Solution Design & Architecture Manager

Job description

UniOps’ purpose unleashes the power of people, experiences, technology, data, and performance to deliver experiences that grow, fuel, and protect Unilever and our stakeholders.   

 

The Data and Analytics (D&A) team plays a critical role in driving Unilever’s Growth and Fuel for Growth, empowering our people to make smarter and faster decisions to unlock value. Our vision is to transform Unilever to become truly Data Intelligent, delivering superior performance through data-driven decisions. 

About D&A – Context and Vision  

Digital technology is transforming business, creating huge amounts of data. Our belief is that those companies that can truly harness data and deploy analytics at scale, will be those that succeed in the future. 

Our vision is to elevate data and data use across Unilever, to transform Unilever into a Data-Intelligent enterprise, where every decision and action is powered by the best data and advanced analytics (AI) to deliver on our business goals. It’s about empowering our employees, helping them to make smarter and faster decisions and freeing up their capacity to focus on growth and the decisions that matter. Decisions about our categories, brands, channels, key markets, and our people.  

We are helping to lead Unilever into the Future of Work, combining the best of human intelligence and machine through data-intelligent decision-making.  

 

Who we are and what we do  

We are a passionate team of over 350 data experts, data scientists, information experts, technical specialists, and business analysts. We operate as ‘One D&A’, made up of Global engagement and expertise teams, based in our key hubs including India, the UK, and US, and local UniOps in Market D&A teams, based in our key markets. Together, we combine the best of global for scale and efficiency, and local for intimacy and impact.  

 

‘We are in the midst of a paradigm shift where the intelligence of machines will complement human ingenuity to do good, do better and smarter” – Sanjiv Mehta, Unilever President, South Asia 

 

Our key objectives as D&A are to:  

 Set the Unilever data strategy and lay the foundations to maximise the value of our data​.  

Deliver the connected Data Platform to accelerate access to integrated and trusted data at scale across the company for analytics and decisions​.  

Embed core data and analytics capabilities, leading to automation, AI, and Big Data to boost Unilever’s decision intelligence.  

Lead the Data and Analytics Culture to build a future-fit workforce that values and adopts data-intelligent decision-making across all levels.  

We are also passionate about powering our growth with purpose, building a diverse and inclusive team and culture, for example through our #WomenInData program, and continuing to innovate in the use of data and AI to meet our sustainability goals.   

 

This is an exciting new role in the Data & Analytics, which is tasked to deliver maximum value from data to drive business and organization performance. 

Role Profile   

Unilever is going through a major transformation journey. The ambition is to become a data intelligent company. To increase its data capabilities, we are looking for an experienced technical solution design manager that will help enabling our strategy through the design of robust, reliable, performing and cost effective technical solutions. 

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Solution Architect with a strong background in Azure Cloud to join our team as a key member of our architecture practice. As a Solution Architecture Lead, you will play a critical role in designing and delivering innovative cloud-based solutions that align with our business objectives and meet the needs of our clients. This is an excellent opportunity for an individual with a deep understanding of Azure and extensive experience in architecting cloud solutions. 

 

Key Accountabilities                                                                                                                             

·  Architect and design analytical solutions to meet functional and non-functional requirements over Azure Cloud which is cost optimized 

·  Design architecture and produce solution design artifacts  

·  Design and implement effective database solutions and data models to store and retrieve company data 

·  Experienced with data warehousing concepts to design a dimensional model which can support a good analytical solution 

·  Evangelize re-use through implementation of shared assets 

·  Provide insight and direction on roles and responsibilities required for solution operations 

·  Ability to balance what is strategically right with what is practically realistic 

All About You

Essential :  

·  Minimum of 8+ years overall IT industry experience 

·  Minimum of 2+ years in a solution architecture role using service and hosting solutions over Azure Cloud 

·  Experience in architecting and designing technical end to end solutions by understanding business requirements leveraging Microsoft Azure PaaS services with Azure Data factory, Azure Databricks, SQL Pool, Azure Analysis Services, ADLS, Logic App, Log Analytics. Basic knowledge of Power BI required. Knowledge of Synapse Analytics/Web app/Data science will be added advantage 

·  Minimum 3+ years’ experience in data management, data warehousing and modelling with star schema, optimizing data models. 

·  Strong experience in creating semantic analytical layer in Tabular models within Azure Analysis services/PBI datasets leveraging star schema and help and guide team to troubleshoot performance optimization of models 

·  Experience in Databricks spark/python language to guide on engineering methods, standards to build an optimized solution to process and curate the data  

·  Good technical architecture skills, enabling the creation of future-proof, complex global solutions 

·  Enforce adherence to architectural standards/principles, global product-specific guidelines, usability design standards, cost optimization etc. 

·  Experienced in infrastructure cost assessment and monitoring and provide cost effective solutions 

·  Knowledge of cloud security controls including tenant isolation, encryption at rest, encryption in transit, key management, vulnerability assessments, application firewalls 

·  Excellent interpersonal communication and organizational skills that are required to operate as a leading member of global, distributed teams that deliver quality services and solutions. 

·  Demonstrates strong analytical and technical problem-solving skills 

·  Ability to rapidly gain knowledge of the organizational structure of the firm to facilitate work with groups outside of the immediate technical team. 

·  Maintains close awareness of new and emerging technologies and their potential application for service offerings and products. 

·  Experience building and supporting mission critical technology components with DR capabilities 

·  Experience with multi-tier system and service design and development for large enterprises 

Desirable:   

·  Azure certifications such as Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure DevOps Engineer, or related certifications like Databricks Data Engineering etc. 

·   Familiarity with cloud migration strategies, tools, and best practices, with hands-on experience in migrating applications and infrastructure to Azure. 

·  Optimize infrastructure costs on the Azure cloud, identify opportunities for resource consolidation, right-sizing, and implementing cost-effective solutions. 

·  Conduct thorough evaluations of existing systems and applications hosted on Azure, identifying performance bottlenecks, and recommending architectural improvements to enhance overall efficiency and responsiveness. 

·  Collaborate with data science teams to design and integrate Azure-based data solutions, enabling advanced analytics, machine learning, and data-driven decision-making across the organization. 

·  Knowledge of Power BI to develop interactive and insightful data visualizations, empowering stakeholders to gain valuable insights from complex datasets. 

Leadership Skills   

Demonstrates strong "Inner game":  

· 
Strong Design Thinking/Agility and innovation mindset – intellectually curious, constantly looking to develop, embraces change with sense of urgency and enjoys positively challenging status quo  

· 
Personal drive and ability to inspire and engage others towards action  

· 
Personal mastery –emotionally resilient; always bringing the best of themselves  

Demonstrates great "Outer game":  

· 
Credible business acumen – shows understanding of business, commercials and performance metrics.  Has gravitas to effectively influence senior stakeholder within a functional and business context  

· 
Encourages experimentation, bringing the outside in, and intelligent risk taking  

· 
Brings the voice of the consumer and internal customer into everything they do  

· 
Passion for high performance – creating motivation and focus to drive execution at speed  

· 
A talent catalyst – encouraging collaboration and inclusivity, empowering teams to be their best 

What do we offer: 

From our foundation, Unilever has been a purpose-driven company. Today, our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace. We are working to create a brighter future every day with brands and services that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. That includes us – the people who work for Unilever, as well as the world around us. Unilever’s flexible rewards and benefits are designed to help us all have sustainable households, for whatever life stage you are at now and in the future.  

These include: 

· 
Great work environment  

· 
Flexible work environment built on trust and autonomy  

· 
Pension scheme 

· 
Employee Assistance Program for you and your family 

· 
Well-being hub with access to benefits such as Healthcare, eye tests, health checks, occupational physio

We are a key advocate of well-being and offer a variety of support for our people including hubs, programmes, and development opportunities. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.  

And last but certainly not least - the chance to be a part of a dynamic team with the backing of the globally renowned Unilever brand.  

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion  

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities, and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing the development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.