{"id":4003048,"url":"https://alion.io/job/bluecross-director-solution-architecture-information-technology","title":"Director, Solution Architecture – Information Technology","company":{"id":1049212,"name":"Bluecross","domain":"bluecross.ca","url":"https://alion.io/company/bluecross-ca","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Canada"],"countries":["CA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":12,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"LLM Guardrails","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-09T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-09","last_verified_at":"2026-11-10T04:50:46Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"Alberta Blue Cross® is an Alberta based organization dedicated to delivering exceptional customer experience and community leadership. We’re committed to providing the best health coverage to over 1.8 million members and take an active role in promoting wellness. We believe in what we do-and place trust in our employees to deliver our vision.\nWorking at Alberta Blue Cross® means having a career where you’ll be recognized for your contributions. We value diversity, encourage our team members to maintain a healthy work-life balance and provide opportunities for career growth.\nOVERVIEW\nWe have an exciting opportunity for a Director of Solution Architecture to lead a team of 10+ Solution Architects at Alberta Blue Cross. Reporting to the Chief Architect, this senior leadership role combines strong people leadership with deep, practical technology solution architecture experience. The Director leads Solution Architecture practice and ensures initiatives have implementable, delivery-ready designs aligned to enterprise architecture direction, approved portfolio target states, and portfolio modernization roadmaps.\nThe Director translates approved architecture direction into technology solutions that delivery teams can build, integrate, operate, and evolve. The role brings credible technical leadership across applications, integration and APIs, enterprise data, cloud, security, identity, and infrastructure, balancing business outcomes with feasibility, performance, resiliency, privacy, cost, and maintainability. The Director guides complex design decisions and supports architecture through implementation and transition to operations.\nWithin the proposed Enterprise Architect target-state operating model, Enterprise Architects set enterprise direction and guardrails; Portfolio Architects own portfolio target architectures and modernization roadmaps; and Solution Architects design and guide implementation within those boundaries. The Director of Solution Architecture leads the people, capacity, technical quality, and operating practices of the Solution Architecture team. This role partners closely with Enterprise Architects, the Director of Enterprise Architecture, Domain Architects, and especially Portfolio Architects to connect delivery decisions to enterprise direction and portfolio roadmaps.\nSuccess in this role is achieved by:\nLeading, coaching, developing, and aligning a team of 10+ Solution Architects with clear priorities, accountability, and a collaborative technical culture. Most of the Solution Architects are already in place but additional resources may be required depending on demand. These Solution Architects are positioned as generalists who work across various technologies. \nApplying deep technology solution architecture experience to produce practical, secure, resilient, and delivery-ready designs for complex initiatives. \n Managing architecture demand, team capacity, assignments, and skills development across portfolios and delivery priorities. \nPartnering with Portfolio Architects to align solution designs, dependencies, transition states, and technical feasibility with approved portfolio roadmaps. \nCollaborating with Enterprise Architects, in their respective specializations, to apply enterprise guardrails, reuse enterprise capabilities and data, and resolve design risks through formal governance. \nWHAT YOU WILL DO:\nLead and mature the Solution Architecture practice, including design methods, review practices, documentation, engagement models, and implementation support. \nLead a team of 10+ Solution Architects, including recruitment, onboarding, coaching, development planning, performance management, succession planning, and technical capability development. \nManage solution architecture demand and capacity; assign architects to initiatives with Portfolio Architects and delivery leaders, balancing priorities, complexity, dependencies, and skills. \nProvide senior technical leadership for complex solutions across application, integration and API, enterprise data, cloud, security, identity, and infrastructure domains; challenge assumptions and guide design trade-offs. \nEstablish and monitor solution architecture measures for design readiness, review turnaround, guardrail alignment, reuse, technical risk, and implementation conformance. \nEnsure solution designs leverage enterprise data and approved shared platforms, services, reference architectures, and patterns; address data ownership, quality, lineage, access, privacy, and integration with relevant domain specialists. \nOversee initiative-level architecture from discovery and options assessment through design, implementation support, and operational handover, maintaining traceability to business and non-functional requirements. \nPartner closely with Portfolio Architects to translate portfolio target architectures, transition states, architecture runway, and modernization roadmaps into implementable solution designs; provide feasibility, dependency, and risk input for roadmap decisions. \nCoach Solution Architects in system design, technology evaluation, integration, cloud adoption, secure design, cost trade-offs, and clear communication of technical decisions. \nCollaborate with Enterprise Architects, the Director of Enterprise Architecture, and Domain Architects to interpret guardrails, obtain specialist input, and submit proposed patterns or exceptions through established governance. \nIdentify solution-level technical debt, integration constraints, implementation risks, duplication, and roadmap impacts; agree mitigation actions with portfolio, delivery, and platform stakeholders. \nWork with business owners, engineering, delivery, security, privacy, data, platform, infrastructure and operations teams, and vendors to validate feasibility and guide implementation of approved designs. \nMaintain transparent architecture decision records and escalate material exceptions, cross-portfolio conflicts, or changes to approved target states and sequencing; do not bypass enterprise or portfolio governance. \nPOSITION SCOPE\nReports to the Chief Architect and leads the Solution Architecture practice, with people leadership for a team of 10+ Solution Architects. \nProvides technical leadership and design assurance for initiatives across business and technology portfolios, from early discovery through implementation and transition to operations. \nOwns solution architecture practice methods, team capacity and assignments, design quality, solution-level deliverables, peer reviews, and practice effectiveness reporting. \nProvides direct leadership, coaching, prioritization, performance management, and career development for Solution Architects; builds technical depth and leadership capability across the team. \nIs accountable for the Solution Architecture capability and design assurance, not enterprise architecture policy, portfolio roadmap ownership, project delivery management, software engineering management, or production operations. \nACCOUNTABILITY BOUNDARIES AND ROLE CLARITY:\nThe Director of Solution Architecture reports to the Chief Architect and leads the Solution Architecture practice and a team of 10+ Solution Architects. The Director is accountable for people leadership, capacity planning, technical capability, design quality, and consistent solution architecture engagement across portfolios. \nEnterprise Architects define enterprise-wide architectural direction, principles, standards, reference architectures, target states, and guardrails. The Director of Enterprise Architecture leads the EA function and its governance and domain architecture capability. The Director of Solution Architecture applies that direction to initiative-level design and contributes delivery insight, reusable patterns, and improvement proposals; the role does not assume enterprise policy ownership or leadership of Domain Architects. \nPortfolio Architects own portfolio target architectures, transition states, modernization roadmaps, and architecture runway. The Director of Solution Architecture partners with Portfolio Architects to align architect assignments and solution designs with roadmap priorities and approved sequencing. The team provides technical feasibility, integration, dependency, and implementation feedback that may prompt roadmap changes; ownership of portfolio roadmaps and sequencing remains with Portfolio Architects. \nSolution Architects own solution design decisions for assigned initiatives within approved enterprise and portfolio guardrails. They produce and maintain delivery-ready architecture deliverables, guide implementation, and support transition to operations. The Director provides technical coaching, peer review, design assurance, and escalation support without removing the assigned architect’s design accountability. Material exceptions follow formal governance rather than unilateral approval by the Director or Solution Architects. \nEnterprise Architects provide specialist design authority and guidance. Delivery and engineering leaders remain accountable for implementation, project execution, and engineering management; platform and operations leaders retain operational accountabilities. This separation connects enterprise direction, portfolio roadmaps, solution design, and delivery while keeping decision rights clear. \nKEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:\nLead and mature the Solution Architecture practice as a delivery-enabling capability within the proposed EA operating model. \nOwn consistent solution design methods, architecture deliverables, peer reviews, and design assurance from discovery through implementation. \nLead and develop a team of 10+ Solution Architects, including recruitment, coaching, performance management, succession planning, and career development. \nManage architecture demand, capacity, assignments, and reporting in partnership with Portfolio Architects, EPMO, and delivery leaders. \nEnsure solution designs align to approved enterprise guardrails, portfolio target states, transition states, and roadmap sequencing. \nProvide deep technical leadership and constructive challenge on complex application, integration, enterprise data, cloud, security, identity, and infrastructure designs. \nPromote reuse of enterprise data, approved services, platforms, and patterns while meeting security, privacy, performance, resilience, operability, and cost requirements. \nMake solution-level risks, dependencies, technical debt, and roadmap impacts visible; support mitigation and escalate decisions outside approved design authority. \nCoordinate Enterprise, Portfolio, Domain, and Solution Architects with engineering, delivery, platform, operations, and vendor teams to guide implementation without assuming their distinct accountabilities. \nMaintain business-to-design traceability, architecture decision records, implementation feedback, and operational handover readiness. \nMeasure practice effectiveness and improve design readiness, review responsiveness, guardrail alignment, reuse, and implementation conformance. \nKEY SUCCESS MEASURES:\nSolution designs are delivery-ready, traceable to business and non-functional requirements, and aligned with enterprise guardrails and portfolio target states. \nPractice reporting shows design readiness, timely architecture engagement and reviews, implementation conformance, reuse, and transparent technical risk and exception management. \nArchitecture assignments, capacity plans, role expectations, and development plans support a team of 10+ Solution Architects across portfolio priorities. \nSolution decisions support portfolio modernization roadmaps and transition states; feasibility, dependencies, and delivery constraints inform Portfolio Architect roadmap decisions. \nSolutions avoid unnecessary duplication and unmanaged technical debt through reuse of enterprise data, platforms, services, and approved patterns. \nBusiness, portfolio, engineering, and delivery stakeholders receive practical solution options, clear t...","description_format":"text","description_chars":19088,"description_truncated":true,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":12,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Canada","iso":"CA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Health Insurance & Benefits"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-10T04:50:46Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":52,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-10T05:33:28Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/bluecross-director-solution-architecture-information-technology","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/bluecross-director-solution-architecture-information-technology.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-10T05:33:28Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":12917,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-11T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1049212},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1049212"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fbluecross-director-solution-architecture-information-technology"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fbluecross-director-solution-architecture-information-technology"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fbluecross-director-solution-architecture-information-technology"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/bluecross-director-solution-architecture-information-technology\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fbluecross-director-solution-architecture-information-technology"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4003048}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"bluecross.ca","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4003048},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}