Staff Systems Architect

PURPOSE OF POSITION: Responsible for defining, designing, communicating, and evolving systems architecture for enterprise IT systems, integrations, and application environments to ensure technology solutions are scalable, secure, resilient, supportable, and aligned to business outcomes and enterprise technology strategy. Partners with business owners, product management, product owners, scrum teams, release train engineers, engineering, security, infrastructure, operations, and architecture stakeholders to translate business capabilities, epics, features, non-functional requirements, and value stream objectives into actionable architecture models, architectural runway, enabler work, system designs, integration approaches, technical roadmaps, and delivery guidance. Provides architectural leadership from intake and discovery through PI planning, iterative delivery, release, system demo, operational readiness, and continuous improvement to ensure systems deliver measurable business value while managing performance, interoperability, compliance, risk, technical debt, and long-term sustainability. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AT ALL LEVELS: Systems Architecture Engagement Partner with business owners, product management, product owners, scrum teams, delivery leads, release train engineers, technical teams, solution architects, and enterprise architects to understand business outcomes, value stream needs, customer experience goals, ART objectives, and technology constraints. Translate business capabilities, epics, features, and non-functional requirements into system intent, architectural guidance, enabler work, and technology recommendations that support iterative and incremental delivery. Evaluate system options across applications, integrations, data, cloud, infrastructure, security, compliance, and operations, and recommend fit-for-purpose approaches that balance business value, cost, complexity, risk, technical debt, and sustainability. Support SAFe and Agile planning events, including PI planning, backlog refinement, dependency identification, architecture reviews, system demos, inspect-and-adapt activities, and delivery alignment to ensure execution remains consistent with system intent, architectural runway, and enterprise architecture direction. Facilitate architectural decision-making with stakeholders by clearly communicating tradeoffs, assumptions, constraints, risks, and implementation considerations in business and technical terms. Maintain alignment between product roadmaps, value stream priorities, ART execution plans, architectural runway, compliance expectations, operational readiness, and continuous improvement objectives. System Design, Integration, Delivery Enablement, & Technical Alignment Create and maintain system architecture artifacts, including system solution context, capability maps, integration views, data flows, interface considerations, dependency maps, architecture decision records, and transition-state designs. Define system guardrails, design constraints, acceptance considerations, enabler stories, and non-functional requirements for performance, resiliency, scalability, security, maintainability, observability, automation, and operational support. Collaborate with engineering, application development, infrastructure, cloud, data, security, QA, and operations teams to ensure solution designs are executable, testable, deployable, supportable, and aligned to standards. Identify cross-team and cross-ART dependencies, architectural risks, technical debt, sequencing considerations, and capacity impacts that may affect delivery predictability, release readiness, customer experience, or operational stability. Support Agile delivery teams throughout implementation by clarifying system intent, reviewing design decisions, resolving architecture-related impediments, enabling timely decisions, and ensuring architecture enablers are visible in team and program backlogs. Contribute to release, deployment, DevOps, operational readiness, support model, KPI, system demo, and post-implementation review activities to ensure delivered systems meet business, technical, and support expectations. Architecture Governance, Standards, Reliability, & Continuous Improvement Apply IT standards, security requirements, compliance expectations, and technology governance processes in a pragmatic manner that supports Lean-Agile delivery flow and decentralized decision-making. Contribute to reusable system solution patterns, reference architectures, decision frameworks, architecture repositories, templates, and practices that improve delivery consistency and architectural maturity. Engage in architecture communities of practice, technical governance forums, and continuous improvement activities to promote shared learning, innovation, standardization, and simplification. Stay current with SAFe, Agile, DevOps, cloud, integration, data, security, observability, and application modernization practices and apply relevant approaches to improve system outcomes. COMPETENCIES: ACCOUNTABILITY- Takes ownership for actions, decisions, and results; openly accepts feedback and demonstrates a willingness to improve. BASIC PRINCIPLES - Interacts with people in a way that builds mutual trust, confidence, and respect; adheres to GCI’s Code of Conduct for Employees – the Basic Principles. COLLABORATION - Works effectively with others to accomplish common goals and objectives; maintains positive relationships even under difficult circumstances. Exceptional interpersonal skills, including collaboration, facilitation, negotiation, and persuasion. COMMUNICATION- Conveys thoughts and expresses ideas appropriately and professionally. Takes initiative in communication and collaboration among remote and onsite teams. Ability to accurately read, write, and respond to routine business correspondence such as emails, chat messages, policies, procedures, reports. Ability to accurately communicate information virtually and in-person in a clear and concise manner to a range of audiences. Ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively to all audiences. COMPLIANCE - Follows internal controls; protects confidential information; abides by GCI’s Code of Business Conduct & Ethics. CUSTOMER FOCUS - Demonstrates commitment to service excellence; gives high priority to customer satisfaction. RELIABILITY - Consistently follows through on assigned tasks as expected; demonstrates timely attendance at meetings, training, and other work obligations. RESULTS - Uses a combination of job knowledge, initiative, sound decision making, innovation, adaptability, and problem solving. Knowledgeable in the areas of solutions strategy and development. Excellent organizational and technical problem-solving skills and resources. Relentlessly persistent and positive in pursuit of good architectural decisions and direction. Strong knowledge of current architecture methodologies and systems technologies and standards. Ability to translate desired business capabilities and requirements into solution architecture. Excellent at timely and thorough architecture documentation and modeling. Technology is neutral and results-oriented, unbiased toward any specific technology choice. Ability to research and gain deep understanding of various technologies quickly and thoroughly. Basic knowledge of financial models and budgeting and able to estimate the financial impact of technical architecture alternatives.