Senior Solutions Designer

An advanced (Level 3) Programmer/Developer is required to develop BI solutions using both Cognos and Microsoft Power BI for varying business needs, following all applicable GO-ITS standards and industry best practices while adhering to the existing technological solution framework. The successful candidate will work with various technology teams to translate business needs and work through the analysis and lead the development phases.

Responsibilities:

• Works in partnership with clients, advising them on information technology in order to meet their business objectives or overcome problems, works to improve structure and efficiency of an organization's I&IT systems.
• Provides subject matter expertise in their field and highly expert technical assistance.
• Acts as the technical advisor/expert on all aspects of a specific deliverable
• Anticipates and resolves problems to ensure that the deliverables are completed within budget, to the highest quality, meeting or exceeding expectations
• Develops processes and procedures for implementing deliverables
• Prepares work plan, effort estimates, reports and presentations including options and recommendations, etc.
• Works with clients to determine the technical scope of the project and to determine requirements
• Defines software, hardware and network requirements
• Analyzes I&IT requirements giving independent and objective advice on the use of I&IT
• Designs, tests, installs and monitors new systems and develops solutions and implementation of new systems
• Familiar with change-management principles and methodology
• Knowledge and understanding of Information Management principles, concepts, policies and practices

General Skills:

• Ensure seamless integration of new and existing systems, applications, and platforms.
• Evaluate and recommend technology stacks, platforms, and tools to support business goals.
• Design systems with a focus on security, compliance, and data privacy standards.
• Work closely with stakeholders such as business units, development teams, IT infrastructure teams to ensure alignment with project goals.
• Ensure solutions are scalable, reliable, and can be optimized for future growth.
• Provide technical support and participate in the development, package creation, code merge, testing and release activities.
• Primary interface between technical teams (Dev, QA) and business stakeholders, focusing on requirements clarification and UAT.
• Develop and manage solutions using Power BI, Cognos, Oracle, MS-SQL, Visual Studio, SSIS, Attunity, ODAC, .NET framework, GIT and SQL-based reporting tools.

Desirable Skills:

• Knowledge and understanding of Information Management principles, concepts, policies and practices
• Ability to translate business and data requirements into specifications sufficient for designing appropriate technology solutions
• Experience with a wide range of methods, tools and techniques for business analysis such as: business functional modelling, business event modelling, business process mapping
• Experience in structured, object oriented and agile methodologies for user requirements
• Knowledge and understanding of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA) and related regulations and standards
• Provides a comprehensive range of I&IT business analysis services for clients with diverse business and technological needs.
• Experience in the use of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools to document conceptual requirements and scope
• Awareness of emerging I&IT trends and technologies
• Prepares and advises on business analysis policies, processes, best practices and standards to promote a comprehensive and consistent business analysis practice within the organization.

Knowledge Transfer:

• Knowledge Transfer should be done to designated technical cluster FTE.
• Knowledge transfer must be completed two weeks prior to the consultant leaving the ministry.
• All deliverables, including design/supporting/release/training documents must be checked into designated version control repositories (for example, SharePoint, DevOps).
• All final documents and working drafts related to project requirements or business analysis or solution design or solution development or QA testing plans or Architectural artefacts and other working related documents must be stored on designated project SharePoint folder and Azure DevOps.
• Project manager and designated FTE must be regularly informed in writing (by email) of where documentation has been stored and must be provided a minimum of one walk-through of all documentation as part of the final knowledge transfer activities.
• Knowledge will be transferred through 1 on 1 sessions, emails, document updates and document review with the team.

Experience and Skill Set Requirements

Technical Experience:

The ideal candidate should possess 10+ years of experience as a Solution Designer & Developer, with a focus on the following project environments:

• Required Skills (5-7 years): Power BI, MS SQL Server, SSIS, Informatica ETL, Cognos Development, Data Migration & Transformation
• Preferred Skills (2-4 years): Oracle, Visual Studio, .NET Framework, Java, Cloud Services, Data Warehousing, Advanced Data Analytics, Version Control

Technical Skills:

• Experience with data architecture designs and technologies for BI solutions, for both on-premises and cloud solutions
• Experience leading projects that involve technology upgrade/migration to Microsoft BI Suite; determine which part of existing solution needs to be migrated or rebuilt
• 10+ years of hands-on experience ETL development experience using SSIS / ADF in a data warehousing environment or large data migration; Working experience in debugging mappings, transformations and source qualifier files and Unit testing the newly developed ETL components
• Demonstrated knowledge and deep MS stack experience (10 Years) with at least 4 years with Microsoft Azure Data Factory experience
• Experience with: Microsoft Azure Data Factory Services, SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Power BI, DataStage, Quality Stage, Visual Studio, Team Foundation Services, SQL Server Management Studio
• An asset if the resource can demonstrate direct experience with Erwin Data Modeler, Power Designer (Hands-on Development Role)
• Experience with role-based access control implementation, such as with AzureAD
• Experience working with Oracle and MSSQL databases
• Extensive experience with source control and environment management
• Experience with creating documentations such as data dictionary and data source to target mapping; provide feedback/direction to team on how existing documentations can be improved
• Experience using PowerDesigner to review data models, as well as make changes and generate DDL's
• Experience with data ingestion from multiple sources, staging and data cleansing, including dimensional modeling and data model architecture and design aligned with data standards and analytics needs of various stakeholders. Includes creation of data warehouses, views, cubes, and other data services products.
• Experience in developing the Application Code package using tools such as Azure DevOps. Build automation experience is an asset

Core Skills:

Project Experience and Techniques:

• Demonstrates lead design experience with technology upgrade/migration projects, and shows acumen in being able to evaluate and determine the best path going forward
• Demonstrates experience leading discussions with stakeholders to elicit requirements, developing/consulting on options and solutions, and facilitating the resolution of I&IT and Business issues. Ability to drill down on business pain points and determine the right solution, rather than delivering only the item that's being requested by stakeholders
• Demonstrates development and design experience with SDLC processes, Agile and Waterfall methodologies

Communication Skills:

• Demonstrated experience in solving problems analytically, and making sound decisions based on
• Experience in negotiating using both verbal and written communication skills and should have worked in a team-based environment with a proven record of meeting deadlines
• Strong stakeholder engagement, facilitation, negotiation, and consensus building

Public Sector Experience:

• Previous public sector experience in an organization of equivalent size or complexity in Public Service
• Demonstrates experience designing and developing applications that comply with GOITS standards and general processes would be an asset.

Must-have Requirements:

• Strong experience in developing reports and dashboards in Power BI.
• Solid experience in designing, developing, and deploying SSIS packages for ETL processes.
• Solid knowledge of MS SQL Server, including T-SQL, stored procedures, and query optimization.
• Familiar with data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) from various sources to target systems.
• Strong product experience such as Power BI, Cognos, Oracle, MS-SQL, Visual Studio, SSIS, Attunity, ODAC, .NET framework, GIT and SQL-based reporting tools.