Associate Director - Commercial Sales Solution Architect

About the role:

The Commercial Services Solution Architect role is instrumental in designing and implementing comprehensive solutions that meet both business and technical requirements in the commercial sales and Go to Market areas. The solution architect will perform the necessary due diligence as directed by the EA team in different pursuits and gather the necessary information for solution definition and decision making. This may include working with PepsiCo internal teams as well as external players such as potential vendors and/or research analysts.

Accountabilities:

• Responsible for defining solution architectures utilizing enterprise standards, common solutions and defined patterns for Sales Transformation and Commercial Services programs.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams like business stakeholders, technical teams, and sector EAs to ensure that the designed solutions align with business objectives and evolving technological advancements.
• Work closely with Domain EAs in defining north star reference architectures for domain (capability models, with common terminology, definitions, and flows).
• Partner with Domain EAs and develop high-level solution architecture designs for commercial services, ensuring scalability, security, and alignment with business goals.
• Delivery of consistent solution architecture (conceptual, logical, and physical architecture) for key transformation initiatives to ensure solution is fit for purpose, flexible, scalable, and sustainable.
• Work closely with Domain EAs and Co-lead the evaluation and selection of solutions/platforms to meet global/sector needs.
• Utilize a wide range of technology solutions and platforms to ensure that architectures are optimal for business needs, including cloud services, microservices, integration patterns, data management, and AI/ML applications
• Clearly communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, ensuring that everyone understands the strategic direction and value of proposed solutions
• Stay current on emerging technologies and industry trends, and integrate this knowledge into solution designs to deliver innovative services that provide a competitive advantage

Key Skills:

• Knowledge of the primary Commercial business processes including Selling & Ordering, Merchandising, Delivery, Digital Sales, Service & Execution, and Customer Service.
• Knowledge of B2B sales & order, customer loyalty & engagement, and Customer Relationship Management processes.
• Ability todemonstrate a mindset for the Conceptual, Logical, Physical levels of architecture and apply them effectively.
• Demonstrable ability to analyse, design, andoptimize business processes via technology and integration.
• Ability to comprehend business strategies and needs and translate them to technology strategies
• Understanding of integration technologies and patterns; data architecture and patterns.
• Expertise in cloud-native application design, microservices architecture, data architecture for scalable systems, and implementing middleware solutions to support event-driven architectures and real-time data processing
• Systems thinking, understanding of relationships between various systems.
• Strong thought leadership and executive storytelling skills, assertive and trusted advisor, and ability to produce high-quality deliverables.

Preferred Qualification:

• Bachelors degree in information technology, Computer Science, MIS, or similar field, Masters preferred.
• Preferred 15 + years of software industry experience.
• 8 + years of solution architecture experience