Sr. IT Architect

Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF New York, New York), is one of the largest and most respected financial service providers in the world. For more than 85 years we’ve been dedicated to serving the financial well-being of an extraordinary group of people – those working in the academic, medical, cultural, and research fields.

Financial Services


The Web & e-Business Strategy & Solutions (WeBSS) organization is responsible for defining strategy and implementing solutions within TIAA-CREF's Internet, Extranet and Intranet web environments. These environments serve TIAA-CREF customers, partners and employees with a wide variety of financial services solutions, information and tools. The e-Architecture team, within the WeBSS group, aids this mission by defining future state architecture for the environments that is aligned with enterprise architecture direction and balances current needs while positioning for future needs. The Sr. IT Architect serves as a knowledge expert / consultant for project teams in the implementation or application of architecture. The role is also responsible for documenting / communicating the IT architecture and relevant technology trends and news; defining, documenting and communicating relevant Architecture standards as well as providing IT architecture governance via architectural reviews, checklists, measures and metrics.



The WeBSS organization is currently underway with a multi-year initiative to improve the web delivery environments that service our customers, partners and employees. The goal of this initiative is to provide a world class service experience for TIAA-CREF customers via the increasingly popular web channel while increasing the agility of the organization to respond to business changes and opportunities. The position of Sr. IT Architect will fill a crucial role in aiding the WeBSS organization achieve its future state vision by working with the e-Architecture and IT Architecture teams to develop the technology strategy, assist in product / platform evaluation, identify and plan the retirement of legacy technologies and define standards and best practices and ensuring the successful delivery of projects. The Sr. IT Architect will also become knowledgeable of the existing web platforms and systems to aid in the definition of transition roadmaps and to stabilize of the existing environment.



As a TIAA employee, you have access to a highly competitive benefits package that includes the following plans: Retirement, 401(k), including an excess plan, Medical coverage, including prescription drug coverage, Dental coverage, Vision care, Long- and short-term disability, Life insurance, Flexible spending accounts, Paid time off, Work/life programs, Tuition reimbursement, Adoption assistance, Fitness reimbursement, Commuter benefits, and Back-up childcare.
REQUIREMENTS


10-15 years of hands-on experience in IT Architecture with complex real-time, mission- critical, multi-tiered applications environments. B.S. in Computer Science, MIS/CIS or equivalent quantitative discipline. Strong integration architecture experience with a variety of platforms and technologies including Service Oriented Architectures and Enterprise Application Integration. Strong experience with web application architecture and systems including platforms such as portals (e.g. BEA WebLogic Portal and BEA Web Logic Application Server), enterprise search platforms (e.g Autonomy), enterprise content management systems (e.g. Stellant). Solid analytical and problem solving skills. Strong application development experience with highly available and distributed Java/J2EE based web applications. Extensive experience researching and evaluating third party tools and platforms for application to the environment. Experience assessing and implementing plans to address architectural impacts on development, test and production environments. Solid project management skills including project planning, administration, monitoring and risk mitigation. Excellent communication skills in both written and verbal forms with the ability to educate inform and influence both technical and non-technical team members. Must possess a strong work ethic, be a self-starter, be customer focused, be a team player and prefer to work in a collaborative mode, demonstrate a high level of energy and enthusiasm, and possess strong organizational skills including the ability to work on a large number of diverse initiatives concurrently. The ideal candidate will possess significant experience with customer oriented financial systems.