IT Chief Network Architect

Job Summary

The Chief Network Architect reports to the Senior Vice President of Information Technology (IT) Operations and facilitates the design and maintenance of forward-thinking solutions around enterprise architecture, including infrastructure, networking, telephony, database, and standards. The Chief Network Architect collaborates across the company with business leaders, Infrastructure, and other IT teams to develop strategies to meet the growing demand and reliance on network resources.

The successful candidate will embody and work to reinforce MAA’s Core Values. Those values include:

• Appreciating the uniqueness of each individual

• Communicating openly and with integrity

• Embracing opportunities

• Doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons

Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaborate with members of the Information Technology leadership team and business stakeholders to develop the Enterprise Architecture Vision and Strategy aligned with Company’s objectives.

• Works with various IT, Operations, and vendor teams to successfully deliver strategy, planning and implementation of technical capabilities and platforms.

• Provides guidance on end-to-end architecture by working with cross-functional teams, documenting design principles and business needs with which to manage change requests.

• Engages, develops, and manages relationships with leaders across the organization to understand functional business needs and identify opportunities to introduce new technical solutions.

• Provides subject matter expert expertise and bridges communication between technical and business audiences during solution planning, development, and deployment. Promotes network architecture best practices across the company with presentations and architectural models showing how the current and future technology needs of the organization align to company objectives and business growth.

• Defines, maintains, and promotes the company’s cloud strategy with reference architectures, business-system capability map, solution integration requirements, deployment guidelines, risks, and ROI.

• Drives full adoption of existing technology across the organization by delivering proofs of concept with supporting design diagrams, technical documentation, business impact analysis and ROI.

• Works with IT Information Security to develop and maintain technical requirements and enterprise architecture to govern the security, scalability, reliability, sustainability, cost, and overall quality of the company’s network infrastructure.

• Develops infrastructure and networking solutions to provide the highest level of network availability and reliability to the business.

• Collaborates with Operations on complex issues and ensures resolution of incidents affecting the business and residents.

• Work with IT Infrastructure and Operations teams to develop effective and proactive monitoring capabilities to ensure established service level agreements (SLAs) are met.

• Performs other related duties as assigned to meet the needs of the business.

Required Qualifications

• 10-15 years of experience in defining, developing, and implementing network architecture strategies

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field required

• Experience providing strategic technology direction and architecture vision, encompassing an enterprise view across a large portfolio of capabilities

Preferred Qualifications

• Chief or principal-level enterprise architecture experience for a public company preferred

• Experience leading cross-functional teams and delivering projects using Agile development practices preferred

• Experience with continuous delivery tools and DevOps practices preferred

• Performance engineering experience with scaling solutions preferred

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Broad and in-depth technical knowledge of network architecture and infrastructure principles, best practices, and solutions

• Skill and ability to facilitate technology transformation with teams in a rapidly growing environment

• Skill and ability to communicate clearly and concisely verbally and in writing, including delivering presentations and conveying technical concepts to non-IT audiences

• Knowledge and skill to document technical business requirements, diagrams, and plans

• Skill and ability to apply a consultative, collaborative, “hands on” approach to developing and implementing solutions that span multiple business functions.

• Knowledge of Agile development practices

• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills

• Qualitative and quantitative analytical skills and attention to detail

• Knowledge and skills to manage projects, organize, prioritize, and meet deadlines

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint)

• Ability to maintain confidentiality and maintain appropriate discretion

Physical and Environmental Requirements

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms.

• This position requires the ability to occasionally lift office products and supplies, up to 20 pounds.

• This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

Disclaimer

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.