Canadian National Railway Hiring for Expert Solution Architect Full Time

At CN, we work together to move our company—and North America—forward. Be part of our Information & Technology (I&T) team, a critical piece of the engine that keeps us in motion. From enterprise architecture to operational technology, our teams use the agile methodology to automate and digitize our railroad ensuring our operations run optimally and safely and our employees can focus on value-added tasks. You will be able to develop your skills and career in our close-knit, safety-focused culture working together as ONE TEAM. The careers we offer are meaningful because the work we do matters. Join us!

Job Summary

The Expert Solution Architect support work for the Corporate and SAP function which include Human Resources, Legal, Corporate Security, Public Affairs, Internal Audit, Facilities, and IT business units. The Expert evaluate business needs and determine IT supporting solution via usage of SaaS, Clouds, or development of internal applications. This include define solution score and plan architecture, collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and other solution architects, provide direction in the delivery of the solution to designers & integrators. More precisely, the Expert builds the solution, drives alignment of the proposed solution with the Enterprise & Domain strategies, master plans & roadmaps and manages risk mitigation and as required drives issue escalation & resolution related to the architecture. The Experts signs off on architecture where he/she does have the delegation authority and governs the implementation of the architecture during the design phase.

Main Responsibilities

Build Solution Architecture – 60%

• Create, scope, plan, document and estimates work required to deliver solution architecture

• Actively participate in RFI and RFP evaluation for product selection and make recommendation

• Determine architecture components and integrations of complex solutions based on business requirements and use cases

• Work with system, technology, telecom, and security architects to define and document end to end solution architecture leveraging available technology platforms

• Work with peers and designers to make sure the proposed solution is realized as per the architecture requirement

• Remove impediment and provide guidance when tactical solution is required to achieve business benefits

Modernization – 25%

• Work with peers to improve architecture processes and deliverables with trending technology

• Participate in yearly product health assessment

• Maintain solution architecture roadmap based on Enterprise Architecture & Busines strategic direction

Technical Leadership – 15%

• Accountable to lead communication and to drive escalation & resolution with Stakeholders
  

• Ensure technical development of the employee (e.g: specialization or broader knowledge to become solution architect.)

Organizational Impact

Decision Making & Impacts

For project or program: accountability is to balance risk, impacts and benefits for the best CN investment and ensure all the facts were presented such decision can be made and solution approved. Accountable to drive decisions with all I&T stakeholders by exposing after thorough analysis all facets of the decision i.e. Risk, impacts and benefits. Type of decisions includes:

• How business needs to be supported: people, process or technology

• How to technically support business capabilities: application, information, technology

• Should we re-use existing technology, buy new or build it

• Source of the information and level of management required

• Minimized impact to IT organization and TCO

• Can approve solution of low/medium risk & impact per the architecture delegation of authority

• Impacts CN’s overall Solution architecture ability to deliver solution for project or program

• Expert decisions enables CN in making the right investments choice in IT enablement of Business capabilities. Outcome of mislead decision may lead in wrong investment, unnecessary expenses or technical debts.

Level of Interaction/Influence

External

• Interact with Vendors in evaluating & selecting product

Internal

• Interact with I&T Directors / Senior Managers to present project’s architecture
  

• Work with other solution architects, experts, vendors, business, analysts, designers and integrators to deliver Solution architecture for project or program

• Interact with Project manager to resolve issue and manage risks

• Interact with Enterprise Architecture and other I&T teams to get the decisions accepted

• Interact with architecture leadership to get approval of the solution being proposed

Employees Supervised/Org. Structure

• Individual Contributor

Requirements

Education/Certification/Designation

• Bachelor degree in computer sciences, engineering or equivalent degree and experience

Skills/Knowledge

• Strong architecture knowledge within numerous fields: business, application, information and technology architecture facets

• Functional knowledge or hands on design experience with Microservices, Web Services (REST, SOAP, Websocket) and API Platforms (Apigee)

• Knowledge of development technologies (Microservices / Java / Springboot Framework, IIB, Mulesoft, MQ, Kafka, Postgres)

• Good understanding of application design patterns (Dependency Injection, Microservices and others) and modern platforms (API/Microservices, Mobile, MBaaS, Mulesoft, Container)

• Strong ability to bring complex concept to actionable architecture deliverable

• Strong capacity to learn new concepts and technology quickly with the capacity to coach, mentor and develop other by teaching them

• Strong ability at taking hard decisions by understanding and explaining trade-offs between business enablement and economics impacts

• The role requires people skills to influence and orient business and technical audience toward a common goal that is satisfying all stakeholders

• Very good ability to build collaborative cross functional relationships, pulling together and maintaining a cohesive and high functioning team

• Strong ability to lead team on a mandate and to lead decisions

• Ability to deliver mandate with great autonomy – self-driven

• Excellent written and oral communications skills

Experience

• Minimum 10-15 years overall work experience (including in OT, IT, Development engagements, Prime Integration)

• Minimum 5 years demonstrating technical leadership qualities and/or overseeing deliverables

• Minimum 5 years in similar role

Assets

• Graduate studies computer sciences, engineering is considered  PMP, ITIL Certifications

About CN

CN is a world-class transportation leader and trade-enabler. Essential to the economy, to the customers, and to the communities it serves, CN safely transports more than 300 million tons of natural resources, manufactured products, and finished goods throughout North America every year. As the only railroad connecting Canada’s Eastern and Western coasts with the Southern tip of the U.S. through a 19,500 mile rail network, CN and its affiliates have been contributing to community prosperity and sustainable trade since 1919. CN is committed to programs supporting social responsibility and environmental stewardship. At CN, we work as ONE TEAM, focused on safety, sustainability and our customers, providing operational and supply chain excellence to deliver results.

CN requires that all employees in Canada be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide proof thereof as a condition of employment. The Company’s vaccination mandate extends to employees of our wholly owned subsidiaries as well as CN’s contractors, consultants, agents and suppliers and anyone who accesses CN properties in Canada.

CN requires that all employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide proof thereof as a condition of employment. The Company’s vaccination mandate extends to employees of our wholly owned subsidiaries as well as CN’s contractors, consultants, agents and suppliers and anyone who accesses CN properties in Canada.

CN is an employment equity employer and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only candidates under consideration will be contacted. Please monitor your email on a regular basis, as communication is primarily made through email.