The Collaboration & Communications Solution Architect provides a deep understanding of the business goals and objectives, desired business outcomes, capabilities, value streams and processes and links them to the portfolio of collaboration and communications (C&C) solutions, including systems (applications, technologies, processes and information), shared infrastructure and application services. This role specifically focuses on designing, implementing, and managing enterprise-wide collaboration and communication solutions, with a strong emphasis on Google Workspace and related technologies, including Unified Communications and Contact Center technologies. This role collaborates closely with, and supports, business and technical teams throughout the product life cycle to deliver business value. Collaborates on the strategic vision for each product within the application domains. Leads the creation of deliverables related to analysis, support, and design of technology solutions to ensure that solutions meet business needs and are aligned with architectural governance and standards. Orchestrates the solutions delivery by providing the necessary leadership to tasks related to developing  an enterprise’s solutions architecture, such as governance, creating technology portfolio roadmap, and monitoring current state. Represents all business units that use products within the function domain and closely collaborates with others throughout the organization.  

Essential Functions:

Translates Business Strategy into Solutions Architecture

• Cultivates strong partnerships with business stakeholders at all levels of the organization. Proactively engages with business units to deeply understand their needs and translate them into technical solutions. Serves as the primary point of contact and advocate for Google Workspace and related solutions, building relationships and fostering adoption. Advocate for the effective use of technology to support business outcomes. This includes understanding and addressing the specific needs of contact center teams.

• Understands business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determines corresponding enterprise system designs and change requirements to drive the organization’s targeted business outcomes.

• Understands emerging technology trends and disruptions and the practical application of existing, new, and emerging technologies to enable new and evolving business and operating models.

• Translates business and technical requirements into a solution architectural blueprint to achieve business objectives and documents all solution architecture design and analysis work.

• Collaborates with others to analyze the technology landscape, as well as  competitors and market trends, to use the  information to  determine potential business benefit and  impact on the enterprise.

• Provides deliverables like standard definitions, reference models and architecture designs to help the Enterprise Architecture Board (EAB) assess the impact of new and ongoing technology investment on the business and IT.

• May act as a consultant on a broad range of technologies, platforms and vendor offerings related to collaboration and communications, to drive targeted business outcomes. This includes expertise in platforms like Google Workspace, Zoom Workspace, Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions, and other relevant C&C technologies.   

Leads Solutions Design and Analysis

• Leads evaluation, design and analysis for the implementation of a solutions architecture across a group of collaboration and communications business applications or technologies based on enterprise business strategy, business capabilities, value-streams, business requirements and enterprise standards.

• Creates solution architectural designs to guide and contextualize solution development across products, services, and systems (including applications, technologies, processes and information).

• Creates reference architectures focused on detailed design principles, decision points, major systems and dependencies between business and IT. 

• May manage and develop the solution architecture for a broader scope of products, working closely with application architects that manage and design architecture for a single product or initiative.

Orchestrates Solutions Delivery

• Defines the principles, guidelines, standards and solution patterns to ensure solution decisions are aligned with the future-state enterprise architecture vision, with a particular focus on collaboration and communication solutions.

• Facilitates the evaluation and selection of software product standards and services, as well as the design of standard and custom software configurations.

• Develops a roadmap for the evolution of the enterprise application portfolio from current to future state (as defined by the solutions architecture).

• Monitors the current-state solution portfolio to identify deficiencies through aging of the technologies used by the application, or misalignment with business requirements.

• Identifies the organizational impact (for example, on skills, processes, structures or culture) and financial impact of the solutions architecture.

• Designs and directs governance activities for solutions, and ensures compliance with Enterprise Architecture standards

• Provides technical leadership and guidance to the C&C teams, including advising on technical decisions, troubleshooting complex issues, mentoring team members, fostering collaboration, and facilitating effective communication and coordination to ensure projects progress smoothly.

• Ensures the stability, reliability, and performance of communication and collaboration production environments, including proactive monitoring, incident management, problem management, performance optimization, capacity planning, and maintenance and upgrades, as well as contributing to the stability and performance of integrated Contact Center systems.

Facilitates and Collaborates to Deliver Business Outcomes

• Works closely with the business and product leaders to ensure a robust architectural runway that can support future business requirements throughout the product life cycle.

• Consults with application and infrastructure development teams to fit systems or infrastructure to architecture and identify when it is necessary to modify plans to accommodate the solutions architecture.

• Supports a community of practice (CoP), guiding and helping agile teams, product owners, and application architects to align with the overall enterprise architecture governance and assurance, providing expertise in collaboration and communication best practices, and Contact Center technology integration.

• Works with technology vendors to ensure solutions align with product vision. 

• Successfully engages in multiple large initiatives simultaneously.

• Performs other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:

• Expertise in Google Workspace administration, configuration, and integration with other enterprise systems.

• Strong experience with collaboration technologies (e.g., AppSheet, internal communication platforms, AV/meeting room technologies) and contact center solutions (e.g., NICE, Zoom, video conferencing).

• Proven ability to design and implement complex C&C solutions, including architecture definition, technology selection, and integration planning.

• Solid understanding of networking concepts, security best practices, and relevant protocols (SIP, WebRTC, etc.).

• Experience leading and guiding technical teams in the implementation of C&C solutions.

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills, with a focus on C&C systems.

• Excellent communication (written & verbal), interpersonal, and stakeholder management skills.

• Knowledge of AI applications and their implications in the communication, collaboration, and Contact Center space such as natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), virtual assistants, chatbots, and AI-driven analytics.

• Must have strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Must be organized and have strong problem-solving capabilities.

• Must multi-task, prioritize and work independently or within a team environment.