At CN, we work together to move our company—and North America—forward. Be part of our Information & Technology (I&T) team, a critical piece of the engine that keeps us in motion. From enterprise architecture to operational technology, our teams use the agile methodology to automate and digitize our railroad ensuring our operations run optimally and safely and our employees can focus on value-added tasks. You will be able to develop your skills and career in our close-knit, safety-focused culture working together as ONE TEAM. The careers we offer are meaningful because the work we do matters. Join us!

Job Summary

The role of Expert Solution Architect Infrastructure is to define and recommend sound IT infrastructure architectures that will support the business needs and align with CN direction and standards. This includes collaborate with enterprise architects and other solution architects, providing direction in the delivery of the solution to designers & integrators. More precisely, the role builds the solution, gets approval from other stakeholders (e.g. security, RAM, Safety, etc.), drives alignment of the proposed solution with the Enterprise & Domain strategies and roadmaps, manages risk mitigation, and as required handles issue escalation & resolution related to the architecture. The Expert signs off on architectures where they have the delegation authority and governs the implementation of the architecture during the design phase.

Main Responsibilities

• Review, understand and evaluate business requests to determine feasibility, impacts, risks, and recommendations
• Collaborate with System Architecture in shaping, scoping, defining, planning, and reviewing solutions
• Provide direction to and align specialized architects in project engagements, ensuring proposed solutions meets business needs and are aligned with (or properly exempted from) corporate standards
• Present and drive sign-off on the technology solution
• Manage architectural risk mitigations, issue escalation, and resolution processes
• Document the existing technology portfolio and propose recommendations for improvements and / or alternatives
• Document architecture for solutions requiring on-premises infrastructure and technology
• Evaluate current and emerging cloud and on-prem infrastructure technologies
• Create, support, and influence pragmatic architectural oversight, using principles, policies, and guardrails
• Design solutions that are modular and can be replicated and look for replication opportunities for solution being developed.
• Support other Solution Architects

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree or more in computer science or related discipline.
• 10+ years experience in IT
• 5+ years in similar role
• Strong ability to bring complex concepts to actionable architecture deliverables
• Strong ability at taking hard decisions by understanding and explaining trade-offs between business enablement and economics impacts
• The role requires people skills to influence and orient business and technical audience toward a common goal that is satisfying all stakeholders
• Very good ability to build collaborative cross functional relationships, pulling together and maintaining a cohesive and high functioning team
• Strong ability to lead team on a mandate and to lead decisions
• Ability to balance requirements and concerns from different stakeholders (business, finance, IT, etc.) and make efficient judgement calls, providing clear rationale for decisions
• Ability to deliver mandate with great autonomy – self-driven
• Ability to breakdown complex concepts into digestible and actionable architectural components
• Ability to influence and orient business and technical audiences toward common goals and approaches
• Ability to navigate complex organizations such as CN and build collaborative cross functional relationships
• Ability to efficiently communicate with people of varying seniority and backgrounds
• Ability to guide and support cross functional teams (business, PMs, analysts, delivery, QA, support) during projects shaping and execution
• Ability to collaborate with and guide external development/configuration partners
• Autonomous and self driven, at the same time knowing when to reach out and how to provide adequate visibility
• Capacity to engage on multiple concurrent initiatives efficiently
• Curious and interested in acquiring knowledge over multiple new architecture concepts, business domains and technologies
• Capacity to perform with little or no prior knowledge of a project context, domain, or technologies
• Experience with numerous architectural fields: application, information, technology, security, etc.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills
• Experience and ability to coach other solution architects on new technology platforms and approaches.
• Knowledge with Service Oriented Architecture and Domain Driven Design

SKILLS & EXPERIENCES

• In depth knowledge of cloud-based infrastructure solutions and services.
• In depth knowledge of on-prem infrastructure solutions; data centers, compute, and storage
• Preferred with certification(s) on Azure and/or Google Cloud Platform
• Experience with platform-based architecture
• Experience with IT transformational initiatives
• Experience with cloud first paradigm shift
• Experience in program & project scoping and planning
• Experience with integration between legacy solutions
• Familiarity with standard IT security practices such as encryption, certificates, and key management.
• Preferred with Security certification or relevant IT security experience (CISSP, CCSP)
• Preferred with certification(s) for ITIL concepts as a plus.
• Experience with full application lifecycle management
• Knowledge of Archimate or UML modeling
• Transportation or rail related experience a plus

TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS IN SCOPE

Cloud (Azure, Google Cloud Platform), Virtual Servers, Windows Server, Linux Server, AIX, Storage, Backup, Netezza, ServiceNow, Kafka, Container Management (Anthos), Kubernetes, API platforms, Micro Services, Data Lake, Mobile Backend as a Service, Notification solutions, Access Management, Active Directory, LDAP

About CN

CN is a world-class transportation leader and trade-enabler. Essential to the economy, to the customers, and to the communities it serves, CN safely transports more than 300 million tons of natural resources, manufactured products, and finished goods throughout North America every year. As the only railroad connecting Canada’s Eastern and Western coasts with the Southern tip of the U.S. through a 19,500 mile rail network, CN and its affiliates have been contributing to community prosperity and sustainable trade since 1919. CN is committed to programs supporting social responsibility and environmental stewardship. At CN, we work as ONE TEAM, focused on safety, sustainability and our customers, providing operational and supply chain excellence to deliver results.

For internal candidates, note that the grade level of the position will depend on the employee's experience.

CN is an employment equity employer and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only candidates under consideration will be contacted. Please monitor your email on a regular basis, as communication is primarily made through email.