration issues (2 y - 5 y)

Preferable

  • Cobol, DB2, SQL server, .Net (REST API, ASB), ETL

Functional experience

Mandatory

  • Similar function and Solution Analyses (5 y - 8 y)

  • Service Oriented Architecture, design patterns, architecture methodologies (5 y - 8 y)

  • Building and construction functional design of insurance applications parts (5 y - 8 y)

  • Developing whole picture (5 y - 8 y)

Preferable

  • Insurance and/or Banking applications

Soft Skills

Mandatory

  • Self-starter with a considerable degree of autonomy

  • Pragmatic & solution oriented

  • Open and analytical mind with a good level of abstraction

  • Excellent presentation, written and oral communication skills to clearly express and communicate concepts, designs and proposals

  • Demonstrated ability to interact with all technical and non-technical members of the organisation

Preferable

  • Hands on and problem solver