Director, Application Cloud (Azure) Architect

Role profile

We are seeking a leader who can combine deep cloud expertise with application knowledge to lead transformational change within the LSEG Microsoft Partnership. The role will focus on the application value chains overseeing the application and data migration to the heavily collaborating with application architects and our partners responsible for the cloud migrations.  The role will have deep technical expertise on application architecture/designs,  IaaS/PaaS platforms for data, content creation/curation/master, identity access management, analytics, data sciences, and other technology cloud capabilities.

This role will lead will champion the technical and cultural shift to the cloud and successfully oversee design execution of the cloud migration strategy by understanding current state application challenges, drive our migration roadmap, help identify creative solutions and provide expert technical leadership to achieve successful execution of the program with least business disruption. The candidate will be a high-caliber, multi-dimensional engineer with a proven track record of cloud migrations specifically engaging in agile application & infrastructure solutions design at scale. The ideal candidate should have a reputation for building strong technology solutions and teams leveraging Agile practices, can navigate difficult conversations and influence others, and understands how to get things done.  The ideal candidate must have a deep software engineering background, strong knowledge and experience with Azure Cloud migrations, agile execution experience, and at least 5+ years’ experience leading design/architecture efforts for multiple large scale cloud programs (i.e., 5-yr, ~$300M programs).  The head of Cloud Application Architecture will define, create, communicate and ensure adherence to architecture design, principles, guidelines and solutions across the cloud transformation program.

They must demonstrate proven expertise leading teams to understand business strategies, envision and prioritize business capabilities, and design solutions that involve creating and providing business and technology implementation road maps and technology architecture recommendations, utilizing tools and techniques to develop and implement project phases.  The leader must bring strong thought leadership around innovation and agility seeking out opportunities for simplification, capability enablement and standardization of the engineering solutions landscape, instituting best practices and lowering costs; In addition, with an eye towards improving business operations, he/she will focus on vendor contracts and negotiations with a charter to improve the way the organization operates.  Finally, the ability to collaborate and influence other directors, executives and the team and develop a strong leadership pipeline is an important factor for success.

Key responsibilities of the role

• Provide design leadership over a a set of large cloud migration factory teams supporting migrations across multiple portfolios
• Define, lead and maintain the cloud application architecture and drive alignment to business strategy for the group. Define end to end application NFT requirements and design patterns as part of the solution sets.
• Define develops and manage / lead the technical governance process related to application architecture for the group.
• Drive consensus through leadership, technical expertise and strong communication skills within the Engineering and Product community and our strategic partners for all group wide application architectures
• Identify and evaluate potential technology, data and partners that can potentially help deliver digital innovations including research/evaluating solutions (applications, data, cloud and infrastructure).
• Support the design and implementation of Cloud and microservices architecture and evangelizing best practices across the group
• Identify areas to improve through technical innovation and the elimination of waste and participate in the evaluation and onboarding of new technologies and tools
• Publish strategies, policies related to architecturally relevant topics
• Conduct architecture and code reviews as required/requested by the various product teams.

Leadership capability

• Candidate will have a proven track record with research and solution delivery across a wide range of digital capabilities as well as proven skills in application architecture development and governance. First-hand experience with technical cloud application architecture, large system integrators, software solutions as well as start-ups and/or technology firms is a must. Candidate will have first-hand experience with implementing cloud application architecture to technology solution delivery on a global level and have a reputation for being a catalyst for organisational change.
• A breadth of experience across several engineering areas is required for this opportunity, including knowledge of processes, roles and accountabilities; key business and technical metrics; agile solution delivery; IaaS/PaaS/SaaS integration; governance; vendor management. Given the strategic and forward-looking nature of this leadership role in the organization, the ideal candidate will have direct experience working with different business segments and products
• Expertise is expected in application architecture, cloud architecture and cloud computing capabilities (preferably Azure, AWS), microservices integration, governance/standards advanced analytics and modeling and digital strategies. Experience with a wide range of business applications and vendor software solutions. Experience with third party data and services integration is important as well, especially in the areas of product development. A proven track record of successful multi-vendor outsourcing is expected.
• Leadership in an engineering transformation role with accountability for application architectures used to support creating client-driven transformation solutions throughout the transformation lifecycle.
• Development & alignment with internal teams to develop business cases, budgetary estimates and resource commitment to support application roadmaps (via architecture dependencies and prioritization)
• Developing and translating end-state business and technology models (conceptual, logical, physical, as-built) into  application architectural blueprints: understand and document existing business systems and technology; gather, analyze and articulate high-level business capabilities and requirements; formulate business and technical solutions; develop architecture diagrams, drawings, visual and communications; identify, assess and select alternative solutions

Experience and skills required

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field. Masters preferred.
• Seasoned experience of application architecture, solution delivery, software engineering experience, with a proven track record of leading large-scale projects.
• Exposure to event high performance computing, event driven, big data analytics, machine learning
• Strong understanding of large scale system, information and technology architectures, including application integration patterns, messaging, service-oriented architecture, information models, and data lineage.
• Significant breadth and depth of technologies in the areas of: Cloud solutions and deployments, preferably Azure; Services patterns, application containers, and API gateway management capabilities
• Broad background across numerous technology disciplines. Maintains active, up-to-date software engineering skills
• 15+ years of professional experience in Information Technology
• Must have 5+ years of Design experience leading large programs or transformation initiatives at the Executive level, managing multiple, cross-functional teams or projects, and influencing senior-level management and key stakeholders.
• Experience with the following te