Solutions Architect (Merchandise Planning) Full Time

Cloudstream

Our Product & Supply Chain IT team are looking for a Domain Solution Architect to have oversight across our Merchandising and Product Planning domain. This role will be based out of London or Leeds.

The Solutions Architect will create the high-level IT solution design, based on business requirements, to meet quality and performance requirements while navigating any technical constraints. The candidate will be expected to be passionate about technology, with an understanding of public cloud environments, web technologies, user centric design and preferably with experience/understanding of merchandising and planning technologies, virtual showroom or pricing solutions. Solution Architect is a business facing role working in partnership with the Senior Product Managers to interpret and translate requirements into a solution that is adaptive and can meet the ongoing demands of our business. Their primary focus in this role will be capability enablement across Merchandise Financial Planning, Margin Planning, Assortment Planning, Pricing and Virtual Showroom domains but, when necessary, will be expected to apply their skills in other areas of the business.

This is a great opportunity to join a forward thinking and continuously evolving organisation with a globally recognised brand, where you will partner with senior stakeholders across the business to shape the direction of Merchandise and Product Planning solutions and processes.

Responsibilities

• Develop an evolving solution architecture for projects across the Merchandise and Product Planning domain, addressing business function needs and ensuring alignment with known business function priorities and roadmaps, agreeing design changes and trade-offs where pragmatic.
• Ensure alignment with our roadmaps and enterprise architecture principles, standards and governance process.
• Build consensus for the proposed solution through engagement and communication with stakeholders.
• Where required, establish and direct innovation-led proof of concepts and make recommendations on technology adoption.
• Govern the delivery of the solution to ensure it meets the intended vision.
• Raise and resolve any architectural and project issues/risks and issues throughout the life cycle of any delivery projects, with relevant business function and IT project team(s).
• Work with the security and information risk functions to ensure any solution meet the needs of our security standards and principles.
• Ensure projects correctly account for solution infrastructure from an operational and supportability perspective and that all non-functional requirements (including SLAs for business continuity, availability and scalability, security) are addressed in the solution.
• Ensure that the solution architecture balances functional, service quality and operational management requirements but remains bound by relevant commercial, business function and technical constraints.
• Share and collaborate on technology solutions with other stakeholders, especially implementation partners to ensure skills are developed in-house and knowledge is retained.
• Communicate portfolio of content and reusable solutions to suppliers and partners, ensuring the most appropriate deployment of their technology and products as possible.
• Support wider IT relationship with technology vendors.

About you

• Provide architectural and technical leadership.
• Ability to collaborate with other architects in the creation or architectural artefacts, such as roadmaps, standards, and reference models.
• Ability to collaborate with product managers/business analysts to pragmatically balance architectural principles against business requirements to design sustainable solutions.
• Design end to end solutions that characterise what products or services are being proposed and how these services will be delivered.
• Solution Architecture experience delivering solutions using agile delivery methodologies and working with architecture governance processes.
• Experience of working and delivering in a complex and fast-moving environment.
• Outcome and delivery focused.
• Excellent consulting, communication and business facing skills with the ability to influence at all levels of the business.
• Experience with public cloud environments.
• Experience with web technologies and user centric design.
• Experience working with Retail Merchandise solutions such as Board, Blueyonder, Aptos etc highly desirable.
• Experience working with SAP ERP and cloud technologies desirable.
• Experience working for a Global Fashion/Retail company desirable.