Software Architect

JOB SUMMARY
Leverage expertise in a technology area (e.g. Java, Microsoft technologies or Mainframe/legacy) to design system architecture.

Key Responsibilities
Deliver technically sound projects across one / multiple customers within the guidelines of the customer and UST standards and norms, based on user stories
Guide and review technical delivery by internal teams at the program level
Resolve architecture issues deliver and own architecture of application solutions spanning across multiple technologies for projects of the following nature - high revenue projects, complex projects and large strategic maintenance projects
Architect frameworks, tools relevant for the program

Performance Areas:
Knowledge Management & Capability Development:
Publish and maintain a repository of solutions, best practices and standards and other knowledge articles
Conduct and facilitate knowledge sharing and learning sessions across the team
Gain industry standard certifications on technology in area of expertise
Support technical skill building (including hiring and training) for the team based on inputs from Project Manager /RTE's
Mentor new members in the team in technical areas
Gain and cultivate domain expertise to provide best and optimized solution to customer (Delivery)
Create architecture on-boarding/KT documents for the program
Requirement gathering and Analysis:
Work with customer/business owners and other teams to collect, analyse and understand the requirements including NFRs; define NFRs
Analyse gaps/ and trade-offs based on current system context and industry practice while clarifying the requirements and by working with the customer
Define the systems and sub-systems that define the programs
People Management:
Set goals and manage performance of technical specialists / team engineers
Provide career guidance and mentor technical specialists
Alliance Management:
Identify alliance partners based on the understanding of service offerings and client requirements, specific to program
In collaboration with Architect 2,3, create a compelling business case around the offerings
Conduct beta testing of the offerings and relevance to program
Technology Consulting:
In collaboration with the Solution Architects, analyse application and technology landscape, process, and tools to arrive at the architecture options best fit for the client, program
Analyse Cost vs. benefits of solution options
Support Solution Architects to create a technology/ architecture roadmap for the client
Define architectural strategy for the program
Innovation and Thought Leadership:
Participate in internal and external forums (seminars, paper presentation etc.) to showcase UST capabilities and insights under guidance of senior team members
Understand clients existing business at the program level and explore new avenues to save cost and bring process efficiency
Identify business opportunities to create reusable components/accelerators and reuse existing components and best practices
Support the patent filing process for the IP assets created (applicable to some CoEs)
Sales Support and Project Estimation:
Support for developing RFPs and collaterals for proposals from a technical architecture, estimation and risks perspective
Conduct demos, and arrange for the demos based on client profiles, if required
Anchor proposal development with cross-linkages across multiple competency units to arrive at a coherent solution proposal with focus on presenting unique value propositions and clear differentiators
Architecture Solution Definition & Design:
Develop and Enhance the architecture (application / technical / Infrastructure as applicable) meeting functional and non-functional requirements; aligned to industry best practices
Program Design (including data modelling, application design, infrastructure design, team structure) and capacity sizing, working with Program Release Train Engineer to meet the requirements and SLAs of target state and in-transition as applicable
Identify Proof of Concept testing (POC) needs and conduct POCs as applicable
Identify need for developing accelerators or frameworks and develop as applicable specific to the engagement
Identify key technical metrics to measure the SLA / requirements compliance
Define, adopt and create required documentation on standards and guidelines
Contribute to re-usable frameworks, tools and artefacts library
Project Management Support:
Assist the PM/Scrum Master/Program Manager to identify technical risks and come-up with mitigation strategies
Stakeholder Management:
Monitor the concerns of internal stakeholders like Product Managers and RTE's; and external stakeholders like client architects, on architecture aspects. Follow through on commitments and achieve timely resolution of issues
Conduct initiatives to meet client expectations
Work to expand professional network in the client organization at the team and program levels
Business and Technical Research:
Analyse market trends / client requirements/ secondary research
Identify new ideas and provide inputs to Solution Architects for developing blueprint / PoC
Brand Building:
Organize and participate in events like webinars, boot camps, seminar conference, and client conference to showcase capability
Identify opportunities with Solution Architects to cross-solutionize across project(s) and programs within or outside the BU
Asset Development and Governance:
Understand the plan for asset development
Design assets or artefacts as per plan (if required)
Conduct pilot run/review to validate the assets, artefacts as feasible
Track utilization of reusable assets / architecture components/blueprints across the organization
Create case studies of program/project working with internal stakeholders

Skill Examples:
Use domain and industry knowledge in order to understand business requirements, create POC to meet business requirements, and contextualize the solution to the industry under guidance. Create architecture, interact with SMEs at various stages of the development, translate business requirements to system requirements and perform impact analysis of changes in requirements
Use Technology Knowledge to create Proof of Concept (POC) / (reusable) assets under the guidance of the specialist. Apply best practices in own area of work and understand the IT strategy for the project. Create white papers under guidance, help with performance troubleshooting and other complex troubleshooting. Define, decide and defend the technology choices made; review solution under guidance
Use knowledge of Technology Trends to provide inputs on potential areas of opportunity for UST. Provide inputs to the specialist on creation of technology roadmap for the client, research on new products / trends / best practices
Use knowledge of Architecture Concepts and Principles to create architecture catering to functional and non-functional requirements under guidance of the specialist. Re-engineer existing architecture solutions under the guidance of the specialist; provide training on best practices in architecture under guidance
Use knowledge of Design Patterns, Tools and Principles to create high level design for the given requirements. Independently, evaluate multiple design options, and choose the appropriate options for best possible trade-offs. Conduct knowledge sessions to enhance team's design capabilities; review the low-level design / high level design created by Specialists for efficiency (consumption of hardware, memory and memory leaks, etc.) and maintainability of design
Use knowledge of Software Development Process Tools & Techniques to identify and assess incremental improvements for software development process, methodology and tools. Take technical responsibility for all stages in the software development process, conduct optimal coding with clear understanding of memory leakage and related impact. Implement global standards and guidelines relevant to programming and development, to come up with 'points of view' and new technological ideas
Use knowledge of Project Management & Agile Tools and Techniques to support, plan and manage medium size projects/programs as defined within UST. Identify risks and mitigation strategies
Use knowledge of Project Governance Framework to support development of the communication protocols, escalation matrix, and reporting mechanisms for small / medium projects/ program as defined within UST
Use knowledge of Project Metrics to understand relevance in project. Collect and collate project metrics; share it with the relevant stakeholders
Use knowledge of Estimation and Resource Planning to create estimate and plan resources for specific modules / small projects with detailed requirements or user stories in place
Use knowledge of Knowledge Management Tools & Techniques to leverage existing material and re-usable assets in knowledge repository. Independently create and update knowledge artefacts; create and track project specific KT plans. Provide training to others, write white papers/ blogs at internal level, write technical documents/ user understanding documents at the end of the project
Use knowledge of Technical Standards, Documentation & Templates to create documentation appropriate for the project needs. Create documentation appropriate for the reusable assets/ best practices/ case studies
Use knowledge of Requirement Gathering and Analysis to support creation of requirements documents or user stories and high-level process maps. Identify gaps on the basis of business process, analyse responses to clarification questions, to produce design documents. Create/review estimates and solutions at project level/program level, create/review design artefacts, update resourcing and schedule based on impacted areas identified; creating design specifically for the non-functional requirements
Use knowledge of Solution Structuring to carve out simple solution/ POC for a customer based on their needs, review the proposal for completeness

Knowledge Examples:
Domain/ Industry Knowledge: Basic knowledge of standard business processes within the relevant industry vertical and customer business domain
Technology Knowledge: Demonstrates working knowledge of more than one technology area related to own area of work (e.g. Java/JEE 5+, Microsoft technologies or Mainframe/legacy), customer technology landscape, multiple frameworks (Struts, JSF, Hibernate, etc.) within one technology area and their applicability. Consider low level details such as data structures, algorithms, APIs and libraries and best practices for one technology stack, configuration parameters for successful deployment and configuration parameters for high performance within one technology stack
Technology Trends: Demonstrates working knowledge of technology trends related to one technology stack and awareness of technology trends related to least two technologies
Architecture Concepts and Principles: Demonstrates working knowledge of standard architectural principles, models, patterns (e.g. SOA, N-Tier, EDA etc.) and perspective (e.g. TOGAF, Zachman etc.), integration architecture including input and output components, existing integration methodologies and topologies, source and external system, non-functional requirements, data architecture, deployment architecture, architecture governance
Design Patterns, Tools and Principles: Applies specialized knowledge of design patterns, design principles, practices and design tools. Knowledge of documentation of design using tolls like EA
Software Development Process Tools & Techniques: Demonstrates thorough knowledge of end to end SDLC process (Agile and Traditional), SDLC methodology, programming principles, tools, best practices (refactoring code, code package, etc.)
Project Management Tools and Techniques: Demonstrates working knowledge of project management process (such as project scoping, requirements management, change management, risk management, quality assurance, disaster management, etc.), tools (MS Excel, MPP, client specific time sheets, capacity planning tools etc.)
Project Management: Demonstrates working knowledge of project governance framework, RACI matrix and basic knowledge of project metrics like utilization, onsite to offshore ratio, span of control, fresher ratio, SLAs and quality metrics
Estimation and Resource Planning: Working knowledge of estimation and resource planning techniques (e.g. TCP estimation model), UST specific estimation templates
Working knowledge of industry knowledge management tools (such as portals, wiki), UST and customer knowledge management tools, techniques (such as workshops, classroom training, self-study, application walkthrough and reverse KT)
Technical Standards, Documentation & Templates: Demonstrates working knowledge of various document templates and standards (such as business blueprint, design documents and test specifications)
Requirement Gathering and Analysis: Demonstrates working knowledge of requirements gathering for ( non-functional), requirements analysis for functional and non-functional, requirement analysis tools (such as functional flow diagrams, activity diagrams, blueprint, storyboard), techniques (business analysis, process mapping, etc.) and requirements management tools (e.g.MS Excel) and basic knowledge of functional requirements gathering. Specifically identify Architectural concerns and to document them as part of IT requirements including NFRs
Solution Structuring: Demonstrates working knowledge of service offering and products