Business Solution Architect

Business Solution Architect

Salary:  60,000.00 - 70,000.00  per year Benefits    Location: Reading

Type: Full Time  Postal/Zip Code: 01864

Job description

What is the purpose of the role?

The Business Solution Architect is responsible for ensuring the successful delivery and development of the SAP architectural road maps for the whole of Thames Water. You will look at all aspects of SAP integration such as databases, infrastructure, security, SAP applications and systems integrated to SAP to ensure the Thames Water SAP environment is robust, maintained and flexible to support ongoing business change.

What makes this role unique?

This role offers a unique opportunity to drive, implement and develop Thames Water's SAP strategy ensuring that both current and future needs are met and achieving an optimum outcome for the company. Integrating all aspects of SAP, from the security applications to its basic infrastructure, with Thames Water's future strategy at its heart is the key to this role, enabling Thames Waters SAP infrastructure to grow and evolve over time to match future needs.

What will this role involve?

The role of the Business Solution Architect is, in short, responsible for the technical architecture of SAP and its many functions to ensure that Thames Water receive the optimum outcome. You will need to ensure that there is effective development and integration of all technical aspects of the company's SAP IT strategy. You will own and develop the company's SAP architecture framework bridging the gap between the internal business users and the SAP development team ensuring that all parties are working towards a clearly defined list of common goals.

You will co-ordinate activities of and align business applications, information, infrastructure and security architectures allowing a smooth implementation of the SAP system and its functions. You will be responsible for the development and maintenance of the appropriate policies and standards in order to achieve the highest level of return and provide the clearest possible level of guidance and support for all parties concerned. Other responsibilities will include (but will not be limited to):

- Ensuring the ongoing maintenance of appropriate integrated architectural depositories.

- Ensuring that all parties are aware of and compliant with the appropriate Thames Water and SAP policies and standards by projects and 3rd parties.

- Integrating inputs to the IT strategic planning process to ensure the development of forward technical plans aligned with business expectations.

What are we looking for?

You will come from a SAP based background and have a proven track record of being an expert in this field and we would expect that you have an excellent network of SAP contacts, ideally gained from frequent attendance to user and technical SAP forums. You must also be degree educated (or equivalent) and have experience of working in a senior architectural role within a large company.

Ideally you should have demonstrable SAP experience across Finance, Supply Chain, HR, Project Systems, BI, Portal, Work and Asset Management, CRM and Billing. We are looking for someone with SAP BASIS and PI skills. It would also be a benefit if you had experience of using GIS (ESRI) and Click software.

You will have exceptional communication skills and have the ability to sell ideas and concepts to project teams and managers. A strong conceptual thinker with outstanding abstract reasoning skills and preferably experience of working in a team management role are also ideal for this role.

Thames Water information and salary details

This role will be based at Clearwater Court in central Reading and is paying a salary of between £60000 to £70000 per annum, depending on experience, plus up to 20% bonus. £5800 car allowance and private medical insurance for you and your family.

Why Thames Water?

We are the UK's biggest water and sewerage company with around 14 million customers across London and the Thames Valley. You would be joining a company with an amazing history and exciting future, proud to be official Water Utility Services Provider of the 2012 Olympic Games.

We provide clean and take away wastewater for almost 25 per cent of the UK population every day - that's more than 11,000 Olympic size swimming pools worth of clean water and 16,000 pools of waste. The scale of our work means we have to recruit and develop only the most talented candidates. Is that you?

We will not compromise on standards which is why we carry out more than 400,000 tests per year on our drinking water. We continue to invest and this year will be spending more than £1 billion to improve our networks and infrastructure - our pipes, sewerage treatment and clean water treatment plants, which are some of the biggest and most advanced sites in Europe. And we will spend the same again next year in our challenge to make sure that if our customers had a choice, they would choose Thames Water.

Planning for the future is a key part of our strategy and we already generate enough electricity to power more than 55,000 homes. We also understand the importance of speaking to our youngest customers through our sustainability and education programs in schools and effectively manage and maintain a number of nature reserves.

Above all this, Thames Water values its staff as number one and we can now look forward to welcoming you to our team...

Our people

You would never guess half of the jobs we have at Thames Water. These range from the usual head office roles you expect such as customer service, HR, finance as well as specialist water and wastewater roles. Some of the areas that are not so obvious include our community investment team, sewer rehabilitation teams, rangers on our nature reserves, and don't forget to ask us about the shepherds...