Principal Solution Architect

Our Healthcare Insurance client is seeking a Principal Solution Architect to join their team for a possible contract to hire role!

Our client has over 5,000 employees and is the number 1 health insurer in the state of North Carolina, serving more than 3.89 million customers. Health care is changing, and our client is leading the way by providing innovative solutions that simplify the health care system, improve efficiency and outcomes, and help rein in costs. Our client is a not-for-profit with headquarters in Durham, NC.

Position: Principal Solution Architect
Term: 6 + Months, Possible Contract to Hire
Location: ** While the position is Remote, work from home, to be eligible to convert to an employee of this company, you must reside in North Carolina or one of the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming

Required Skills 

• Bachelor’s Degree and 10 years of progressive experience in a combination of IT development, design, and/or architecture disciplines with at least 2 years of solution architecture experience. If no degree, 12 years of progressive experience in a combination of IT development, design, and/or architecture disciplines.
• Minimum of 3 years of solution architecture, designing, describing, and managing the solution engineering in relation to specific business problems. Has supervised leading the practice and introducing the overall technical vision for a particular solution to stakeholders.
• Must have exposure to multiple, diverse technical integrations, technologies, and processing environments
• Experience in solution design principles, practices, system development methodologies, and software life cycles with experience in a combination of system and application architectures is required.
• Experience coordinating vendor solution delivery and partnering effectively with vendors to meet business needs
• AWS (Priority)
• Snowflake
• Kafka - uses and provide end to end solutions

• Data Streaming - falls under same the same patterns
•  Events - action triggered to use streaming architecture to move the data.
• Healthcare experience required (other BC's or other payers, providers, or insurance)
• IT Governance and Architecture as it relates to Standards, Patterns, Decisions and Specifications.
• Lead in driving the solution and obtain approvals and other information based on new technologies
• Familiar with JSON and XML - this helps on the project.

Desired Skills 

• Experience in leading technical teams.
• Knowledge and understanding of (preferred):
• Regulatory and legislative impact on health plans
• Health insurance and plan administration
• Experience mentoring development team members
• Strong visual modeling skills using UML, JSON and XML
• Knowledge in AWS, Kafka, Kubernetes and other skillsets
• Broad knowledge of middleware and client-server technologies, as well as specific knowledge of Java and Microsoft technologies, is desirable
• Coordinate architectural design collaboration for work involving:

• Experience with object-oriented system architectures utilizing use cases, Agile and Waterfall methodologies is preferred.
• Diagraming experience with ArchiMate, Draw.IO, and Visio is preferred.
•  Works effectively with clients to document requirements by conducting interviews and facilitating Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions.
• Understand business behavior patterns and patterns of information and technology and how they work together to enable the business to achieve its strategic and tactical goals.
• Must be able to demonstrate through leadership in the field of IT
• Understanding of application design principles, practices, system development methodologies, and software life cycles with experience in a combination of system and application architectures.
• Prefer a certification in at least one facet of IT architecture

Description/Comment:
Serve as the Senior Solution Architect on a given full Software Development Life Cycle project and vendor work, developing, maintaining, and reviewing application architecture throughout the project. May include leading proof-of-technology activities.

• Provide leadership in the development and adherence to all applicable standards, application portfolio strategy, service level agreements, and processes (i.e., Walkthrough and Approval processes, Program/System documentation, Status Reporting, Escalation, Change Management, Problem Management, Software Development Methodology, etc.).
• Ability to work up to 5 or more projects simultaneously and yield successful project deployment.
• Ensure vendor work is accurately and thoroughly reviewed and meets all applicable standards; identify gaps and/or opportunities in work to meet long term corporate goals.
• Contribute to and apply IT industry best practices.
• Participate in and/or lead a cross-functional IT Architecture groups that review designs from an enterprise level.
• Participate in the design review process and support the overall Enterprise Architecture Management process. Also, influence and drive change to architecture processes, strategies, and standards, as needed.
• Support and mentor Junior Solution Architects.
• Accountable for key design reviews and recommendations to management and IT Architecture and Governance, including:

               -Selection and review of structural elements and their interfaces, by which a system is composed
               -Behavior as specified in collaborations about those elements
               -Composition of these structural and behavioral elements into larger subsystems
               -Architectural system that guides this organization
               -Architectural documentation creation and stewardship

• Support pre-project efforts in terms of working with the user team or vendor during meetings/presentations, crafting conceptual solutions, assisting with time estimates, and documenting designs.
• Develop Solution Architecture Models and Documentation (key written project deliverable) and/or oversee and approve the creation of architecture documentation.
• Provide technical expertise/coaching for others (i.e., AWS, Kafka, Kubernetes, Data Streaming); facilitate the development and provide direction on integration design patterns around services and interfaces; and monitor application architecture related to other areas of IS, the business community, and outside vendors to ensure the relevance of architecture to meet business needs.
• Collaborate with the broader architecture community to provide input into IT strategies and standards.
• Research and facilitate the development and review of the solution, integration, workflow, and web service standards.
• Facilitate conversations (JAD Sessions) with business and applicable vendors to drive out capability needs and outcomes
• Provide architectural leadership that supports insightful decision making, drive efficiencies in the development process, and maximizes the quality of technical deliverables.
• Create or review IT plans that manage clear and realistic expectations of what technology can offer in terms of products, services, and delivery mechanisms.
• Establish, maintain, and review enterprise architecture models to enable application development and decision-supporting activities, consistent with IT plans.