Business Solutions Architect

Reporting to the Manager, Architecture and Analysis, the Business Solutions Architect is responsible for cross-functional collaboration with all levels of the organization and assisting in defining IT strategy and enterprise architecture, the goals and requirements for programs and projects, and supporting continuous improvement within an assigned area of focus. The Business Solutions Architect will apply their strong IT knowledge, excellent communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills to clearly translate technical details into understandable terms to ensure both technical and non-technical stakeholders make optimal technical decisions.

The role will play a critical role in facilitating ITS’ comprehension of business requirements.

• Leveraging a strong understanding of IT best practices, collaborate and consults with stakeholders within an assigned area of focus to understand and articulate the organization’s needs and the rationale for change, proposing solutions that can deliver value.
• Document current state, define future state and determine the activities required to move from current to the future state for a set or processes and / or business and technical requirements.
• Identify project stakeholders and determine the impact of implementing technology and automation to business areas and staffing levels.
• Gather, analyze, and prepare highly sensitive data by using confidential information only available to limited number of individuals with a level of security clearance.
• Perform cost-benefit and return on investment analysis for proposed systems to aid management in making implementation decisions with corporate-wide implications.
• Prepare and present reports, recommendations, or alternatives to senior and executive level management to address existing and potential trouble areas in IT systems and projects across the organization.
• Perform objective analysis of organizational challenges and related efficiency opportunities with the goal of maximizing existing resources and streamlining business operation processes.
• Translate conceptual user requirements into functional requirements in a clear manner that is comprehensible to Solution Architects and the project team; where applicable, develop wireframes and prototypes of interfaces and attributes based on the user requirements.
• Conduct interviews to gather user requirements via workshops, questionnaires, surveys, site visits, workflow storyboards, use cases, scenarios, and other methods.
• Collaborate in the planning, design, development, and deployment of new applications, and enhancements to existing applications.
• Participate in the selection of any requirements documentation software solutions that the organization may opt to use.
• Identify and establish scope and parameters of requirements analysis on a project-by-project basis to define project impact, outcome criteria, and metrics.
• Analyze and verify requirements for completeness, consistency, comprehensibility, feasibility, and conformity to standards and work with stakeholders and project team to prioritize collected requirements.
• Keep abreast of technology industry trends, solutions, standards and methodologies.
• Develop and utilize standard templates to accurately and concisely write requirements specifications.
• Assist in conducting research on software and hardware products to meet agreed upon requirements and to support purchasing efforts.
• Participate in the Quality Assurance and software testing activities of purchased solutions to ensure features and functions have been enabled and optimized.
• Participate in creating and executing test plans and scripts that will determine optimal application performance according to specifications.
• Assist in leading the intake of all requests for IT consulting services, new systems, and major upgrades.
• Participate in developing business cases and cost/benefit analysis for IT spending and initiatives.
• Provide guidance to junior and contracted resource members of the analysis team.

• Develop models that provide the mechanism to clearly explain how strategy, processes, business structure, and staff can best…