Mastek (UK) Ltd

The Principal Architect will work on multiple customer engagements and enable project solution architects to deliver their solutions. The principle architect will provide the solution to customer business requirement at enterprise level, leading a group of solution and/or technical architects to successfully implement programme/project requirements & deliverables. The individual will liaise closely with stakeholders in the business beyond IT and be comfortable influencing senior stakeholders regarding the appropriate use and leverage of the end state solution. The ideal candidate will possess strong architecture, analytical & execution skills along with exceptional leadership, client and relationship management skills. Must have proven successes in balancing long term visionary planning capabilities with the ability to create, practical, actionable plans that are coherent and understood by all stakeholders. Beyond excellent IT and architecture skills, the ideal candidate will be innovative and commercially inclined to create genuine business value through the alignment of technology, data and business interests. Accountabilities & Responsibilities: Provide assurance and assessment of project and programme compliance against overall IT strategy/roadmap Identify and articulate strategic business objectives, business need and the business benefits of IT solutions to a wide variety of levels of audience from junior to senior in both technical and business roles. Participate in development of the architecture community within the UK. E.g. Company events, industry events, mentoring, training. Have a critical influence on the success of the delivery engagements. To understand, explain and present complex technical problems at all levels of customer organisations in a persuasive and convincing manner. Work in multiple supplier environment and engage and maintain relationships at peer level across customer & other suppliers Analyse and explain the risks involved in adopting certain technology solutions. To provide strategic consultancy to bid and delivery. To identify and investigate opportunities for driving value and prepare the necessary technical advice and guidance notes. To analyse the solutions environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend improvements. Work closely with Project Managers and Technical Leads/Solution Architects to ensure that technical and project governance and reviews are conducted; best practice lifecycles are followed thus ensuring a consistent delivery of the project or service. Influence and direct a common and consistent approach to the technical delivery elements, and play an essential oversight and authorisation role for all technical aspects of projects. Effectively leverage the technical abilities of onsite and offshore resources. Have the responsibility for ensuring timely provision of deliverables in complex environment. Retail Specificfications: Experience working on full life cycle retail projects. Retail domain experience and understanding of multi-channel digital commerce, supply chain & logistics, marketing, CRM, wholesale. Experience leading digital transformation initiatives in retail including cloud adoption, COTS and SaaS integration, data analytics. Experience working on technology strategy and influencing retail domain business strategy so that the business and technology strategies are mutually supportive. Person Specification: Essential Desirable Qualifications The candidate should be educated to degree level, and have appropriate experience of enterprise and technology architecture disciplines. Qualification or accreditation in industry recognised skills such as UML, ISEB, PRINCE 2 Professional qualifications (E.G CEng/MBCS/ ) Certified in TOGAF, Zachman or any one Enterprise Architecture disciplines Knowledge & Experience Worked on at least one large project/programme as Chief Architect / Lead Architect Experience of engagement with customers at all levels of organisation hierarchy; Experience in implementation of an enterprise level architecture in a large and complex multi-supplier / multi-platform environment. Experience of Infrastructure, Application, Data and Integration architectures. Experience of service oriented architecture. Experience of creating strategy and architecture collateral. Understanding and exposure to a wide range of technologies. Knowledge and experience of software architectures and software integration architectures; Sound knowledge of security within IT and software systems; Experience of providing outline solutions based on best industry practice; Experience of leading technical teams in a mixed geography environment Interpret client and contract requirements in terms of the technical content; and Knowledge of formal testing and test environments; Management experience; Understanding of PRINCE2; Knowledgeable of Industry, Corporate, and Professional standards such as IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and ISO 9001/TickITp Experience of implementing UK based project/programmes Experience of .NET development frameworks, n-tier architectures, etc. Database technologies Oracle, MS SQL Server, Data warehouses, etc. Team player with positive attitude and motivation to succeed; Ability to motivate others Ability to work to tight deadlines and within budget; Excellent written and oral skills; Experience of commercial negotiations of considerable value. Personal Skills