Enterprise architect (Enterprise Architecture & Innovation) - 2 positions

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http://www.epo.org/about-us/jobs/vacancies/other/int-ext-5972.html

 

The European Patent Office in The Hague is seeking an Enterprise architect

 

 in Dir. 2.8.0.3 (Enterprise Architecture & Innovation)
 (two positions)

 

 Job group 4
 Grade G7-G10

 

 Deadline for applications: 18.4.2016

 

 Effective use of information technology is a key factor in supporting the continued success and sustainability of the European Patent Office (Office). The Office is investing strategically in innovative IT solutions to provide efficient and effective support for all aspects of the patent system, and its Information Management (IM) department has a crucial role to play in this regard, being responsible for the provision of information services for both Office staff and external users.

 

 Enterprise Architecture and Innovation is a small team (directorate) reporting to the CIO of the Office. Its primary mission is to ascertain and understand the Office's strategy and the associated business requirements, to envision a future architecture that addresses these, and create business and IT roadmaps to manage the delivery of changes through the Office's programmes and projects. The Office is currently undergoing a series of major transformations and the Enterprise Architecture and Innovation Directorate has a critical role to play in supporting the successful delivery of ambitious programmes in technically challenging domains such as dynamic case management, semi-automated search, natural language processing, machine learning and business intelligence. These programmes are being delivered in the context of radically changing application and infrastructure landscapes and the opportunities presented by technology trends like APIs, mobile applications, big data, responsive web design, ubiquitous internet access and cloud computing.
Main duties

 

 We are looking for an experienced enterprise architect to join our team. As the successful candidate, you will work extensively with business and IT stakeholders throughout the Office to ascertain and understand the strategy and business requirements of its various departments. You will contribute to the creation and maintenance of the longer term vision for the Office's systems and services, including the creation of target architectures and the roadmaps needed to move towards these, and will communicate and explain this vision to business and technical staff at a variety of organisational levels.

 

 You will also provide concrete architectural guidance on projects - in particular to the solution architects - throughout the project lifecycle, offering a point of escalation for critical issues and being involved in the architectural governance and approval activities around such projects. In addition, you will provide leadership in one or more of the interdepartmental architectural standards teams, driving the standards process and ensuring that new technological opportunities are identified and where appropriate explored and exploited.

 

 Throughout your work, you will be expected to contribute to the development and growth of the enterprise architecture practice at the Office, advocating and communicating the principles behind such an approach and its value.

 

 Specifically, your tasks will include the following:
contributing to the drafting of roadmaps for architectural changes, working with the relevant business areas and the Service Creation and Service Operations teams within IM to ensure that the rationale for recommended changes is understood and that roadmaps are realistic
defining and supporting the principles that guide solution decisions for business-change and infrastructure projects, in collaboration with other enterprise architects
driving and maintaining one or more domains of the enterprise architecture (business architecture, information architecture, application architecture, infrastructure architecture) based on analysis of all aspects of business strategy, requirements and context
supporting the development and activities of a distributed pool of architects reporting to the Service Creation and/or Service Operations teams, guiding their work and assisting their development through coaching and mentoring
providing guidance and governance to business-change and/or infrastructure projects to ensure their compliance with the enterprise architecture
working with the business areas and the Service Creation and Service Operations teams to identify and rectify capability gaps and pain points within the current architecture
determining the potential impact of industry and market trends on the enterprise architecture, and making recommendations for changes and improvements
identifying new innovation opportunities both in the business and technology domains and supporting the development of such opportunities
documenting the enterprise architecture to reference architecture and framework standards
measuring and communicating the benefits of the enterprise architecture to stakeholders (e.g. cost savings, capability provision, risk management) to secure effective engagement and buy-in
The ideal candidate will have a significant number of the following
Proven experience in strategic planning, in particular the development and maintenance of strategic and technology roadmaps to guide business and technology initiatives, ensuring that information, application and technology aspects of the enterprise architecture are driven by the business imperatives of an organisation. Experience in providing strategy advice to a management team
Extensive experience in establishing and working with enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g. TOGAF), methodologies, processes, languages (Archimate) and EA modelling and analysis tools. Experience in defining conceptual and logical architectural models and using these to inform both business and IT stakeholders
Experience with architecture project governance including architecture compliance and conformance reviews to guide projects
Experience with portfolio management (investment, service, application and technology portfolios) and its links with business value, risk management and benefit realisation
Experience with standardisation and a strong practical knowledge of industry standard development and integration technologies
Strong interpersonal skills, including teamwork, facilitation and negotiation
Excellent communication skills in English, both oral and written
Ability to influence - and gain the support of - a wide range of stakeholders at all levels in the organisation
A strategic-minded approach, focusing on enabling change in support of the Office's business strategy
A strong service-minded approach
It will also be an advantage to have proven experience in one or more of the following areas:

 

Business architecture
Practical knowledge of business process modelling and re-engineering and related standards such as BPMN, and CMMN (Adaptive Case Management)
Requirements management, preferably with knowledge of methodologies such as the Volere approach
Formalisation of business directives, goals and KPIs using business motivation modelling

 

Information architecture
Experience in information and data modelling using UML, ERD
Knowledge of developments in the information domain (i.e. linked data, NOSQL, etc.)
Knowledge of business rules, rules management standards (TDM, DMN, etc.) and preferably business rule engines

 

Application architecture
Proven experience as a solution/application architect. Experience with software development methodologies and structured approaches to system development
Experience with modern application architectures (integration architecture via web APIs, API mgmt, microservices)
Experience with industry standards and best practices in modern application architecture security standards, especially in the context of authentication and authorisation
Proven experience in understanding and management of application and corresponding infrastructure architectures (DevOps)
Application portfolio rationalisation and legacy modernisation projects
Knowledge of and experience with security architecture frameworks and methods such as SABSA, O-ESA
Infrastructure architecture

 

Proven experience as a solution/infrastructure architect. Experience with modern infrastructure architectures covering networking, storage, computing and security, as well as with integration and platform solutions and services
Understanding of infrastructure service offerings by cloud providers (e.g. IaaS, PaaS, etc.)
Experience with security services such as identity and access management
Minimum qualifications
Diploma of completed studies at master's level or - in exceptional cases - equivalent professional experience. Excellent knowledge of one official language (English, French or German) and ability to understand the other two.
Citizenship of one of the member states of the European Patent Organisation.
Salary and benefits

 

 The EPO offers competitive salaries, an excellent social package, and varied work in a modern international environment. The net (basic) monthly salary* for this vacancy ranges from EUR 5 223 to 7 396, depending on experience. In addition, depending on their personal circumstances, EPO staff may be entitled to relocation benefits and various allowances (e.g. household, dependant's, childcare, education, expatriation, installation, rent and language allowance).
Process and timeline

 

 The successful candidate will be selected on the basis of qualifications, supplemented as appropriate by interviews, tests and/or a personality questionnaire.

 

 It is intended to hold the interviews from 18 to 20 May 2016 in The Hague.

 

 Closing date: 18.4.2016

 

Please apply using the online application form

 

How to apply online for a job at the European Patent Office