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Who are we?
Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.
People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.
Role Summary
The Solutions Architect role forms part of a distributed, global infrastructure team that is responsible for the continued availability and support of an international on-premises and cloud infrastructure. The role will involve working on multiple projects to act as a hands-on architect, providing design support as well as an element of engineering across on-prem infrastructure & Microsoft cloud technologies.
The role will be expected to work in a fast-paced environment with high degrees of ambiguity arising from a period of significant change.
Job Specific Skills Profile
The role requires:
- Demonstrate extensive experience in an infrastructure cloud architecture position working primarily with Microsoft Azure & Microsoft 365 technologies.
- Demonstrate extensive experience of architecting solutions to meet security and governance requirements.
- Ability to design solutions to meet varied International Compliance and Regulatory requirements, as well as global business requirements.
- Able to translate business requirements into feasible technology solutions.
- Excellent documentation and presentation skills, being able to document solutions clearly at a high and low level, and present to governing boards prior to technical implementation.
- Ability to assist with the technical delivery of solutions for multiple projects maintaining the agreed solution design.
- Experience of working within ITIL change management governance.
- Ability to lead and provide guidance to infrastructure engineers.
- Be highly collaborative with the wider delivery team, management structure, and business leaders.
Technical Skills Required:
- Detailed Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 knowledge is fundamental to this role.
- Azure architecture, server and platform architecture, including security and networking principles
- Good understanding of modern Identity and Access Management, ideally Entra ID, including Entra ID Connect, Entra ID Enterprise Application Integration, Conditional Access
- M365 Hybrid knowledge including a good understanding of Office 365 client-side requirements and how these interact with backend M365 services.
- Experience with corporate acquisition projects involving architectural integration and application migration
- Good understanding of networking technologies, MPLS, Expressroute, firewalls, routing protocols, Enterprise WiFi, and wired LAN networking.
- Highly proficient with on-premises architecture within the Microsoft stack e.g. Exchange, SQL, Active Directory
- Strong on-premises Hypervisor experience, e.g. VMware and fibre-channel storage arrays
- Experience designing backup & disaster recovery solutions
- Automation, e.g. PowerShell, Terraform
- Intune for device management, including Apple Business Manager, Autopilot.
- Microsoft 365 Purview policy management
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Technical Skills Desired:
- Architecture framework experience, e.g. TOGAF certified
- Experience of working in a multi-forest environment
- Citrix – XenApp & XenDesktop experience
- VMware, Azure, or O365 certified.
- Teams messaging, Telephony, Teams Meeting Rooms.
Core Responsibilities for all Staff
Achieve Results through Relationships with All Parties
- Deliver a personal performance that contributes towards Group and/or Company achieving their objectives
- Achieve lasting relationships with all parties (internal clients, suppliers, third parties, and other staff)
Delivery of Service
- Consistently deliver an excellent and comprehensive service, on-time, within budget, and to, or exceeding quality expectations.
Conduct and Integrity
- Ensure all dealings are carried out with integrity and professionalism
- Act in utmost good faith, in accordance with Group and/or Company policies, and never risk the Company’s or the Group’s reputation
General Responsibilities
Clients
- Develop strong relationships with the Business Units
- Respond to the Business Units’ requirements as appropriate
- Support the business units with their use of the IT systems
- Behave with all clients (both internal and external) fairly and ethically with excellent customer service
- Take ownership of issues and provide updates to users on outstanding issues.
Management
- Ensure team members are competent to carry out their responsibilities
- Motivate team to deliver high performance and achieve objectives
Administration
- Ensure up to date records are maintained at all times on the Group and Company systems
- Interpret instructions and issues arising, and then implement actions according to policies and procedures
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Compliance
- Ensure compliance with all applicable Group and/or Company policies and procedures
- Ensure correct authorisation is obtained and processes followed when required by the Group and/or Company policies and procedures
- Ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
- Ensure that own performance, HR, and T&C records are up to date and meet the Group’s requirements
- Maintain accurate records and deal with correspondence appropriately
- Ensure compliance with Anti Bribery and Corruption policy and procedures
Reporting
- Monitor and report on Business Units’ issues
- Provide relevant management information to senior management
Representing the Company and Companies within the Group
- Any other reasonable duties, as required
What do we offer in return?
A career that you define.
At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:
- Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new
- We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges
- We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond
Reasonable adjustments
We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.
If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.
*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.
Permanent
Howden began in 1994, as just three people and a dog. Now there are 23,000 of us, and we're a leading global insurance group, managing $37bn of premiums for our clients. Our largest shareholder group is us – the people who work in the business – supported by three long-term, minority growth-equity partners who share our vision to build a business to last, one that will never be sold.
The owner's mindset is something that's embedded in our culture; our people readily take ownership of their decisions, their actions, and their outputs. They’re invested in every sense. And we all know that by working together to drive the business forward, everyone will benefit from the extraordinary results we can achieve.
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