Solutions Architect

ABOUT US

Almost 1.2 million residents call York Region home, making it one of the largest regions in Canada – and the fastest growing with a population that’s expected to grow to more than 2 million by 2041. Our geography, which is comprised of about 1,800 square kilometers over nine different municipalities, is as beautiful, interesting and diverse as our people. Local government is organized in a two-tier structure and we work together with our local municipalities to provide residents and businesses access to a broad selection of services and resources.

WHAT WE OFFER

Consistently named one of Canada’s Best Employers by Forbes, we offer a collaborative, progressive workplace that takes pride in our organizational culture and is committed to living The 13+ Factors of Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace – aligned with our vision to create strong, caring and safe communities both within and outside our walls.

• Defined Benefit Pension Program - With the Ontario Municipality Employees Retirement System (OMERS) defined benefit pension plan, you can confidently retire knowing that you will have income for life. Eligibility from date of hire as a full-time employee and includes employer-matched contributions.

• Employer of Choice - Recognized as the highest-ranking government employer in Canada and fourth overall among 300 organizations.

• Benefits and Wellness - Employees and their loved ones have access to a comprehensive employer-paid benefits plan that includes extended health, dental and life insurance, access to a 24/7 Employee and Family Assistance Program and corporate discounts and purchase plans for day-to-day products and services.

• Inclusive and Diverse Workforce - We’re committed to fostering an environment that celebrates all dimensions of diversity and ensures everyone can develop to their full potential, participate freely in society and live with respect, dignity and freedom from discrimination. Our robust Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility program continues to grow, and has been recognized by the United Nations and many other organizations for our leadership.

ABOUT THE ROLE

This position is responsible for defining and assessing the organization's enterprise solution architecture, and practice as well as its information technology road map and application portfolio, and effectively translates business objectives into specific solutions enabled by Region’s approved technologies and services. This role will be overseeing the overall technology selection, strategy, analysis, design and implementation of solutions; and providing guidance, training, mentoring, and coordinating, assigning, scheduling and checking the work of project teams.

WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING

• Promotes re-use, agility, security, maintainability, extensibility, and user centered solution development strategies; works with Enterprise Architects (EA) and Subject Matter Experts to define strategy, standards and best practices around usage of development platforms and development methodology used by the Region.
• Creates the architecture and frameworks that facilitate access to and flexible sharing and exchange of reusable software components across the Region.
• Provides expert knowledge in the development of the requirements, principles, current state, target state, models, designs and road maps for the target state of Application Software Architecture in alignment with Enterprise Architecture.
• Participates in the planning for retirement of solutions and migration of systems infrastructure and ensures alignment with corporate technology infrastructure
• Works with various technology and information teams to ensure risk management and associated security of our information and systems is identified and managed.
• Promotes shared infrastructure and applications to reduce costs and improve information flow, ensuring that projects do not duplicate functionality or diverge from each other and business and IT strategies.
• Coordinates analysis and implementation activities with cross-functional staff, project teams, EA team members, business constituents and IT staff.
• Understands and interprets requirements: Probes for information, listens, influences people, facilitates consensus building, translates ideas into actionable requirements, and articulates ideas.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Successful completion of a University Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field or approved equivalent combination of education and experience.
• TOGAF certification (or equivalent enterprise architecture framework), or relevant solution architecture and/or development certifications.
• Minimum five (5) years of Solution Architecture, Design and Development experience.
• In-depth understanding and thorough knowledge of
  • Software Development Lifecyle, Agile, DevOps,
  • Software Development Stacks, Platforms (including low-code) and programing languages,
  • Multi-tier system design, API and services based architecture,
  • Modern web application architecture; application security architecture and implementation,
  • System integration techniques and patterns; system, process and data modeling and documentation
  • User Experience and User Centered Design
• Ability to fully understand and translate business needs into technical architecture requirements leading to optimal solution implementations.