Manager, Solution Architecture

Chicago, IL, United States

Join the FHLBC team!

At the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, employees come first - that’s why we offer a highly competitive compensation and bonus package, and access to a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet the needs of our employees.

Retirement program (401k and Pension)

Medical, dental and vision insurance

Lifestyle Spending Account

Generous PTO plan

11 paid holidays per year

Hybrid working model

Who We Are

Our mission at FHLBank Chicago: To partner with our members in Illinois and Wisconsin to provide them competitively priced funding, a reasonable return on their investment, and support for their community investment activities.

Simply said, we're a bank for banks and other financial institutions, focused on being a strategic partner for our members and working together to reinvest in our communities, from urban centers to rural areas. Created by Congress in 1932, FHLBank Chicago is one of 11 Federal Home Loan Banks, government sponsored in support of mortgage lending and community investment.

What It’s Like To Work Here

At FHLBank Chicago, we bring people together. Our regular All-Staff meetings keep employees informed and our values drive the work that we do. Our Buddy Program pairs new hires with tenured employees to guide their onboarding. Through our Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), we host signature and employee-led events to celebrate our differences and learn from each other and identify volunteer opportunities to strengthen our communities; and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and culture teams create connections around shared interests and experiences. We offer live and on-demand professional development opportunities to grow your skillset and your career.

What You’ll Do

In this role, you will offer guidance, management, and leadership to the organization’s solution architects. You’ll be responsible for providing platform and Solution technical leadership, strategic decision making, and project alignment within their team. You will be collaborating with their stakeholders, Enterprise Architecture, data, project management, and DevOps teams to ensure the delivery of solutions and technical architectures align with the company’s technology North Star and strategic goals.

This role will also manage and optimize the allocation of solutions architects across different programs. You will monitor the utilization of Solution Architect resources and adjust to changing conditions and delivery schedules. You will also leverage your knowledge and coordinate across Architecture disciplines to evaluate technologies for a given solution and ensure that solutions align with the Banks strategic technology direction. You will foster continuous learning and skill development within their team and will keep up to date with emerging technologies, systems and software, and trends in architecture and strategy development. Lastly, you will leverage this knowledge to make technical recommendations and contribute to strategic decisions for solutions.

How You’ll Make An Impact

Provide technical leadership and strategic decision-making to the solutions architect team.

Foster an environment of continuous learning and skill development within the team.

Stay updated with emerging technologies and trends, leveraging this knowledge to make informed technical recommendations and contribute to strategic decisions.

What You Can Expect

Provide management and oversight to a team of Solution Architects and contract Solution Architects.

Provides technical leadership and strategic direction on Solutions Architecture at the Bank.

Ensure alignment with the designs and architectures of solutions for individual projects and across programs.

Partner with Enterprise Architects to conduct solution evaluations and make recommendations for improvements.

Interface directly with Product Owners to help gather product and process requirements, turning them into technology delivery targets and provide technical guidance to help reach these targets, delivering product goals.

Collaborate and embed with project managers, analysts and development teams to ensure timely delivery.

Continually research optimal ways to leverage current and emerging technologies.

Work with Solution Architects to solve challenges issues with in-flight technical solutions.

Review solution and technical architectures to ensure they align with existing architecture principles, standards, and patterns.

Identify areas of improvement for architecture artifacts and existing or future solution designs.

Participate in planning and estimation activities for relevant projects, enhancement, and maintenance.

Model business and systems processes based on findings through use case scenarios, journeys, workflow diagrams, and data flows.

Ensure that applications meet business requirements and systems goals.

Develop and maintain common business domain knowledge (business, technology & data in common).

Partner with development to ensure reusable, API delivered domain services that provide a common integration point internally to the Bank while also insulating the Bank from broad impact of external partner changes (integrate once, leverage many principle).

Foster domain service centered data capture for transactions and master data.

Stay current on technology changes applicable to your domain(s) and how to apply them to Bank initiatives.

May assist authoring budget proposals and operational expenditure statements.

Lead critical design and architectural discussions and decisions.

Guide & assist preparing direct reports for Architecture governance process requirements, artifacts, technical debt tracking and risk mitigation.

Other responsibilities as required.

What You’ll Bring

Minimum 10 years' experience managing technical teams.

Minimum 5 years' experience as an Enterprise or Solutions architect

Minimum 5 years' experience in Finance, Banking, Treasury Operations or Capital Markets

Expert work knowledge of technical personnel management

Expert work knowledge of solutions architecture and architecture principles

Expert work knowledge implementing software designs.

Extensive experience in developing strategic systems architecture plans.

Experience modeling system diagrams, functional processes, insultating systems with APIs and APIs between domains

Working knowledge with financial concepts such as loans, securities, and derivatives

Working knowledge of Domain Driven Design

Working knowledge of software design patterns

Working knowledge of current FinTech providers and capabilities

Can manage conflict and constructively resolve issues.

Can adapt to change and rally personnel around change.

Strong presentation skills and audience adaptability

Ability to translate and convey difficult technical subject matter to non-technical stakeholders.

Ability to present ideas in non-technical language.

Strong written and oral communication skills

Strong interpersonal skills, with a focus on rapport-building, listening and questioning skills.

Strong technical writing skills

Ability to think critically.

Ability to conduct research into a wide range of computing & process issues as required.

Highly self-motivated and directed.

Results driven and oriented with a keen attention to detail in a regulated environment.

Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities.

Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.

The Perks

At FHLBank Chicago, we believe in rewarding our high performing workforce. We offer a highly competitive compensation and bonus package, and access to a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet the needs of our employees. Our retirement program includes a 401(k) and pension plan. Our wellbeing program supports employees at work and in their personal lives: Our generous PTO plan provides five weeks of vacation for new employees and 11 paid holidays per year; our Lifestyle Spending Account provides an annual stipend for employees to support wellbeing activities; and our central downtown location at the Old Post Office provides easy access to public transportation and breathtaking views from our award-winning rooftop. Step into a brighter future with us.

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