Solution Architect

About the roleAs a Solution Architect, focused on Waitrose’s store inventory management, stock ledger and sales audit capabilities, you will play a critical role in shaping and modernising the technology capabilities that enable getting the right stock to the right place at the right time and keep our stock accounting accurate & compliant.

You’ll be part of a larger team of Architects sitting in the Technology & Transformation operating model, working to identify the technical capabilities and changes that will enable the Partnership to successfully operate, adapt, and transform through technology across Waitrose.

At a glance

• Contract type - 12 Months Secondment

• Working pattern/flexible working -   This is a hybrid working role, therefore your time will primarily be split between working from home and the Bracknell Head Office. However, there will also be an expectation to visit other locations as the need arises. 

• Our Architecture team currently works from the office roughly once a week to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings, but again the frequency is dependent on the business needs.

• We are looking for Immediate joiners

What will you be doing?

• Your main work will be to steer, direct, assure and smooth the work of our Systems Integrator as they work with Business Stakeholders to deliver end-to-end technology solutions that are effective, efficient and sustainable, and make a tangible difference to the business.  You’ll ensure the business understands the full implications of proposed designs, bringing a whole-business perspective. 

• Ensure architectural best practice is brought to bear during solution design to increase value, reduce delivery risk, and control technical debt.

• Be an important voice in modernising applications, ensuring we take the opportunity to remove customisations and simplify the solutions.

• Help the programme move at pace by ensuring architecture work, resources and priorities are clearly defined, helping identify and engage Waitrose stakeholders, and by tracking the delivery of architecture artefacts against the project plan.

• Help to inform the thinking of senior stakeholders. You’ll steer the Systems Integrator to offer technology options and choices, and influence Product backlogs where technical debt is appropriate.  You’ll represent the programme to the wider JLP architecture and IT community.

What you'll have 

• Experience of working with a Systems Integrator as an architect or solution analyst, and of governing architectural designs and decisions effectively 

• Experience of architecting, designing and delivering solutions in a (Grocery) Retail context or experience or understanding of Inventory Management and Stock Accounting capabilities and technologies in another industry

• Experience of working with IT and Financial control teams.

• Knowledge of what deliverables to expect in both waterfall and agile environments and ability to assess quality of deliverables.

• Ability to make pragmatic choices between the strategic ideal and what can be achieved in the cost and timelines the business can commercially justify.  You’ll be able to convey the implications of these choices and build consensus around them across disparate stakeholders.

• Experience in influencing both IT and Business stakeholders, adapting your style according to the technical or non-technical nature of the audience.

• Ability to evaluate impacts of change across a complete value chain

• Ability to simplify and standardise an architecture.

• Be curious, self-starting and diplomatic, and will be able to build a network. 

What else you could bring (Desirable skills / Competencies):

• Familiarity with Oracle Retail Merchandising Suite’s Retail Sales Audit and Retail Stock Ledger modules, and with Trust’s Store Inventory Management solution.

• Whilst this is not a hands-on technical role, you should have broad understanding of current techniques and tooling including: Domain driven design, Microservices, API-first design, Cloud Native, Continuous Delivery & DevOps, Containerisation and PaaS on GCP or AWS and other data and integration technologies (Event streaming, data lakes etc) 

Additional Information

• The application form consists of a CV upload, followed by application questions. Please save the application questions to a Google docs before entering on Workday.

• Internal applicants please copy paste this link on to the browser for job outline -  https://bit.ly/SA-DL 

• We occasionally close vacancies early in the event that we receive a high volume of applications. Therefore we recommend you apply as soon as possible.

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About The Partnership

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.  

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.   

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. 

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. 

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.  

Important points to note:  

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.  

We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.  

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.