The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is a leading scientific and technology research organisation that researches, develops, localises and diffuses technologies to accelerate socio-economic prosperity in South Africa. The organisations work contributes to industrial development and supports a capable state.
Enterprise Architect
About The Job
The CSIR has a vacancy for an Enterprise Architect in the ICT Services portfolio. The incumbent will be responsible for defining, refining and managing the Business, Information Systems and Technology domain architectures (business, process, information, data and application and technology) within the overall business so that the CSIRs strategic objectives are enabled through cost-effective, scalable and functionally complete systems. In addition, the job is to provide thought leadership in the appropriate use of technology, Information Systems architectures, and industry standards adoption. This position is based in Pretoria.
People
Key responsibilities:
Oversee, mentor, coach and provide technical assistance to systems analysts, business analysts, and other technical specialists on business, application, and technology architecture
Strategy And Planning
Collate information and create reports and insights to support strategic management processes.
- Maintain awareness of the global needs of the organisation.
- Promote the benefits that a common approach to technology deployment will bring to stakeholders.
- Influence information and records management policies and standard practice.
- Identify risks around the use of information. Recommend remediation actions as required to stakeholders.
- Contribute to creating and reviewing a systems capability strategy which meets the businesss strategic requirements.
- Monitor the external environment to gather intelligence on emerging technologies and recommend and influence changes to the ICT strategy and technology roadmap.
- Provide expert advice and guidance to stakeholders on planning, designing, and implementing sustainability solutions.
- Evaluate and select sustainability methods, tools, and practices to be used in line with agreed policies and standards.
- Contribute to the development of information security policy, standards, and guidelines.
- Advise on the application and operation of elementary procedural and technical security controls.
- Interpret information assurance and security policies and apply these to manage risks.
- Provide expert advice and guidance on implementing personal data legislation controls in ERP products, services, and systems to stakeholders.
- Determine requirements and specify effective business processes, through improvements in technology, information or data practices, organisation, roles, procedures, and equipment.
- Analyse enterprise business context (trends and business strategy), as well as change requirements in other enterprise architecture (EA) viewpoints, to derive the Enterprise Information Systems Architecture (EISA) future state. This includes defining the requirements, principles and models that guide technology decisions for the enterprise.
- Understand, advocate, and augment the business and ICT strategies and, more specifically, EA development and service delivery. Be prepared to sell the overall EA process, its outcome, and ongoing results, and to lead the communication or marketing activities needed to ensure EISA success and use.
- Define high-level migration plans to address the gaps between the current and future state, ensuring that it is in sync with the IT budgeting process.
- Promote the benefits that a common approach to technology deployment will bring to the business.
- Coordinate and collaborate with others on the promotion, acquisition, development, and implementation of information systems and services.
- Oversee information systems implementation and modification activities, particularly for new or shared solutions. Design or approve enterprise and solution architectures. Consult on complex application development projects to harmonise systems with the EISA and identify when it is necessary to modify the EISA to accommodate immediate or future project needs.
- Oversee and facilitate the research, evaluation and selection of hardware and software technology and product standards, as well as the design of standard configurations to ensure alignment to the EA principles and to realise the Enterprise.
- Architecture Vision: Conduct Enterprise Architecture Reviews in line with the CSIR EA Framework.
- Architecture methodology: Identify the organisational impact (for example, on skills, processes, structures, and culture) and financial impact of the EISA to ensure the effective and sustainable implementation of the EISA.
- Monitor the external environment to gather intelligence on emerging technologies.
- Assess and document the impacts, threats, and opportunities to the organisation.
- Create reports and technology roadmaps and share knowledge and insights with others.
- Develop, direct and influence enterprise information technology implementation roadmaps to enable the achievement of the business strategic objectives and to align and meet the Enterprise Vision Architecture.
- Lead the analysis of the current technology environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement. In addition, lead the analysis of information systems.
- Collaborate with stakeholders and specialists to get the information required for feasibility assessment.
- Advise on the selection of feasibility assessment approaches and techniques relevant to the business situation and options.
- Conduct feasibility studies and develop feasibility reports.
- Prepare business cases, including cost/benefit, impact, and risk analysis for each technology option.
- Develop and present business cases to acquire appropriate technologies that will realise the Enterprise Information Systems Architecture (EISA).
- Define metrics to measure and demonstrate EISA value.
- Contribute to organisational policies, standards, and guidelines for measurement.
- Devise and ensure implementation of master data management processes.
- Contribute to the planning of effective data storage, sharing and publishing within the organisation. Assess issues that might prevent the organisation from making maximum use of its information assets.
- Provide expert advice and guidance to enable the organisation to get maximum value from its data assets.
- Develop data architectures and other relevant data management processes.
- Review business cases (requirements, potential benefits, and options) and determine appropriate procurement routes.
- Use market knowledge to develop specifications and contribute to pre-qualification questionnaires and tender invitations.
- Collect and collate data to support collaboration and negotiate terms and conditions to reflect the scale of requirements and encourage good performance.
- Evaluate tenders based on specification and evaluation criteria, prepare acceptance documentation, and advise on contracts and service level agreements.
- Source and collect supplier contract performance data, investigate problems, and monitor performance against key performance indicators and contract terms.
- Monitor and report on supplier performance and customer satisfaction.
- Validate suppliers performance as per contract terms.
- Engage proactively and collaboratively with suppliers to resolve incidents, problems, or unsatisfactory performance.
- Monitor progress against business objectives specified in the business case.
- Proactively manage risk and reward mechanisms in the contract.
- Identify and report underperformance and develop opportunities for improvement.
- Monitor compliance with terms and conditions and take appropriate steps to address non-compliance.
- Identify where change is required and plan for variations.
- Ensure, in consultation with stakeholders, that change management protocols are implemented.
- Assist with designing the governance activities associated with ensuring EISA compliance.
- Govern and develop documentation relating to EISA design and analysis work to ensure compliance to the EA framework and visibility of the current and future state architectures.
- Provide definitive and expert advice in their specialist area.
- Actively maintain recognised expert level knowledge in one or more identifiable specialisms.
- Support and promote the development and sharing of specialist knowledge within the organisation.
- A Bachelors degree (NQF Level 7) in Computer Science/engineering, information technology.
- Five to eight years in experience and a proven track record in ICT of which a minimum of;
- Two to four years in an ICT supervisory position.
- 5 years in design and implementation of ICT solutions and/or Enterprise Architectures experience, with a strong knowledge of application development, middleware, and database management.
- Two to four years in application architecture design.
- Two years in business architecture/business requirements design.
- One to two years in data architecture design.
- Exposure to multiple, diverse technical configurations, technologies and processing environments.
- People management.
- Project management.
- Understanding industry standards and regulations.
- Communication and engagement with senior executives influencing stakeholder acceptance of appropriate ICT solutions.
- Knowledge of and competence in the provision of ICT Strategy services including:
- Knowledge of components of a holistic Enterprise Architecture.
- Ability to translate business needs into Enterprise Architecture requirements.
- Knowledge of international information security standards.
- Technical knowledge of the software development lifecycle, data management related ICT infrastructures and standards in the data sciences related disciplines.
- Ability to contrast the design options benefits and provide a recommendation.
- Creativity and innovation with the ability to lead a team in a fast-paced, multi-disciplinary environment.
- Ability to balance the long-term and short-term implications of individual decisions.
- Ability to remain neutral towards technology, vendor and product choices, as well as to be more interested in results than in personal preferences.
- Solid experience, knowledge of project portfolio management, associated methodologies and application thereof.
- Knowledge of continuous improvement processes, process control and enhancement.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Knowledge of various systems development models and frameworks.
PLEASE NOTE THAT FEEDBACK WILL BE GIVEN TO SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES ONLY.
For more info, please email us at Recruitmentinfo@csir.co.zaPlease do-not send applications to this mailbox, it is only for inquiries.
The CSIR is an equal opportunity employer. As such, it is committed to the employment Equity Act and will through the filling of this vacancy, give preference to candidates from designated groups in terms of the Employment Equity Act. By applying for this position at the CSIR, the applicant understands, and agrees that the CSIR may solicit a credit and criminal report from registered credit bureau and/or South African Police Services (in relation to positions that requires trust and honesty and/or entail the handling of cash or finances) and may also verify the applicants educational qualification and employment history. The CSIR reserves the right to remove the advertisement at any time before the stated closing date and it further reserves the right not to appoint if a suitable candidate is not identified.
