Role Overview

This role involves leading the functional aspects of Solution Design during the implementation of our products in new and existing clients.

The role involves combining product knowledge with industry experience to provide the customer with a solution that will meet their business needs and deliver the identified business benefits.

Our client is looking for an experienced Solution Architect / Principal Consultant / Solution Lead with functional / application consulting experience in Gas and Electricity within the UK energy market.

The ideal candidate will possess extensive Utility industry experience (Energy essential, Water preferable) allied to excellent communication and analytical skills with a thorough understanding of the UK energy market both from a Supplier and Industry Participant point of view.  They will display a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, be self-motivated and able to work as part of a team.

Experience in methodologies such as Sprint / Agile and implementing software products from planning right through to Go-Live is also desirable.

Responsibilities & Activities

The consultant is typically involved in the following project activities:

Scoping, feasibility, and definition.

Advising the client on ways in which to leverage new and existing investment to improve their business and identifying a roadmap for future investment.

Inputting to business cases through defining solution options.

Benefit identification and justification.

Requirements capture and analysis.

Leading solution design and configuration.

Presales demonstrations and bid and tender responses.

Essential Skills & Experience

Specific product set training / knowledge transfer will be provided to the successful candidate, as part of a structured induction programme.

At least 5 years in a Lead role with responsibility for and ownership of the design solution being delivered on large scale projects or programmes, in a Solution Architect or equivalent role.

At least 10 years’ experience of large and full lifecycle implementations of software in the UK Energy Market.

Subject matter expertise and deep understanding of the end-to-end industry defined processes operating in the UK Energy Retail Market including knowledge of upcoming industry changes such as Faster Switching & Consequential Changes.

Subject matter expertise and understanding of the UK Smart Metering implementation including SMETS1, SMETS2, Enrolment & Adoption, Installation Activities.

Detailed knowledge of relationships between industry participants in the market including the governance, regulation and the data transfer / communications mechanisms which support these relationships.

Knowledge of key drivers of change within either the Gas or Electricity industry segments.

Understanding of integration capabilities and typical integrations for enterprise solutions.

Experienced in producing high quality written outputs (deliverables) associated with implementations are essential.

Experienced in working closely with client business and IT staff.

Experienced in translating business needs into IT solutions and conversely confirming a solution will meet business needs.

Experienced in working closely with the product development team to ensure requirements are understood, and optimized to satisfy business needs.

Experienced in the integration of products into an end-to-end technical landscape.

Experience of implementation of products within a high performance, high availability cloud architecture.

Preferred Skills & Experience

Experience of MDMS / AMI Head End solutions.

Process & Data Modelling (BPMN, UML, Case tools).

System Analysis using SQL queries.

Experience in delivering client presentations.

Experience in running requirement / design workshops.

Experience in producing Requirements / Functional Specifications.

Experience of test support, using test tools and methodologies, e.g., unit test, system testing, UAT testing.

Experience of development using an Agile Methodology including tools such as JIRA and Azure DevOps.

Benefits

Car or car allowance.

23 days Annual Holiday (increases to maximum of 27 days linked to length of service) plus public holidays.

Pension (with matched contribution to 5%).

Life assurance.

Private medical cover.

Flexible benefits arrangement