Business Architect

How will your role impact First Command?

The Business Architect plays a key role in structuring the enterprise in terms of its governance structure, business processes, and business information. This person aligns strategic goals and objectives with decisions regarding products and services; partners and suppliers; organization; capabilities; and key business and IT initiatives. The primary focus is the business motivations, business operations and business analysis frameworks and related networks that link these aspects of the enterprise together. This role is pivotal in designing and refining business architecture frameworks that support our strategic objectives and enhance our operational efficiencies. The Business Architect works to develop an integrated view of the enterprise using a repeatable approach, cohesive framework, and available industry standard techniques. In addition, they work closely with a counterpart in IT to align technical solutions with business needs.

What will you be doing?

• Map and analyze business processes to ensure alignment with strategic objectives. Identify areas for improvement and propose changes that enhance both efficiency and effectiveness.
• Play a key role in the develop of the business architecture strategy based on a situational awareness of various business scenarios and motivations.
• Apply a structured business architecture approach and methodology for capturing the key views of the enterprise.
• Capture the tactical and strategic enterprise goals that provide traceability through the organization and are mapped to metrics that provide ongoing governance.
• Describe the primary business functions of the enterprise and distinguish between customer-facing, supplier-related, business execution and business management functions.
• Define the set of strategic, core and support processes that transcend functional and organizational boundaries; identify and describe external entities such as customers, suppliers, and external systems that interact with the business; and describe which people, resources and controls are involved in the processes.
• Capture the relationships among roles, capabilities and business units, the decomposition of those business units into subunits, and the internal or external management of those units.
• Business Architect provides direct input into the governance cycle that supports the achievement of key goals, planning and execution of various business scenarios, and delivery of bottom line business value.
• Lead change initiatives by applying architectural principles. Ensure that changes to processes, roles, and business practices are seamlessly integrated.
• Develop, maintain, and govern the business architecture framework. Document architectural standards, guidelines, and processes.
• Works though others at every level of the organization soliciting strategic imperatives from senior leaders and executives, and supporting business unit managers as they leverage business architecture artifacts to create their business plans.

What skills/qualifications do you need?

Education

• Bachelor’s degree

Work Experience

• 5+ years serving in a business architecture capacity.
• Experience using model-based representations that can be adjusted as required to collect, aggregate or disaggregate complex and conflicting information about the business.
• Extensive experience planning and deploying both business and IT initiatives
• Experience modeling business processes using a variety of tools and techniques.

Certifications 

• Relevant certifications such as Certified Business Architect (CBA) or similar preferred

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• A broad, enterprise-wide view of the business and varying degrees of appreciation for strategy, processes and capabilities, enabling technologies, and governance
• The ability to recognize structural issues within the organization, functional interdependencies and cross-silo redundancies
• The ability to apply architectural principles to business solutions
• The ability to assimilate and correlate disconnected documentation and drawings, and articulate their collective relevance to the organization and to high-priority business issues
• The ability to visualize and create high-level models that can be used in future analysis to extend and mature the business architecture
• Exceptional communication skills and the ability to communicate appropriately at all levels of the organization; this includes written and verbal communications as well as visualizations
• The ability to act as liaison conveying information needs of the business to IT and data constraints to the business; applies equal conveyance regarding business strategy and IT strategy, business processes and work flow automation, business initiatives and IT initiatives, and benefit realization and service delivery
• Strong understanding of financial regulations and compliance standards.
• Proven ability to develop business strategies and frameworks that align IT with business goals.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and project management skills.
• Team player able to work effectively at all levels of an organization with the ability to influence others to move toward consensus
• Strong situational analysis and decision making abilities

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