Solutions Architect (Senior)

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

About Vitality Group

Vitality Group, a subsidiary of Discovery Limited is responsible for the expansion of the Vitality Shared-Value Insurance business model beyond South Africa and the UK, serving to fully leverage the assets and intellectual property of Discovery beyond its primary markets. The business forms equity or contractual partnerships with leading global insurers to integrate Vitality and shared value with partner’s insurance and financial services products in the markets where they operate. Vitality Group also operates a business providing wellness solutions to employer groups in the United States. Vitality Health International, a business unit within Vitality Group coordinates and focuses on resource allocation to Discovery’s emerging, global health insurance initiatives. Vitality Group is also responsible for Discovery’s 25 percent equity investment in Ping An Health, the largest comprehensive medical insurer in China.

To date, Vitality Group’s businesses jointly reach more than 20 million lives across 30 markets (Argentina, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam) as well as our primary markets in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

  Key Purpose

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to

Relationship Management:

• Builds relationships with key customer stakeholders in the Vitality global businesses in order to build trust that will help to ensure deliverables stay on track
• Builds relationships with key systems stakeholders within the Vitality Systems teams to create a collaborative environment in which all stakeholders can constructively work towards and achieve common goals

Requirements Analysis:

• Critically analyses stated customer requirements and acts as a consultant in providing considered feedback based on knowledge of business and systems environments in order to deliver exactly what the customer specified
• Contributes to the Business Requirements Document

Solutioning / Designing:

• Facilitate Fit\Gap analysis and requirements gathering
• Reviews functional design artefacts
• Creates solution design artefacts which include the proposed paradigm and technology, as well as providing priority ranking of the architectural system qualities (re-usability, performance etc.)
• Breaking down high-level system components into lower-level functional components for smaller teams to develop
• Identifies and intervenes to reduce the impact of risks on the delivery teams
• Engages with systems architects and development teams to ensure a smooth transition from the proposed solution into the SDLC and through implementation to final release
• Translate logical designs into physical designs taking into account the target environment, performance requirements, existing systems and any potential safety-related issues
• Making design decisions based on business requirements, which take into consideration functional and non-functional requirements of the system
• Facilitate migration planning to move from source to target architecture seamlessly
• Request Technical Debt Dispensation, if required

Coding:

Implement the designed solutions in the required development language (typically Java) in accordance with the Vitality Group standards, processes, tools and frameworks.

Testing and Post Release Support:

• Investigate, analyze and drive resolution of reported defects
• Continues to be involved post-release in ensuring that the solution satisfies customer needs, both functional and architectural

Governance and Continuous Improvement:

• Participate in review board meetings to assess and provide input to new proposed solutions
• Ensure standards are enforced and are aligned with overall strategic architectural objectives
• Involvement in developing guidelines and standards and coaching through participation in internal forums to improve methodologies, internal processes and overall architectural rigor
• Research and development – conduct structured search and evaluation of market offerings and technologies to stay abreast of technology and competition
• Contribution to enterprise architecture competency
• Reviewing code to ensure adherence to coding best practices and standards

Personal Attributes and Skills

• Leadership & teamwork
• Negotiation skills
• Time Management
• Logistical Analysis
• Professional Communication (written, verbal/presenting and listening)
• Creativeness
• Innovation
• Stakeholder Management
• Tenacity
• Risk Management
• Conflict Resolution

Technical Skills 

• In depth working knowledge of Java language features 
• Knowledge of design patterns and the ability to recognize and apply them 
• Solid understanding of Object Orientated programming fundamentals

• High standards for delivery  
• Solution Architecture 
• Knowledge of different Architecture Styles
• Structured and analytical problem solver 
• Process Mapping 
• Software testing pack design, functional testing 

• Clean code thinking 
• Coach and mentor to junior teammates  
• Understanding of Agile principles  
• Knowledge of Mobile App Development

Education and Experience

Required:  

• Matric  
• Informatics Degree or Diploma advantageous  

Experience:  

• 10+ years’ experience developing Java applications and at least 2 of those in a solution/system architect role

Knowledge:  

• A high-level understanding of common frameworks in the Java technology stack 

• Spring 
• Hibernate 
• Junit 
• SOA 
• Microservices 

• Docker 
• Kubernetes
• Data Modelling 
• UML 
• SQL 
• SoapUI (SOAP) / REST client (JSON) 
• Kafka  

• Zookeeper 
• Zuul 
• Eureka 

• Obsidian 
• Kibana 
• FluentD 
• Git
• Bitrise

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY   
                             
The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.