Lead Functional Architect - Back Office

at  Trafigura

Main Purpose:
We are seeking a delivery-focussed Functional Architect to take ownership of the strategic vision for the Back Office functions of the organisation across Oil, Metals & Bulk products.
As a Functional Architect. you will be responsible for transforming large, complex business initiatives into an architectural vision that will facilitate the structured delivery of functional capabilities. You will collaborate closely with stakeholders across the organisation to facilitate the growth and optimisation of business operations by providing a clear picture of how the application landscape can enable delivery of roadmaps in current and future states, while supporting delivery teams in continuous improvement of our applications.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities, Key Responsibilities:

• 10+ years of experience working in a business analyst and/or architect role
• Strong domain knowledge in the commodity trading industry covering the end to end physical trade lifecycle, with expertise in back office functions including Settlements, Trade Finance (LCs, Bilateral Facilities, Borrowing Base), Corporate Funding (Securitisation, RCFs), Treasury & Accounting
• Track record working in widely distributed global team delivering large scale applications
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills both with business and IT leaders
• Ability to plan and execute work independently with a pro-active approach
• Comfortable working in a matrix management structure with a flat hierarchy
• Excellent verbal and written communication in English
• (Preferred) Experience with a range of ERP solutions, including Oracle

Key Responsibilities

• Transform high level business objectives into a clear, architectural vision that can be executed by application delivery teams to drive business outcomes.
• Create, maintain and continuously improve the functional application architecture and conceptual data models, facilitating an understanding of dependencies across the organisation by democratising information.
• Make recommendations on key strategic architectural decisions such as buy vs. build options.
• Balance strategic initiatives with tactical demands, providing a clear functional roadmap across current, interim and target states to communicate a coherent journey for the Business and IT.
• Support application delivery teams throughout the SDLC, facilitating alignment with detailed design work and accommodating architectural change where required.
• Collaborate closely with technical leads to align functional and technical architecture, ensuring that technical implementation enables business expectations to be met.
• Develop and maintain trusting relationships with senior business stakeholders, working closely to understand how IT solutions can support their objectives.
• Keep up with industry trends, using this knowledge to identify ways to help better meet business goals.
• Drive forward IT process improvements with senior stakeholders to implementation, enabling more effective delivery of business value.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, inclusion and excellence across the IT organisation.

Key Attitudes / Competencies:

• Delivery focus with a can-do attitude
• Clear and engaging communicator
• Ability to take ownership of decisions in a fast-paced environment
• Collaborative and inclusive mindset

Key Relationships and Department Overview:

• Senior business stakeholders
• Trading IT organisation – Product managers, delivery leads, business analysts, functional architects, technical architects, developers, QA and project managers.

Reporting Structure

• Reporting into Lead Functional Architect in Geneva, Switzerland

Department Overview
Trafigura is committed to building and maintaining world class IT applications and infrastructure. The Trading IT group directly supports the Trafigura trading business, and this business has started a far-reaching programme to enhance and improve its trading applications using an innovative architecture to support business growth across the full range of business lines and geographies, and to enable the sharing of systems across different businesses.
This programme is aimed at delivering functional capabilities, enhancements and technical infrastructure upgrades to enable continued business growth and enhanced profitability for the firm

Knowledge Skills and Abilities, Key Responsibilities:

• 10+ years of experience working in a business analyst and/or architect role
• Strong domain knowledge in the commodity trading industry covering the end to end physical trade lifecycle, with expertise in back office functions including Settlements, Trade Finance (LCs, Bilateral Facilities, Borrowing Base), Corporate Funding (Securitisation, RCFs), Treasury & Accounting
• Track record working in widely distributed global team delivering large scale applications
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills both with business and IT leaders
• Ability to plan and execute work independently with a pro-active approach
• Comfortable working in a matrix management structure with a flat hierarchy
• Excellent verbal and written communication in English
• (Preferred) Experience with a range of ERP solutions, including Oracl

Key Responsibilities

• Transform high level business objectives into a clear, architectural vision that can be executed by application delivery teams to drive business outcomes.
• Create, maintain and continuously improve the functional application architecture and conceptual data models, facilitating an understanding of dependencies across the organisation by democratising information.
• Make recommendations on key strategic architectural decisions such as buy vs. build options.
• Balance strategic initiatives with tactical demands, providing a clear functional roadmap across current, interim and target states to communicate a coherent journey for the Business and IT.
• Support application delivery teams throughout the SDLC, facilitating alignment with detailed design work and accommodating architectural change where required.
• Collaborate closely with technical leads to align functional and technical architecture, ensuring that technical implementation enables business expectations to be met.
• Develop and maintain trusting relationships with senior business stakeholders, working closely to understand how IT solutions can support their objectives.
• Keep up with industry trends, using this knowledge to identify ways to help better meet business goals.
• Drive forward IT process improvements with senior stakeholders to implementation, enabling more effective delivery of business value.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, inclusion and excellence across the IT organisation