Friedman Williams
Application Solution Architect Washington DC
Job ID: 19881
The Application Solution Architect is responsible for facilitating planning and design for the Firm’s global portfolio of applications. This role ensures that solutions are well-designed, secure, performant, able to meet evolving business needs, and comply with established technical standards. To achieve this, the Application Solution Architect partners with enterprise architecture, technical solution owners, and cross-functional stakeholders to unify solution roadmaps into a cohesive application strategy and establish intuitive, consistent solution design standards. They maintain a strong awareness of external industry trends, as well as the Firm’s critical business processes / operational workflows. The position requires an impactful technologist with a passion for solution design, who is equally effective at forging cross-functional partnerships to inspire collective intelligence. This individual demonstrates the ability to flex between the strategic and the tactical, challenge the status-quo with respect and organizational savvy, and infuses a high level of energy and flexibility to get things done and thrive in a fast-paced, team-oriented project / product development environment.
Duties and Responsibilities:
• Leads the strategic design and planning process and standards for applications globally, in close partnership with Application Solutions leadership, enterprise architecture and technical solution owners.
• Unifies all roadmaps across Application portfolio teams, and aligns plans with the Infrastructure Solution Architect and Enterprise Architect to form a cohesive IT Strategic roadmap
• Supports all architectural disciplines and champions’ architectural initiatives.
• Reviews existing business processes / workflow and translates desired capabilities into solution designs and forward-looking plans.
• Partners with Application Solutions leadership to facilitate the discovery, evaluation, and justification for application products and technologies.
• Interacts and negotiates with vendors, outsourcers, and contractors to secure application products and services.
• Leads and facilitates the creation of governing design principles to guide decision making.
• Works on complex system implementation projects to translate sophisticated technical design and integration needs into intuitive business solutions.
• Aligns architecture strategy with Firm goals and objectives.
• Develops and communicates solution standards, guidelines, and procedures, and actively works with IT leadership to implement across application solution teams.
• Contributes to development of technical / architectural and functional requirements.
• Ensures the conceptual completeness of the technical solutions.
• Provides strategic consultation to Firm and IT leaders.
• Works with Firm and IT leaders to understand business requirements and advises on options, risks, costs versus benefits, system impacts, and technology priorities.
• Works with IT leadership to establish and inform communication / change management plans for architectural decisions.
• Conducts and directs research and evaluation of emerging technology, industry, and market trends in close coordination with solution owners and teams.
• Ensures recommendations are based on business relevance, appropriate timing, and deployment risks.
• Partners with IT leadership to identify desired competencies, skill levels, and talents for the solution architecture discipline across functional teams.
• Uphold high standards of confidentiality, discretion, and integrity, particularly with respect to all sensitive and/or confidential firm and client information to which this position will have access.
Qualifications:
Education & Credentials
• College degree is strongly preferred, ideally in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline. Master’s degree is preferred
• Appropriate technical certification(s) are preferred
Knowledge & Experience
• 5+ years of relevant experience, ideally in a large Law Firm setting, a comparable professional services organization, or a legal information services provider
• Demonstrated experience developing application solution architecture design standards and processes
• Demonstrated experience working with technologies common to Legal Firms (e.g., Document Management Systems, Enterprise Collaboration Systems, Enterprise Financial Systems)
• Experience in leading teams through the process of breaking large business problems into logically sequenced solutions
• Experience in working with cross-functional technical and non-technical teams or projects, and influencing senior level management and key stakeholders
• Experience and expertise with cloud technologies and emerging solutions
• Knowledge of and exposure to multiple, diverse technologies, and processing environments
• Knowledge of all components of holistic enterprise architecture and business re-engineering principles and processes
Skills & Expectations
• Proven ability to conform to shifting priorities, demands, and timelines through analytical and problem-solving capabilities
• Ability to establish rapport and elicit cooperation from personnel across all levels, including executive management, and cross-functional leadership
• Ability to serve as a change agent, leading and inspiring others to act, especially under circumstances when change is unpopular
• Strong communications and interpersonal skills required
• Must be highly motivated, analytical, organized, and efficient
• Excellent problem solving and debugging skills required
• Ability to work well as part of a team and lead others
• Ability to present ideas in business-friendly and user-friendly language
• Keen attention to detail
Work Location & Conditions
• Up to Fully Remote
• Core hours of 9:00 am – 5:30 pm, Monday-Friday with occasional on-call availability.