Chief Technology Strategist

About Vancity

Vancity is a member-owned credit union that has been built on the principles of inclusion and social justice since 1946. The organization has a relentless commitment to its values, which has helped it challenge the status quo and break down barriers. Vancity has bold commitments to make the organization net-zero by 2040 across all mortgages and loans and is pursuing strategies on Indigenous banking and to improve the financial resilience of its members.

Vancity is the largest private sector Living Wage Employer in Canada and has been consistently recognized as one of the Top Employers in Canada. If you're interested in joining the team of 2,700 diverse individuals and accessing competitive rewards and benefits, then this role may be a good fit.

About the Role:

This is a full-time, permanent role. The Chief Technology Strategist plays a critical role in shaping the organization's technology and business strategies. This role will be responsible for designing and implementing enterprise-level solutions, ensuring they align with the long-term goals and objectives. Your expertise in technology architecture, innovation, and leadership will drive the organization's success in this dynamic and evolving industry.

The Chief Technology Strategist is accountable for providing leadership on Enterprise Architecture, as well as guiding, developing direction, and managing a portfolio of solutions to achieve targeted business outcomes. Solutions include systems (including applications, technologies, processes, and information), shared infrastructure services and shared application services. The Chief Technology Strategist is responsible for defining target architecture, strategy, and roadmap to identify, implement and rationalize capabilities across technology landscape with additional focus on core banking, integration, Customer Relationship Management, Data platform and branch technologies. The Chief Technology Strategist partners with cross functional teams to bridge the gap between various teams and projects to make sure that solutions are consistent with the target architecture and are cost-effective and rationalized to meet the business goals.

Your role will entail collaboration with senior executives, product owners and application/integration/data engineers driving the development and ownership of technology architecture while providing solutions for foundational initiatives, platform advancements and modernization initiatives. An ability to identify and address opportunities and enhancements in a dynamic environment with strong leadership quality and purpose driven approach will be crucial for this role.

Job Responsibilities:

• Provide sound solutions and architecture for key business initiatives
• Define Enterprise architecture principles
• Build and maintain architecture standards, patterns, and best practices.
• Understand business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determine corresponding enterprise system design and change requirements to drive the organization's targeted business outcomes.
• Guide and influence product owners, solution/data/security/infrastructure architects, designers, and developers in implementing sound architecture choices (Buy vs. Build, or Real-time vs. Batch)
• Provide guidance to Enterprise architecture in establishing standards and evaluate products and contribute to enterprise architecture initiatives.
• Design and lead the implementation solutions across all business applications or technologies based on enterprise business strategy, business capabilities and business requirements.
• Manage and develop the enterprise architecture for a broader scope of projects, working closely with solution and application architects that manage and design architecture for a single project or initiative.
• Provide consulting support to architects within projects to ensure the project is aligned with the proposed solution and overall enterprise architecture.
• Monitor the current-state solution portfolio to identify deficiencies through aging of the technologies used by the application, or misalignment with business requirements.
• Understand the technology trends and the practical application of existing, new, and emerging technologies (like AI, automation) to enable new and evolving business and operating models.
• Analyze the technology industry, competitors, and market trends, and determine their potential impact on the enterprise.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Min 10 years of software development experience as a solutions and enterprise architect. Experience designing solutions in Financial/Banking sector applications.
• Experience in cloud architecture - preferably Azure
• Experience with modern core banking systems and awareness of fintech landscape.
• Excellent knowledge of enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF, Zachman) and methodologies.
• Extensive knowledge of software architecture, application development and technical processes with considerable in-depth knowledge in one or more technical disciplines e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, cloud computing, etc.
• Proficiency in evaluating and recommending emerging technologies and best practices.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Have in depth knowledge in integration patterns and expertise in developing RESTful APIs with a good understanding of microservices architecture.
• Motivated and driven by achieving long-term business outcomes. Displays intellectual curiosity and integrity.
• Proven ability to innovate and adapt to the latest development in area of expertise. Ability to adapt and grasp new skills and content.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
• Attention to detail and a commitment to delivering high-quality software solutions.
• Familiarity with software development methodologies, such as Agile or Scrum.

We value lived experience, so if you are interested in this role, we encourage you to apply even if you feel your skills don't perfectly align with those listed.

The salary range for the role is $121,000 to $181,000 and a candidate's offer is likely to be up to the mid-point of the role $151,000. The upper half of the salary range is typically reserved for individuals who have demonstrated consistent strong performance in the role and possess a high level of job knowledge and skill.

Posting Deadline: Posted until Filled

We offer:

• We are the largest private-sector Living Wage Employer in Canada and have been consistently recognized as one of the Top Employers in Canada.
• Our permanent employees qualify for attractive benefit packages that can be customized and changed each year to meet their evolving needs.
• New employees receive between three to four weeks of vacation allowance per calendar year, and the number of vacation days grows — to a maximum of six weeks per year — as their length of service increases. In addition, full-time, permanent staff may be able to purchase extra days of vacation through our flexible benefits package.
• In addition to the 10 statutory holidays in British Columbia, Vancity provides an additional three statutory holidays. We offer care days for periods of short-term personal illness or emergency family illness, plus opportunities to take unpaid leave for a variety of reasons.
• Our health care & dental benefits offer three levels of health care and dental coverage for you to select from. These benefits will also be effective immediately based on your hire date.
• We understand that retirement means different things to different people and at Vancity we will offer you a Defined pension plan that pays you a retirement income for life.

Please note that all shortlisted candidates for this role will be required to complete a background check which includes employment verification, credit check, and a criminal record check. Vancity is an inclusive and equitable employer and actively seeks to advance racial equity, inclusion and belonging across the organization. Vancity offers required accommodations in all stages of the recruitment process. If you require an accommodation, please advise us, and we will work with you to meet your needs.