Introductie
Job Description
The ICT department manages applications related to railway infrastructure management and the planning of railway traffic and infrastructure works. The end users of these applications include employees of railway planning departments, signalling centres and traffic control.
These applications are critical to railway operations and are supported by an on-call service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Organisatie
Positioning
• Work within a clearly defined solution scope, covering the relevant business capabilities, data, applications and technologies.
• Apply an approach driven by requirements, stakeholders, risks, value and decision traceability.
• Ensure continuity between the target architecture, change portfolio, detailed design, implementation, transition and operations.
• Submit significant architectural decisions, deviations and exceptions to the appropriate governance bodies.
• Document and develop knowledge.
• Contribute to relevant iterations of the architecture development method without replacing the roles responsible for enterprise strategy or overall governance.
Note: The Solution Architect is not part of a development team. Where necessary, they will coordinate with similar and/or impacted entities.
Functie
Purpose of the Role
We are looking for a Solution Architect capable of designing, documenting and governing the architecture of a solution that meets explicit business objectives while ensuring alignment with the applicable enterprise architecture, principles, standards, reference architectures and target roadmaps.
The Solution Architect translates functional and non-functional requirements into a feasible, secure, resilient, operable, scalable and economically sustainable design.
The Solution Architect supports decision-making by comparing different scenarios, documenting trade-offs and guiding implementation through to verification of the delivered solution’s compliance.
The role is both technical and architectural. The Solution Architect must be able to read the existing codebase, assess its quality and discuss the practical consequences of architectural decisions with the engineers responsible for implementation.
An architecture that the existing team cannot implement is not an architecture, but merely an intention.
The Solution Architect also maintains the architecture repository for the assigned scope using ArchiMate models, rather than isolated diagrams. This ensures that the architecture remains verifiable over time.
Defined Scope
The solution, its associated components and interfaces supporting the planning of trains and infrastructure works on the Belgian railway network.
• Technical inventory of the solution.
• Establishment of a technical architecture roadmap aligned with:
o The current state and potential rework.
o Planned developments through the evolutionary maintenance of the legacy components and a separate platform modernisation programme.
o Compliance with cybersecurity standards.
Infrastructure and Technology
• Infrastructure: OpenShift, AIX, Oracle, Redis.
• Back-end: Java 8, Java 17–21 (primarily microservices).
• Front-end: Angular 15 and 18, Swing.
• Secrets management: HashiCorp Vault.
• Messaging/queueing: IBM MQ.
• Events: Kafka.
• Logging: Elastic.
Experience with a specific technology is less important than the ability to quickly evaluate a new one. However, the coexistence of legacy systems and microservices, together with the diversity of exchange mechanisms (MQ, Kafka), represents the main complexity of this environment.
Key Areas of Responsibility
Scope Definition and Requirements Understanding
• Identify stakeholders, their concerns, objectives and success criteria.
• Analyse and challenge functional, non-functional, regulatory, operational and security requirements.
• Define the solution scope, boundaries, assumptions, dependencies and constraints.
• Maintain traceability between objectives, requirements, architectural decisions and solution components.
Solution Architecture Design
• Describe the relevant current state and develop the target solution architecture.
• Develop and compare multiple scenarios, explicitly addressing benefits, costs, risks, trade-offs, impacts and reversibility.
• Ensure coherent coverage of business, data, application, integration, technology, security and operational dimensions.
• Define interfaces, data flows, component responsibilities, quality-of-service requirements and deployment principles.
• Identify reusable building blocks and favour existing standards, models and services where appropriate.
• Document significant architectural decisions and their rationale in Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) or an equivalent mechanism.
Transition Planning
• Identify gaps between the current and target states, as well as capabilities to be created, modified, migrated or retired.
• Propose intermediate states, transition phases and realistic implementation sequences.
• Contribute to assessing feasibility, dependencies, risks, costs and technical debt.
• Support the development of implementation and migration roadmaps.
• Provide high-level implementation cost estimates for proposed scenarios to enable comparison between options.
Governance and Compliance
• Verify the solution’s alignment with principles, standards, reference architectures and governance requirements.
• Prepare architecture reviews, present architectural choices and incorporate decisions.
• Identify, document and submit deviations or exceptions for approval, including their risks and compensating measures.
• Conduct compliance reviews during implementation and before go-live.
• Update the architecture when the approved implementation differs from the initial design.
Implementation and Operations Support
• Guide detailed design, development, integration, testing, cybersecurity and operations teams.
• Clarify architectural intent without taking over engineering and execution responsibilities.
• Ensure operability, observability, continuity, backup, recovery, support and lifecycle considerations are addressed from the design stage.
• Contribute to proofs of concept when technical uncertainty or risk justifies them.
• Organise architectural knowledge transfer and verify that required documentation is available and up to date.
• Participate in team refinement sessions with the Product Owner and analysts, and validate the technical aspects of sprint entry criteria.
• Perform targeted code reviews on structural aspects, including service boundaries, interface contracts, transaction handling and error management, without replacing peer reviews.
Knowledge Management and Continuous Improvement
• Capture and share models, decisions, lessons learned and reusable components.
• Contribute to the evolution of standards, patterns, reference architectures and architectural practices.
• Identify inconsistencies, documentation gaps, systemic risks and opportunities for rationalisation.
• Stay informed about relevant practices, technologies and trends within the assigned scope.
Architecture Repository Management (ArchiMate)
• Build and maintain architecture models for the assigned scope in ArchiMate, using the reference modelling tool (e.g. Sparx EA), rather than independent diagrams.
• Define and enforce modelling conventions covering naming, granularity, layer usage, permitted relationships and element lifecycles.
• Generate views by viewpoint and stakeholder from a single model, ensuring that changes are reflected across all relevant views.
• Keep the repository up to date, reflecting the approved state, identified deviations and target state, and update it when implementation differs.
• Ensure traceability between model elements, requirements and Architecture Decision Records.
Expected Deliverables
• Solution Architecture Document: Context, stakeholders, requirements, views, scenarios, target architecture, risks and roadmap.
• Architecture Views and Models: Views tailored to stakeholder concerns.
• Up-to-date ArchiMate Repository: A single model, viewpoint-based views, modelling conventions and traceability to requirements.
• Scenario Analysis: Options, criteria, benefits, limitations, costs, risks and recommendations.
• Requirements Register: Requirements, sources, priorities, acceptance criteria and traceability.
• Architecture Decision Records: Decisions, context, options, rationale and consequences.
• Gap Analysis and Roadmap: Gaps, transition phases, dependencies and sequencing.
• Architecture Risk Assessment: Risks, impacts, likelihood, treatment and ownership.
• Compliance Report: Findings, deviations, decisions, actions and status.
• Handover Documentation: Updated architecture, constraints, instructions and operational information.
Decision-Making Authority and Role Boundaries
Expected Authority
• Recommend the architectural option offering the best balance between value, risk, cost, delivery time and sustainability.
• Define architectural constraints applicable to the solution within the assigned mandate.
• Request corrections to non-compliant implementations or initiate a formal exception procedure.
• Escalate conflicting requirements, unaccepted risks or decisions beyond the assigned mandate.
Role Boundaries
• Does not independently decide on business priorities, funding or acceptance of major risks.
• Does not replace the Business Owner, Product Owner, Project Manager, domain experts, security managers or engineering teams.
• Does not carry permanent operational responsibility for a platform unless explicitly assigned through a separate mandate.
• Does not approve solutions where essential requirements, data flows, dependencies or risks are insufficiently documented.
• Reports hierarchically to the Team Lead.
Functional Relationships
• Enterprise Architecture and Domain Architects: Strategic alignment, principles, standards, target models and cross-domain decisions.
• Business, Product and Analysis Stakeholders: Objectives, needs, value, processes, requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Security, Data, Integration, Infrastructure and Platforms: Specialised requirements and cross-domain consistency.
• Programme, Project and Portfolio: Planning, dependencies, risks, costs and delivery governance.
• Engineering, Testing and Suppliers: Feasibility, detailed design, implementation and compliance evidence.
• Operations and Support: Operability, observability, continuity, capacity, performance and knowledge transfer.
Criteria for Successful Assignment Delivery
• Decisions are traceable, understood and linked to requirements and objectives.
• The solution is consistent with target architectures, standards and approved constraints.
• Risks, deviations and dependencies are identified early enough to support decision- making.
• Implementation reflects architectural intent or is covered by formally approved exceptions.
• Deliverables are complete, usable, maintained and accessible to authorised stakeholders, and knowledge is transferred.
• The solution can be operated, maintained, secured and evolved in a controlled manner.
• The ArchiMate repository is up to date and used by people other than its author.
Behavioural Competencies
• Systems thinking, critical analysis and synthesis skills.
• Clear communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Facilitation, active listening, negotiation and constructive conflict management.
• Influential leadership, pragmatism and decision-oriented thinking.
• Documentation accuracy, autonomy, accountability and ethical conduct.
• Ability to work with uncertainty and make assumptions explicit.
• Ability to gain acceptance for architectural decisions in environments resistant to change, by following guidelines and explaining rather than imposing decisions.
Technical Competencies
The Solution Architect must be able to engage with technical experts and independently assess the feasibility of the solutions they design.
• Distributed Application Architectures: Service decomposition, transaction boundaries, data ownership, interface contracts and versioning, event-driven and messaging mechanisms.
• Data Storage and Access: Data modelling, query strategies, transaction management, distributed caching and cache consistency.
• Runtime Platforms: Containerisation, orchestration, deployment strategies and observability (logging, metrics and traces).
• Application Security: Authentication, authorisation, secrets management, common vulnerabilities and software supply chain security.
Functie-eisen
Technical Skills
• Mastery of enterprise and solution architecture concepts, governance and requirements management. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Ability to produce coherent architecture views covering business, data, application and technology dimensions. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Mastery of architecture modelling. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Ability to reason through scenarios, trade-offs, risks, dependencies, costs and value. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Knowledge of integration patterns, APIs, data, infrastructure, cloud and cybersecurity. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Understanding of operational, resilience, continuity, performance, capacity and lifecycle management challenges. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Multilingual communication: fluency in French and/or Dutch, and English, both spoken and written. C2 level.
• Professional experience in information technology, engineering or a related field. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Experience in information systems design. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Experience as a Solution Architect working with production systems. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Demonstrable experience designing and integrating solutions involving multiple technical domains and stakeholders. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Experience participating in architecture reviews, risk assessments and implementation support. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Practical software development experience, recent enough to maintain credibility with an engineering team. Minimum 10 years of experience.
• Practical knowledge of TOGAF is recommended; TOGAF certification is an advantage depending on the expected seniority level. L3: Minimum 5 years of experience.
• Knowledge of security practices and an IT service management framework is an advantage. L4: Minimum 10 years of experience.
Soft Skills
• Demonstrable knowledge of the railway infrastructure organisation’s context, the IT sector and the challenges of the role, including an understanding of the organisation’s mission and key activities.
• Ability to integrate into the organisation’s teams, reflecting the values of kindness, courage, positivity and reliability.
• Presentation skills, a professional attitude, correctness and respect towards management, clear and effective communication, and responsible commitment throughout the contract.