Fosterra Consulting Group Looking for Lead Architect at Christchurch Central, Canterbury Full Time

• Strategic Level senior IT role
• Establish and Manage a small Team of Enterprise & Solutions Architects
• Digital, Applications, Data and Process focus

Reporting to the CIO, this exciting newly created senior IT role is to establish and build an IT Architecture practice within one of New Zealand’s largest organization.  The company is growing its IT architecture capacity from 1 to 4 people.

Purpose of the Role

You will be responsible for building a holistic vision and roadmap of the company’s technology, processes, applications and data strategy.  The Lead Architect partners with both business and technology groups to help establish the enterprise architecture and ensure that the proposed technical solutions align with the company’s overall objectives. 

The role demands close working relationships with the Executive Leadership Team and Senior Managers to understand the business strategy and convert this into working technology solutions.  There is an initial 18-to-24-month period where the focus will be on the integration of the new ERP system into the existing MES systems.  The Architecture must be defined to align with the future state digital strategy which will include digitisation of the supply chain and sales to end customer.

This includes:

• Leads the strategic direction of the organisation’s IT capabilities including the integration of the new ERP and adoption of a strategy which will consider operational technology requirements.  This should cover all aspects of the digital transformation from suppliers to end customers.  
• Define technology that supports the business strategy and ensures that technology being selected is fit for purpose and does not incur technology debt to the organisation.  All architecture design and recommendations must consider future state requirements and be aligned to the digital strategy.  
• Is responsible for the overall architecture of the organisation, initiating and overseeing annual reviews of the technology suite, ensuring that old technologies are being retired as new technologies are being introduced into the organisation.  This is to ensure a continuous improvement of the technology stack supporting the 2035 business strategy.

Your Skills and Capability

You need to be able to demonstrate your ability to join the dots between the business strategy and the existing/future technology.  Its not about what you can personally do with technology rather what you understand and know about technology and how it can be used to influence and enhance a business’s performance and profitability.

Skills and experience we are seeking include:

• Deep knowledge of architectural methodologies and frameworks
• Excellent technical, analytical, and project management skills
• Strong People Management skills specifically managing technical staff
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills that supports collaboration and builds and maintains relationships at all levels of an organization.
• Demonstrated experience in creating, maintaining and fostering strong relationships with Business, external stakeholders and internal ICT staff.
• Strong analytical skills and able to examine business systems, determine trends and develop ways to streamline processes

Specialist knowledge includes:

• Deep knowledge of cloud services architectures, security and design patterns and modern development practices including development and deployment frameworks.

• Experienced in analysing issues and removing complexities so that logical solutions can be presented to all levels of the business.

For a confidential discussion or to acquire the position description, please contact Richard Foster on 021 85 45 45.   Alternatively, to submit an application press the APPLY button and follow the steps, include your CV as an attached Microsoft Word document.

FOSTERRA HR & Recruitment is one of two agencies exclusively managing this recruitment process.