Solution Architect

In this role as Solution Architect, you will be responsible for translating business and tech requirements into architecture blueprints. You will also conduct thorough analysis of existing solutions, identify gaps, and recommend improvements. To deliver in this role you will have to evaluate the architecture holistically, use deep technical expertise to understand the business impact of technical components, and give recommendations and guidelines for teams implementing solutions.

This is a unique opportunity to join team of Solution Architects working on cutting edge retail solutions within our company within several different areas from product creation, through logistics, to sales in store or online. You will also be contributing to strength the Architecture Community by developing standards and guidelines.

The area’s purpose is to “_transform how we operate through industry leading capabilities for fashion design and product development - people, process, data and tech - we enable H&M to liberate fashion for the many._”

You will be responsible for the solution landscape supporting the creative product creation processes at H&M, covering company crucial and quickly transforming areas such as PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and other initiatives under Design and Create area. The tech landscape consists of both in-house developed solutions as well as third party bought software, which all needs to be stitched together in a well-functioning landscape.

**Responsibilities**:

- Contextualize strategic vision and direction; conduct analysis, identify opportunities, constraints and support strategic activities throughout Centric PLM life cycle.
- Support and bridge stakeholders understanding of business, organizational and technology implication of future direction.
- Provide guidance and coaching to advise on options, risks, costs vs. benefits, priorities and impact (business, organizational, technology).
- Design and validate the end-to-end data flow due to new solutions/changes to existing solutions in the PLM / Design & Create area.
- Translate business needs and technical requirements into architectural blueprints; documenting all solution architecture analysis and design.
- Identify interdependencies and use ‘holistic thinking’ to ensure the cross-team and cross-initiative perspective - also incorporate broader aspects such as overall product costs/revenue, data privacy & sovereignty, business continuity, information security etc.
- Analyze, design, develop, maintain and communicate solution roadmaps and transition architectures.
- Participate and assist in developing and maintaining architectural artefacts such as patterns, guidelines, standards etc.
- Create architectural designs to contextualize solution(s) development, provide leadership and collaborate with teams to ensure the products/solutions are aligned with business and IT goals.
- Evaluate and drive continuous improvement, reducing technical debt and enhancing end-to-end business value.
- Participate in internal and external activities related to technology matching and selection to ensure technology choice aligns with overall tech architecture, standards and business strategy and roadmaps etc.
- Ensure solutions provided by third-party vendors fit into the architecture landscape, throughout its life cycle.
- Facilitate best practice sharing and teach architecture thinking to engineering and delivery community.

**Qualifications**
- At least 10+ years end-to-end PLM implementation experience in Retail industry as Tech Lead / Solution Architect.
- Understanding of business processes and/or functional domain knowledge related to PLM.
- Solid understanding of modern development practices, technologies, and software architecture including patterns and principles,
- Proven experience in designing solutions using patterns, following best practices etc. to comply with non-functional requirements.
- Experience working with third-party vendors and standard commercial offerings.
- You can see the big picture, identify patterns, and instinctively know how to win support for your ideas.
- You can understand and visualize concepts that are not yet concrete, and use your problem-solving skills, strong analytic ability, creativity and customer and business drive to find a solution.
- You take the initiative and are not afraid to take the first steps to identify and address existing and potential obstacles, issues, and opportunities.
- You show commitment and ownership and demonstrate attention to detail and accuracy, architectural governance, and standards.
- You are open to change and humble about not always knowing everything, so you ask.
- You are an effective team player that can express technical concepts, ideas, feelings, opinions, and conclusions to peers and people with an only limited technical background and contribute positively to your team environment.

**Nice to have**
- 8+ years of experience in building complex solutions.
- Experience i