Job Description
We are looking for Solution Architects to join Technology Services at Boots Nottingham Support Office.
Please make an application promptly if you are a good match for this role due to high levels of interest.
Reporting to the Lead Solution Architect, your role will be to produce IT infrastructure high-level designs and proposals in response to internal customer requests and project demands.
You will ensure customer requirements are clearly understood and then work with the wider Architect community, service owners and subject matter experts to deliver cost effective, supportable end-to-end high-level designs, adhering to enterprise strategy, roadmaps, standards, security and service capability.
Who we are
International Technology & Advanced Analytics (IT2A) is a multi-national function of Walgreens Boots Alliance based in the UK, Europe, Asia, South America and the USA. We leverage emerging technology and robust data to transform our pharmacy and retail offerings, improve experiences for customers and patients and enhance operational effectiveness for team members. Partnering with some of the finest tech providers and utilising a cutting-edge tech stack, we support two of the UK’s most trusted and established brands - Boots and No7 – in personalising their customer interactions. We’re an innovative team of specialists spanning security, hosting, architecture, software engineering, networks, project delivery and more. A proud equal opportunity employer, we passionately embrace team member diversity and provide a positive and inclusive working environment for all.
About the role
Key responsibilities
- Produce high-level designs, concentrating on the consumption of existing platforms and services. Working to make sure the agreed business requirements and desired outcomes are achieved in-line with strategy and architecture, are cost effective, deliverable and supportable
- Ensure high-level designs are understood by everyone in the project team, including managed service partners and other shared services who produce low-level designs. Ratify alignment of low-level designs and build work with the high-level design. Re-approval must be sort for any divergence through change control and any ensuing technical debt captured and managed
- Provide technical consultancy and leadership throughout the whole project life cycle. During construction, if issues are encountered, work with the project manager and build teams to formulate alternative approaches and mitigation plans to keep delivery goals on track
- Participate in governance bodies, for the approval of high-level designs, along with quality assurance in divisional and broader group IT governance
- Be an active team member of the Solution Architect team and support colleagues through peer reviews, compliance checks, due diligence, and help promote a ‘right first time’ culture
- Contribute to the creation and maintenance of design patterns, standards, and design blocks to facilitate wider consistency and promote re-use of design elements, delivery at pace, quality assurance and cost efficiencies
Technical skills required
Strong understanding and functional experience in a mix of any of these areas:
- Public Cloud technologies – Azure Cloud. Full range of IaaS, PaaS, SaaS products including Azure App services, Azure SQL and Cosmos DB
- Microsoft 365 – Full product stack and supporting technologies, including Cloud PC
- Microsoft Enterprise product suite – Windows Server, AD, ADFS, NPS, DHCP, DNS, Cluster services Network solutions –Switching, routing, wireless, load balancers, VPN, MPLS WAN, SD-WAN, QoS, ACI, Azure ExpressRoute
- Security solutions – Email, Endpoint, Web, firewalls, IPS, IDS, WAF, PKI, VPN, MFA and other identity management services
- Server infrastructure – Virtualisation, storage, managed backup, hyper-converged platforms
- Experience in Unix and Linux – AIX and Red Hat Enterprise
- Databases platforms – Oracle, DB2, MS SQL, MySQL, operating in clustered environments
- SAP – SAP infrastructure architecture across multiple SAP components and versions operating across SAP RISE, Azure Cloud and on-premise. Associated experience of high availability patterns, resilience, backup and recovery
- Client mobility – Mobile device and app management, InTune, AirWatch
- Telephony and collaboration –VOIP platforms across an international setting. Microsoft Teams voice integration
What you’ll need to have
- Broad knowledge and experience of solution areas including infrastructure, transformation and migration, security, business analysis, applications, integration, service management and understands how all these interact to arrive to an end-to-end solution
- Ability to rapidly understand the business, commercial and technical requirements to write clear and concise technical high-level designs is vital
- Excellent interpersonal, communication and influencing skills are essential. Must be able to lead workshops and reduce complex ideas to simple terms and express rationale for decision making to both a technical and non-technical audience
- Be looking for a challenging workplace and capable of working in a high-output environment. Has a high degree of self-management and motivation to prioritise multiple tasks and deadlines with competing demands
- Experience with complex projects and programmes, requiring highly available, disaster recovery and business continuity compliant systems in a large international enterprise
It would be great if you also have
- Knowledge of formal methodologies and frameworks – TOGAF, ITIL, AGILE
- Working knowledge of data protection and compliance standards of PCI-DSS and GDPR
- Experience of middleware technologies –Software AG
- Containerisation, microservices and orchestration technologies – Kubernetes, Docker
- Knowledge and experience of identity federation and authentication – oAuth2, OpenID Connect or SAML
Our benefits
- Boots Retirement Savings Plan
- Generous employee discount plus enhanced discounts for Boots brands, Boots Opticians and Boots Hearingcare
- Excellent onsite facilities including staff shop, opticians (including free eye tests for team members), gym, cafeteria and outdoor seating
What’s next?
If your application is successful, our recruitment team will be in touch to arrange an interview and to answer any initial questions you have. If you have not been successful on this occasion, you will be notified by email.
We are always open to discussing possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you, including job share and reduced hours. If you require additional support as part of the application and interview process, we are happy to provide reasonable adjustments to enable you to be at your best.