Senior Solution Architect (GUIDEWIRE)

‍We are currently looking for a Solutions Architect to be based in London on a full-time basis, reporting to the Head of Subsection – Architecture Delivery 

 We’re adding to our diverse team of experts and are looking to hire those who are committed to building a culture that enables the creation of innovative solutions for our business units and clients.

Responsibilities: 

• Develop application and system roadmaps associated with application transformation and migration
• Develop flexible, adaptable, modular, and reusable solution designs in collaboration with business stakeholders, business architects and the IT delivery team while ensuring alignment with Global Speciality and enterprise architecture standards.
• Be the accountable individual for the finalisation, acceptance and  approval of solutions you lead, by relevant stakeholders
• Support the definition of high-level target operating models, and prepare business cases in collaboration with change and business teams.  Present business cases for technical  solutions, for approval, funding and prioritisation
• Support the requirements gathering process to right-size initiatives and solution strategy. Support business process re-engineering with the objective to maximise core product utilisation and minimise custom builds.
• Uphold appropriate solution architecture governance processes and  tools while maintaining focus on design patterns  and technology standards
• Act as an enabler of Agile and DevSecOps  practices in collaboration with program delivery
• Review high-level designs with technical  leads and developers, review code, enforce best practices, assist with  debugging critical issues, and enforce performance testing to deliver  efficient and performant applications with near and offshore partners
• Be the responsible individual to identify  technology risk(s) of initiatives you are leading as an architect and   develop corresponding mitigation strategies in alignment with program   delivery
• Stay current on, evaluate and recommend the use of cutting-edge technologies and methods, considering their technical pros and limitations. Leverage the London market and technology trends to identify the business benefits of alternative technical solutions
• Create comprehensive solution  architecture specification documents and other required documentation for signoff by governance bodies
• Contribute to architecture repositories     (platforms, services, APIs, technical dept, etc.) and promote reuse across  the organisation
• Participate in company-wide strategic platform communities, ensuring that Global Markets’ needs and requirements are understood.
• Act as a liaison between divergent  business and IT teams to bring them together, mentor, share knowledge,  solve problems, design common reusable assets and maximise the use of  existing capabilities and frameworks
• Work closely with program managers and  delivery leads to identify key design activities and owners while ensuring  alignment and feasibility
• Support the infrastructure DevSecOps team  by defining all non-functional system requirements for the initiative and  ensuring that they are met

Knowledge and Skills

• Experience across the insurance lifecycle (e.g. UW, Claim, Policy Issuance, Billing)
• Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills, with thorough attention to detail.
• Excellent planning, documentation and problem-solving skills.
• Effective communication, facilitation, presentation & negotiation skills.
• Experience in delivering core insurance platform projects  (Guidewire preferred) in both greenfield and migration projects.
• Experience designing solutions beyond core insurance platforms, including integrations with document production solutions, ERP     solutions, and customer / agent-facing portals.
• Substantial knowledge of the system development life cycle and the scaled agile methodology. Certifications preferred.
• TOGAF certification is a significant plus.
• Demonstrate competence to work at the highest technical level of all phases of system architecture design, using state of the art rule/framework-based architecture, object-oriented component analysis and proficiency in web-based systems architecture, service-based architecture and enterprise application architecture.
• Ability to guide and mentor development teams on sound design and coding principles, best practices in API based,  Micro Services and Cloud technologies.
• Experience in integration architectures from Service Bus to API mediation and event bus models.
• Strong knowledge of contemporary technologies and insurance business trends allows architecture to solve problems creatively and cost-effectively.
• Experience developing roadmaps outlining     the evolution of the enterprise application portfolio from current to     desired state
• Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science or related tech discipline or equivalent work experience
• Deep Knowledge and proven hands-on  experience with cloud technologies
•  6+ years of architecture experience  in core insurance platforms
• Demonstrated leadership skills

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