Finance Architect

Atradius

The Atradius Group provides trade credit insurance, surety and collections services worldwide, and has a presence through 160 offices in 52 countries. The products offered by Atradius protect companies around the world against the default risks associated with selling goods and services on credit.

At Atradius, we believe in personal development and the Growth Mindset. Our Culture is based on teamwork, reliable accountability, constantly improving and unrivalled service. Read on more on our Career site: https://careers.atradius.com/en/careers.

 About the job

Atradius is looking for a skilled Finance and Integration Architect who has the experience to cover Atradius “Finance” application landscape made of global and local applications. This role requires an understanding of finance processes, IT architecture, and the ability to drive technological advancements, or simplification, within the finance domain.

Your main responsibility will be to develop and maintain the respective architecture vision, roadmap and high-level architecture for the Finance domain, in alignment with the corresponding Asset Owners (from ITS) and Product Owners (from the Business). You will also review, and in some occasions participate to design activities. 

You will work closely with many other key stakeholders who are other Architects, senior Finance managers, other Business members, but also program and project managers.

Job Description
You will be supporting and connecting with several teams: 

• The Enterprise Architecture team,
• The Data Platform team,
• The Finance & Compliance teams, from IT and from the Business
• The Infrastructure (CTO) team,
• The Cloud Competence Centre (CCC) mandated to implement Atradius Cloud Strategy

For the “Finance” domain, you will collaborate with Business and IT stakeholders, helping them to articulate and to document clearly their plans for change and transformation, sometimes already known but not always expressed and shared. You will then develop and implement IT strategies that support financial objectives.

You will make sure that projects and finance initiatives justify, architect, design, build and maintain their solutions in the right way. You will look for simplicity and cost efficiency rather than complexity or architecture “beauty”.

You will maintain and improve the Reference Architecture of the finance architecture domain that you own. You will validate that the Data and Integration Architecture choices and solutions are appropriate and used in line with the Reference Architecture, or alternatively that the Reference Architecture gets updated in line with the latest need for change.

Main Responsibilities of the Finance IT Architect

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the company’s financial systems and processes.
• Provide valuable technical leadership and guidance on finance-related IT projects and business change requests, by proposing practical and realistic direction. Make sure the plans from the “Finance” stakeholders are gathered, documented and shared.
• Take over and own the roadmap(s) for the Finance Application managed by ITS, identify impacts and dependencies with other initiatives, programs and strategies.
• Be responsible for designing and implementing robust IT solutions that align with Atradius financial strategies and business goals. 
• Ensure the efficient integration of finance systems with other enterprise systems.
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with IT finance projects.
• Make sure the “As Is” architecture and “To Be” are well defined and described, including references to Standards, Design Patterns, Blueprints and current documentation. The “To Be” Architecture must be unambiguous and easily identifiable.
• You will contribute, review, and sometimes own the corresponding High-Level Architecture within your domain by designing and overseeing the implementation of IT solutions for finance, ensuring they meet business requirements and industry standards.
• Guide engineers and external partners on following the reference architecture in their designs by reviewing and steering the solution architecture.
• Work with the CCC to make sure their policies and standards and the data architecture are aligned and implemented correctly if any Cloud solution is built.
• Stay updated with the latest trends and technologies to drive continuous improvement.

Eligibility Requirements

• Higher / University level IT education.
• Experience of working on data, finance and compliance architecture domains for large, multi-site and multi-business organizations.
• Demonstrable knowledge of finance processes and systems, but also ERP’s, data, reporting, analytics, integration architectures, being in a position to provide strong and clear guidance in selecting and implementing them. 
• Experience with process mining and improvement applied to financial business process and landscapes.
• Proficiency in IT architecture frameworks and methodologies (e.g., TOGAF, ITIL)
• Architecture experience using Archimate language and EA Sparx.
• Knowledge of Financials applications like Oracle Financials and Oracle EPM suite is a plus.
• Knowledge of interface and integration techniques, like APIs and Events, is also a prerequisite.
• Experience implementing compliancy and regulatory directives, understanding their impacts and requirements on IT architecture and solutions.
• Knowledge of the data capabilities and services provided by the Azure platform, but also alternative options based on open-source solutions (like Kafka, spark, etc). 
• Experience with migration to Cloud, considering the consequences on Application, Data and Infrastructure architectures, especially for financial applications.
• The successful applicant will occasionally be required to travel (mainly Western Europe) for short periods of time, as and when the need arises.
• Fluency to a high degree in English is required, but additional language skills (in particular Spanish) will also be valuable.

Desired Personal Attributes

• A finisher; a person who is able to initiate and manage a course of action through to its completion, from end to end.
• To be able to make decisions, but also to articulate, to communicate or to defend them in front of various stakeholders.
• Pragmatic and realistic, provide meaningful, acceptable practical solutions.
• High standards of professional integrity under pressure.
• To be Resilient; the Business’ transformative period will be especially challenging for Atradius’ IT department and individuals. Employees need the ability to absorb temporarily workload and disappointments, until reaching success.
• Professional an eloquent communicator; Strong communication and influencing skills, being able to translate complex aspects into relevant and easily comprehensible communications. Coming across as a credible expert in your field and inspiring confidence at all levels in the validity of your advices.
• An avid learner with can-do attitude, not afraid to continuously extend his knowledge.
• Comfortable and effective working autonomously, without constant supervision.

What do we offer?

• A dynamic, international and challenging work environment
• Training and support to reach your full potential including the opportunity for continuous professional development
• Attractive terms and conditions, including competitive salary, pension package and a range of flexible benefits and rewards
• Challenging tasks with individual development and training opportunities

Equal opportunities for all

The success of our organisation stands with the quality of our people and the ideas they have. Insights and innovative solutions for our customers are the result of an interplay of cultures, knowledge and experience. That is why diversity is extremely important to Atradius. To ensure that all colleagues within Atradius can develop their qualities, we promote an inclusive culture in which everyone feels involved and valued. We encourage and welcome everyone to apply to our positions.

I am Atradius! - Do you want to know who we are?
Get to know Atradius colleagues in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnsgT04OpTU&t=4s

Atradius is a global provider of credit insurance, bond and surety, collections and information services, with a strategic presence in over 50 countries. The products offered by Atradius protect companies around the world against the default risks associated with selling goods and services on credit. Atradius is a member of Grupo Catalana Occidente (GCO.MC), one of the largest insurers in Spain and one of the largest credit insurers in the world. 
You can find further information on our website: https://group.atradius.com