Technical Architect

Position Overview: This role is a subject matter expert who leads in the support, maintenance, and optimization of business applications to ensure reliability, performance, and alignment with organizational needs. This role acts as a bridge between technical teams, vendors, and business stakeholders-resolving issues, managing enhancements, and ensuring applications operate efficiently. They serve as a key advisor for junior members of the team and stakeholders.

Success in this role balances technical expertise and strong leadership skills, stakeholder engagement skills, and analytical skills to enable operational excellence. Team Overview: Enterprise Applications This role is the senior technical leader for Enterprise Applications, overseeing the architecture, governance, modernization, integration, and lifecycle management of critical systems that support Finance, Human Resources, Legal, and Corporate Communications. The successful candidate partners with business leaders, vendors, and project teams to advance strategic initiatives, improve application performance, support regulatory compliance, and deliver innovative technology solutions across H2O America.

Owns application lifecycle management, including roadmap planning, technical debt reduction, application rationalization, end-of-life planning, upgrade strategy, and vendor product evaluation. Designs and governs integrations across ERP, HRIS, ECM, reporting, and operational systems using APIs, middleware, ETL processes, and cloud integration technologies. Experience in regulated utilities, energy, water, public services, or similar highly regulated industries is preferred.

Partners with Internal Audit, Compliance, and business stakeholders to maintain effective ITGC controls, support SOX audits, manage remediation activities, and ensure regulatory compliance. Identifies opportunities to automate manual processes through workflow automation, AI-enabled solutions, scripting, and low-code platforms. Key Responsibilities: · Designs and implements scalable, secure, and resilient technical architectures to meet evolving enterprise demands and ensure operational continuity. · Leads application governance and long-term strategic planning, developing application roadmaps, as well as enterprise standards, policies, and best practices to drive performance and growth. · Leads major upgrades, migrations, and complex deployment initiatives (e.g. environment strategy, cutover leadership, rollback design, risk mitigation planning). · Builds and improves automation frameworks, including developing advanced scripts and utilities that enhance monitoring, deployment workflows, and enterprise operational efficiency. · Designs integration patterns (e.g. overseeing API workflows, message queues, ETL pipelines, and system-to-system interoperability). · Leads performance engineering and optimization efforts (e.g. system telemetry analysis, tuning, driving optimization). · Provides technical leadership for security initiatives (e.g. vulnerability remediation, identity architecture guidance, application of security frameworks). · Oversees enterprise application backup, restoration, and disaster recovery architecture (e.g. scenario leadership, version control, validation cycles, resiliency improvement). · Establishes and enforces technical standards, documentation practices, and configuration governance. · Leads change management and release governance (e.g. high-impact change reviews, authoring of risk assessments, validating complex deployments). · Advises leaders on enterprise technology strategy by evaluating emerging tools, platforms, and architectural enhancements. · Leads vendor coordination and oversees compliance and ongoing evaluation to support enterprise goals. · Develops and maintains architectural documentation (e.g. diagrams, data flows, integration maps, system topology blueprints, configuration/business process design). · Communicates strategic priorities, presents to senior leadership, and manages stakeholder relationships as needed. · Owns technology lifecycle governance, including capacity planning, end-of-life risk management, and platform modernization strategies. · Works under minimal supervision with considerable latitude for independent judgment; completes difficult assignments without assistance. · Regularly mentors junior team members and assist management with leadership responsibilities as requested. · Maintains high level of adherence to cybersecurity principles, ethics practices, and company policies. · Required to complete occasional evening and weekend work to meet deadlines or address emergencies as needed. · Performs other duties or special projects as required or assigned.