Infrastructure Architect

Infrastructure Architect About the job Architecture serves a pivotal role in transforming the IT landscape to facilitate ICBCS to achieve its business objective. It enforces the discipline of thorough design processes from the conception to the delivery of a strategy or change. It works closely with other key functions such as business change and IT delivery to develop competencies to better serve our business aspirations. Provide senior strategic leadership, enterprise-level oversight, and direction for infrastructure architecture. Connect disparate business and technology needs across domains and in some cases, geographies; identifying interdependencies and synergies and translating these into a coherent approach aligned with the Bank’s enterprise-level strategic direction. Provide governance and oversight to technology infrastructure engagements to ensure change and release adheres to Bank policies, standards, and strategies. Understand business, system, data and technology drivers, ensuring the resulting infrastructure products and services meet the requirements of the business. Work with the necessary technology teams to evaluate and propose suitable technology and designs to address those changes Drive technology discipline ensuring consistent standards are applied across infrastructure technology domains and geographies. Define enterprise-level designs and architectures to the level where these can be approved and used to drive further lower-level solution architecture and design work as required. What you’ll be doing Infrastructure Architecture Function - Provides Subject Matter Expertise across all infrastructure domains to provide leadership on domain strategies, services and solutions - Performs architecture governance for all enterprise level infrastructure engagements, ensuring those engagements, projects or releases have undertaken the necessary due diligence, planning, and engineering to permit it to progress towards production - Provides leadership for Infrastructure Architecture resources, providing direction and oversight on the quality of the engagement, and the outputs and artefacts associated with those, ensuring they are delivered in accordance within the terms and expectations of the engagement, and that those engagements are performed in alignment with the Bank’s overall Enterprise Architecture objectives - Works with Infrastructure senior leadership team to prioritise engagements and the book of work, assessing priorities against Enterprise level direction and as driven by competing external pressures and timelines Organisational Understanding - Builds relationships with Technology Teams across IT - Gain a broad understanding of the business and how it operates - Provides cross-infrastructure domain expertise and understanding back to technology teams to help them build systems and solutions that are fit for purpose - Works within Enterprise Architecture to ensure alignment between infrastructure architecture and other architecture and technology domains Technology Standards and Strategy - Participates in technology product evaluation to help drive technology strategy - Works with Infrastructure Domains to identify technology product gaps and fill those through a technology adoption process. - Develops enterprise infrastructure standards to ensure compatibility and standardisation across the organisation - Works with Technical Leads and technology vendors to define and formulate technical roadmaps and strategies that meet business needs Architecture Governance - Engages with business IT and infrastructure teams to provide architectural guidance on design, and ensure adherence to design standards and patterns - Maintains a common documentation library of standardized procedures, processes, design patterns, and technology standards - Authors and edits architecture artefacts to a good standard, providing reviewers and approvers with the necessary facts, in a concise and easy to understand presentation - Challenges accepted practice and design to ensure solutions are still relevant, up-to-date, and fit for purpose for the organization. Team Work - Communicate and collaborate with local IT staff in regional offices to ensure standards and strategies are extended to those locations What you’ll need to be successful We’re looking for the following skills and experience. If you don’t have all of these but think you could be a good fit for the role, get in touch. - Proven experience as a senior Infrastructure Architect or similar role in a financial services environment. - Strong understanding of Infrastructure design principles and risk management. - Knowledge of current IT technologies and infrastructure coupled with a strong understanding of how current best practise can be used to evolve legacy ecosystems. - Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence and articulate complex concepts to senior executives and a broad range of technical and non-technical stakeholders. - Relevant certifications (e.g., TOGAF) are desirable. Why should you join us? ICBC Standard Bank Plc (ICBCS) is a leading financial markets and commodities bank, driven to deliver the right outcomes for our stakeholders, clients, counterparties and markets. We benefit from a unique Chinese and African parentage and an unrivalled global network and expertise. We’re headquartered in London, with operations in Shanghai, Singapore and New York. We’re a diverse and close-knit global team. We put people first, giving talented, self-driven professionals the flexibility, rewards and freedom to grow their expertise and realise their potential. Our vison statement, “Be Yourself, Succeed Together” underpins our drive for an open and transparent culture which values difference, enabling everyone to thrive whilst being themselves. We have an active E, D&I forum and we’re growing other employee network groups, including for women and neurodiversity. We’re committed to the principle of equal opportunities. All applicants will be treated equally and will be considered on their merits and skills without discrimination. What’s in it for you? - Financial – market-based pay based on skills and experience, discretionary annual bonus, pension contribution 10% (employee contribution 5%), travel insurance, life assurance and income replacement insurance. - Hybrid working – the option to work remotely up to two days per week, depending on the role. - Family - 6 months maternity leave at full pay, 4 weeks paternity leave at full pay and enhanced shared parental leave pay. Coaching for family leave returners and access to emergency care via My Family Care. Paid fertility and miscarriage leave. - Wellbeing - private medical insurance, Bike2Work scheme, health and fitness subsidy, holiday exchange, Employee Assistance Programme and menopause policy. - Community – paid volunteering leave and Give As You Earn scheme. Vibrant CSR and engagement forums and fundraising for our charity partners. - Development – a suite of opportunities to build the skills you need to excel in your role If you’re excited about becoming part of our team, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you! ICBCS has appointed Robert Walters Outsourcing (RWO) to manage its recruitment process and Preferred Supplier List (PSL). Unsolicited CVs sent directly to ICBCS or its staff from non-PSL agencies will not be accepted and no fees will be paid for such submissions.