Enterprise Architect Supply Chain & Finance

Job description

MAIN JOB PURPOSE:

Unilever is the global company behind powerhouse brands such as Dove, Persil and PG Tips. The Unilever corporate strategy (The Compass) sets out an ambitious growth and sustainability objective for Unilever.

Technology in Unilever is at the forefront of genuine globalisation. Technology touches every part of our organisation enabling our business to move faster and with more confidence than ever before. As the pace of business gets faster, and as consumer behaviours evolve more rapidly, technology is the way we create competitive advantage for Unilever. Technology helps Unilever to grow

The Enterprise Architecture (EA) team partners ETS teams to Select technologies and Architects them to fit within the enterprise environment; provides the Enterprise Architecture Standards for IT to work to; works with Unilever's IT Vendor partners to understand and drive their future Technology Roadmaps; and maintains the overall Unilever Reference Architecture of all technologies 'as-is' and 'to-be' to support Unilever's required business capabilities.

Enterprise Applications is the IT function responsible for developing, implementing and supporting the digital core system of Unilever landscape. It consists of four key areas: ERP, Finance, Supply Chain, and Research and Development systems, in addition to the overall integration platform. Enterprise Architect – Enterprise Applications will be part of the team supporting Enterprise Applications.

The Enterprise Architect role will:

·
Establish and maintain a very strong Trusted Partner Relationship to the Directors and teams being partnered.

· Provide EA support during big programme Technology Selection Decisions or Programme Architecture reviews, drawing expertise from the full EA team to support the process
· Produce the high-level Architecture Definition to overall direct the programmes solution architectures in their design activities.
· Maintain a strong set of technology architecture Principals, Standards, Guidelines and Positions
· Support their ETS team to understand architecture standards and where appropriate have exceptions to architecture approved.
· Maintain an overall Strategic Enterprise Reference Architecture view of business capabilities, the associated application/technology architectures (as-is, to-be, interim) and architecture views.
· Work closely with Vendors Product teams to maintain a strategic awareness of and influence the direction of the Roadmaps of our selected technologies and communicate these, together with associated viewpoints to ETS teams.
· Through the strong relationships built with the ETS technology teams, and in some cases through Evaluations/POC's, gain further learning's, and co-develop these into a set of Unilever technology Roadmaps.
· Support their ETS team during times of significant architectural issue with technologies being deployed.

Key Accountabilities:

Drive the right technology Selection Decisions for new Programmes, or those being reviewed. Working closely with colleagues within the ETS team being partnered, by:

·
Building an understanding of the business requirements

· Driving the identification of potential technology options, with the support of other EA's
· Driving insights and challenges during technology reviews
· Delivering further internal and external research on the proposed technologies, together with identifying synergies/risks to the wider Unilever Enterprise Architecture.
· Ensuring all the non-functional/architectural points are covered (e.g. Run aspects, TCO etc)
· Supporting the ETS team in the build up of the decision making material. Responsible for ensuring all relevant information is considered from an architectural perspective
· Supporting the recommendation and decision process across VP's, Director for EA, and CIO.
· Undertake reviews as ETS teams move to the next level of design and delivery to ensure it is still in line with the original Architecture Definition, and being there to support big issues

Maintain a strong set of technology architecture Principals, Standards, Guidelines and Positions :

·
Develop the artefacts in close collaboration with other EA's, ETS teams and external groups

· Gain approval through the appropriate governance
· Ensure there is awareness within the ETS team being partnered of artefacts produced by EA's
· Support the ETS team through an exception process where it becomes necessary

Maintain an overall Strategic Enterprise Reference Architecture view of business capabilities, the associated application/technology architectures (as-is, to-be, interim) and architecture views

·
Deliver the business capability architecture view, through collaboration with ETS teams

· Understand and update the as-is views
· Deliver the to-be views for capabilities
· Drive business improvements through the usage of information in the Reference Architecture

Work closely with Vendors Product teams to maintain a strategic awareness of, and influence the direction of the Roadmaps of our selected technologies and communicate these, together with associated viewpoints to ETS teams:

·
Build a strong working relationship with the technology vendors, communicating regularly

· Maintain an understanding of the technology current architectures, as well as roadmap plans and strategic direction for the products
· Gauge the roadmap and strategy with regards to update opportunities as well as risks they bring for Unilever, and where necessary do this by leading technical evaluations / POC's
· Build and maintain a strong external relationship with other organisations using the technologies. Share learning's and experiences with the organisations where appropriate and where relevant, bring these into Unilever for internal advantage
· Deliver constant, high quality updates to colleagues across EA and the wider ETS teams

Build and maintain a strong working relationship with all members of Enterprise Architecture, with responsibility for ensuring there is:

·
Awareness across the EA team of the business delivery programme activities and any architectural issues within the ETS team(s) the Enterprise Architect is partnering

· High level of quality support provided by the Enterprise Architect to EA activities,
· Quality collaboration of activities taking place across the EA team

Support their ETS team during times of significant architectural issue with technologies being deployed:

·
Building a working understanding of the issue and drawing in support from other Architects

· Leveraging the relationships built by EA's with technology vendor partners, to help resolve the situation, either through immediate technology updates, support, or through future updates

Skills

· Knowledge of business models, operating models, financial models, cost-benefit analysis, budgeting and risk management
· Familiarity with information management practices, system development life cycle management, IT services management, infrastructure and operations, and EA and ITIL frameworks
· Knowledge of business ecosystems, SaaS, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), SOA, APIs, open data, microservices, event-driven IT and predictive analytics
· Exposure and understanding of existing, new and emerging technologies, and processing environments
· Exceptional soft and interpersonal skills, including teamwork, facilitation and negotiation
· Excellent analytical and technical skills
· Excellent written, verbal, communication and presentation skills
· Excellent planning and organizational skills
· Knowledge of all components of holistic enterprise architecture
· Knowledge of business engineering principles and processes
· Familiarity with basic graphical modelling approaches, tools and model repositories

Competencies

· Ability to translate business needs into EA requirements
· Ability to estimate the financial impact of EA alternatives
· Ability to apply multiple solutions to business problems
· Ability to rapidly comprehend the functions and capabilities of new technologies
· Ready to think, behave and act in an innovative consulting manner to drive the organization's digital business strategies
· Understand and speak the language of the business
· Influential in the organization and a team player
· Effective at driving short-term actions that are consistent with long-term goals

Characteristics

· Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders
· Comfortable, experienced and accomplished at working with business executives, and able to push back in a professional and diplomatic way
· Highly collaborative and supportive of business and of its ideals and strategies
· Vendor- and technology-neutral — more interested in business outcomes than in personal, or those business and IT leaders with vested personal preferences
· Unflappable in the face of opposition to architectural ideals
· Practical in approach to decision making and problem solving that is principle-based