Solution Architect Lead

At Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), we're seeking a dedicated Solution Architect to join our ambitious Digital Architecture team. This role is outstanding as it offers the opportunity to contribute to projects that directly impact the quality of life for Texans through water stewardship, energy management, and community service. As a Solution Architect, you will play a pivotal role in crafting and implementing flawless solutions that support our mission.

Competitive pay range: $143,100 - $174,900 per year

This pay range represents a general target and is not reflective of the full pay range. Offers to selected candidates are contingent upon various factors such as skills, experience and education.

You will be trusted to:

- Identify and understand business problems, then translate them into requirement specifications. Convert those requirements into architecture and design documents for implementation by the Digital Services Solutions team.

- Collaborate with partners, customers, and team members to develop solutions that address business needs, adhere to standards, improve user experience, and offer reliable technical support.

- Recommend standard methodologies and innovative solutions to address complex problems. Act as a crucial facilitator of Digital Services modernization.

- Champion development of enterprise architecture governance.

- Troubleshoot entire hardware and software stack, and deliver the highest level of support for all hardware and software components.

- Coordinate installation and implementation activities with LCRA and third-party vendors.

- Mentor less senior staff members.

- Collaborate with cyber architecture and operations team(s) to ensure business continuity, security hardening, security posture, and CISO policies and procedures.

- Lead in the development of system infrastructure designs to support current and future on-premises and off-premises Cloud-based organization needs.

- Use multiple technologies to build the best overall solution(s) to meet current and future needs of the various LCRA business units.

- Provide continued service improvements for architectural change recommendations to increase overall availability for mission and business-critical systems.

- Research and maintain knowledge in new technologies with possible application to the business.

- Develop methodologies, evaluations, and recommendations for system capacity planning and corresponding architecture changes due to capacity objectives.

- Analyze design alternatives including the development and preparation of cost justification models.

- Investigate reliability requirements and vulnerabilities then develop appropriate efficient solutions.

- Collaborate on network modernization and automation practices.

- Implement security measures to protect critical infrastructure. This includes physical, network, and access controls under OT CIP compliance.

- Design OT cybersecurity architecture to mitigate and prevent the exploitation of cyber-physical systems and industrial control systems (ICS).

You qualify with:

- Twelve or more years of experience supporting IT systems hardware, software or other relevant experience. Experience must include two or more years focused on architecture and design. A degree(s) in computer science, mathematics or relevant field may be substituted per LCRA guidelines for certain years of experience.

You are a great fit with:

- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or mathematics

- Leading the design and implementation of robust, scalable, and secure IT solutions that align with our business objectives.

- Serving as a key member of the Enterprise Architecture governance team, ensuring compliance with SOC 2 Type 2, SSAE18, NERC CIP, and ISO27001 standards.

- Researching and prototyping innovative technology solutions to solve complex business challenges.

- Developing and governing service portfolios using standard methodologies, technology trends, and security considerations.

- Collaborating with cross-functional teams to successfully implement network automation, cloud-centric design, and service delivery.

- Integrating operational technology with enterprise IT systems and application services, ensuring flawless functionality and security.

- Leading business continuity programs to ensure high availability and disaster recovery, applying load balancer solutions.

- Coordinating network design and implementation, with expertise in OSI model (Layer 2-7), TCP/IP, and various network technologies such as DNS, DHCP, load balancers, and WAN accelerators.

- Implementing virtualization and compute platforms, including converged/hyper-converged servers, SAN and storage platforms, and managing operating systems like Windows Server and Linux.

- Managing security technologies, including IPS/IDS and firewalls, to protect our organization’s IT infrastructure.

- Experience as a Network Architect.

- Professional level network design or consulting experience.

- A working knowledge of essential hardware and software components within an Operational Technology (OT) environment.

You gain:

- Competitive salary & medical, dental, vision and legal insurance

- Paid time off, including time for vacation, sick and family care leave

- 401(k) match up to 8% that includes a student loan 401(k) contribution program option

- Life and disability insurance

- Wellness program including wellness incentive

- Extensive learning & development programs

And more - all to create a compelling and rewarding work environment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

LCRA provides equal employment opportunities and a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at LCRA are based on business need, job requirement and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, or veteran status in accordance with applicable federal and state legal requirements governing nondiscrimination in employment.

LCRA is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities. Applicants with a disability who require a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process can contact LCRA Human Resources (512) 578-4004 or email lcra.benefits@lcra.org. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.