Position Details:

The Solution Architect provides leadership, technical expertise and pre-sale support in the creation of solutions that answer to customer business and technical needs, solving a business problem in the fastest manner incorporating products and services as needed driving sales growth within the strategic business unit.  Working independently and under minimal supervision, this role leverages their subject-matter-expertise to bridge our customers’ business challenges with the capabilities of CSG’s product portfolio, known partners and possible partner products and solutions.  In collaboration with the Configuration, Operations, and Relationship Management Teams, the Solution Architect extracts, clarifies, and translates business requirements into documentation and conceptual designs from which application and solutions are developed and sold.  The Solution Architect acts as a trusted adviser to the customer technical and business teams helping establish the solution as winning solution alongside the account sales team.

Essential Job Responsibilities                                                                                   

• Identify Revenue.  Partner with the Sales, Customer Relationship Manager, and the Customer Configuration Manager to identify and qualify leads on new features, enhancements, and/or full end-to-end solutions. 
  • Transform the customer’s objectives or challenging problems into creative solutions and opportunities through use of CSG’s product suite or custom development solutions with PSG. 
  • Create moderately complex designs that meet the customer requirements, fit within the customers OSS/BSS infrastructure, and maximize CSG’s product offerings. 
  • Assist in the development of sales proposals and other key documentation that are leveraged during the sales process.
  • Present technical solution with key integration patterns matching customer standards to gain solution buy-in from internal and external stakeholders.  Must be comfortable presenting to customers Sr. level executives.
  • Facilitate the solution selection and decision-making process and provide the necessary information to enable the customer to make an informed decision. 
• Consult and Advise:  Bridge the gap between CSG and the customer to identify and qualify business solutions and opportunities in alignment with customers’ business plans.  Gather resource requirements and cost/benefits analysis for conceptual solution models. 
  • Guide the sales, relationship management, and customer care teams to identify and prioritize business requirements for new features and/or complex changes.  Ensure business requirements are clearly defined, variable, and scalable globally across the company. 
  • Consult internally and externally to provide guidance on technical opportunities inherent in the existing product roadmap
  • Build strong relationships with the customer – specifically with technical team members to ensure professional interactions are consistently maintained.
• Leverage a logically structured, data-driven approach with critical thinking and disciplined problem solving tools to arrive at solutions that are mutually satisfactory for CSG and the customer.
  • Gather requirements using interviews, document analysis, workshops, surveys, site visits, business process descriptions, use cases, scenarios, business analysis, task, and workflow analysis
  • Guide developers, programmers, and designers in conceptualizing and developing product enhancements and/or new features. 
  • Lead design sessions in prototyping new solutions for the purpose of enhancing product portfolio and increase user adoption of CSG’s product portfolio. 
  • Ensure technical viability of solutions as defined in the Statement of Work and subsequent change requests.
  • Functions as a subject-matter-expert and participate in the resolution of system and product issues in escalation situations.
  • Participate in the creation of comprehensive solution architecture and requirements documents.
• Provide technical leadership of the cross-functional team through the design, build, test, and delivery process. 
  • Coach and mentor other project team members to increase their understanding of the customer and the use of technology. 
  • Provide feedback to the product development organization for improvements, market trends, customer architecture roadmaps and product issues. 
  • Proven history of leading solution from concept phase all the way through user acceptance & production deployment phases
• Generate thought leadership around our product assets and overall solutions. 
  • Engage in knowledge transfer with colleagues on other teams. 
  • Continue to educate self on business to continue to create efficiencies and/or mitigate risk via technology changes for the business.
  • Keep up to date on industry and product technology trends to ensure the ability to work on variety of different solutions for the business

Minimum Requirements:

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Computer Science, and/or a related field

Experience

• Typically 7-10 years of relevant work experience in the area of product management, solution design, and customer consulting in a comparable environment
  • Experience developing in any one of the following languages:  C/C++, C#, JAVA, Python, and/or Perl on UNIX, LINUX, or Windows operations systems is highly desired
  • Detailed understanding and experience with SOA
  • Oracle and PL/SQL experience highly desired
  • Experience in creating and/or participating in the planning and estimating of the full SDLC activities.  Experience with Lean and Agile methods desired.
  • Knowledge of CSG applications preferred. 
• Leverages a holistic view of the overall business and produce high-level solutions, in relation to the commercial impact of the business and translate into detailed functional and/or technical specifications
• Advanced issue management skills; analytical, technical, and problem solving skills to identify and facilitate solution development in an effective and efficient manner
• Demonstrated ability to build partner level relationships at all levels in the organization; both internal and external
• Advanced written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present solutions and the associated business impact in a clear and concise manner
• Process-oriented and logical thinker with the ability, flexibility, and adaptability to respond to changes
• Ability to manage complex projects from small to a moderate scale
• Demonstrated ability to develop alternative solutions to complex problems and recommend the best solutions to the business and project team
• Ability to leverage effective facilitation and negotiation techniques to gather requirements from a diverse range of stakeholders and group size