Senior Solution Architect (PROJ-4821)

Key duties and responsibilities:

• Lead the development of end-to-end solution architectures for EKMS and SMS capabilities, ensuring alignment with ASD security, operational and enterprise architecture requirements.

• Design secure architectures supporting cryptographic key lifecycle management, secret storage, certificate management, privileged access integration and automated key rotation processes.

• Produce and maintain architecture artefacts including solution designs, security models, integration patterns, infrastructure designs, data flows and technical roadmaps.

• Conduct architecture assessments, option analyses and technology evaluations, providing recommendations that balance security, performance, scalability, risk and operational supportability.

• Collaborate with security architects, engineers, project managers, business stakeholders and vendors to ensure successful implementation and integration of EKMS and SMS solutions.

• Provide architectural governance and assurance through design reviews, technical review boards, security assessments and project governance forums.

• Identify and manage architecture risks, dependencies and technical debt, ensuring compliance with ASD security policies, Australian Government requirements and industry best practices.

• Oversee implementation of KMS and secret management platforms, ensuring secure integration with existing enterprise systems.

• Design integration patterns for applications, CI/CD pipelines, container platforms, and cloud services to consume secrets securely.

• Lead proof-of-concept activities and pilot deployments to validate architectural decisions.

• Develop migration strategies from legacy key/credential management approaches to modern centralised platforms.

• Ensure solution comply with the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF), Information Security Manual (ISM), and relevant Australian Government security standards.

• Implement zero-trust principles and defence-in-depth strategies for cryptographic material protection.

• Design audit, logging and monitoring capabilities for key usage, access and lifecycle events.

• Support accreditation and certification activities, producing required security documentation.

• Contribute to the development of key management policies, procedures and operational playbooks.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to implementation team and ASD junior staff.

• Conduct architectural reviews and risk assessments for proposed solutions.

Technical Skills:

• A minimum 10 years of experiences in leading solution architecture activities for complex enterprise security, infrastructure, cloud or cyber security programs and projects.

• Proven experience designing and integrating enterprise key management, secrets management, identity and access management, PKI or cryptographic security solutions.

• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture methodologies, security architecture frameworks and system integration principles within large-scale ICT environments.

• Experience designing secure solutions across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments, including high-availability, resilience and disaster recovery considerations.

• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills, including the ability to influence senior executives, governance boards and technical teams.

• Tertiary qualification in Information Technology, Cyber Security, Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent demonstrated experience.

Essential criteria

1. Emerging technology monitoring: Level 5 (SFIA)

Monitors the external environment to gather intelligence on emerging technologies. Assesses and documents the impacts, threats and opportunities to the organisation. Creates reports and technology roadmaps and shares knowledge and insights with others.

1. Enterprise and business architecture: Level 5 (SFIA)

Develops models and plans to drive the execution of the business strategy, taking advantage of opportunities to improve business performance. Contributes to creating and reviewing a systems capability strategy which meets the business's strategic requirements. Determines requirements and specifies effective business processes, through improvements in technology, information or data practices, organisation, roles, procedures and equipment.

1. Solution architecture: Level 5 (SFIA)

Leads the development of solution architectures in specific business, infrastructure or functional areas. Leads the preparation of technical plans and ensures that appropriate technical resources are made available. Ensures that appropriate tools and methods are available, understood and employed in architecture development. Provides technical guidance and governance on solution development and integration. Evaluates requests for changes and deviations from specifications and recommends actions. Ensures that relevant technical strategies, policies, standards and practices (including security) are applied correctly.

1. Stakeholder relationship management: Level 6 (SFIA)

Leads the development of comprehensive stakeholder management strategies and plans. Builds long-term, strategic relationships with senior stakeholders (internal and external). Facilitates the engagement of stakeholders in support of the delivery of services and change projects. Acts as a single point of contact for senior stakeholders, facilitating relationships between them. Negotiates to ensure that stakeholders understand and agree on what will meet their needs, and that appropriate agreements are defined. Oversees monitoring of relationships including lessons learned and appropriate feedback. Leads actions to improve relations and open communications with and between stakeholders.

1. Systems design: Level 6 (SFIA)

Develops and drives adoption of and adherence to organisational policies, standards, guidelines, and methods for system design. Champions the importance and value of system design principles and the selection of appropriate systems design life cycle models. Leads system design activities for strategic, large and complex systems development programmes. Develops effective implementation strategies consistent with specified requirements, architectures and constraints of performance and feasibility. Develops system design requiring the introduction of new technologies or new uses for existing technologies.