Job Information
CARMAX Architect, Application Systems in Richmond, Virginia
8116 - Midtown Office - 2220 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23220
CarMax, the way your career should be!
ABOUT THIS JOB :
The Solutions Architect designs, implements, and evaluates Information Technology systems to determine the best solutions for meeting CarMax and CarMax Auto Finance customer demands.
The Solutions Architect works with the Enterprise Architecture team to develop standards and design patterns. This position will work with various IT teams to champion the adoption of patterns, platforms, and architectural tools.
Solutions Architect provide mentorship and are asked to provide positive and developmental feedback and capitalizes on teachable moments to grow others. This position is responsible for the technical training of associates.
Summary of Duties:
Participate in the fulfillment of the technology roadmap, designing target state architecture and transitional architectures as needed.
Hands on systems design with multiple teams, focused on full-stack digital experiences and microservice/API creation supporting omnichannel.
Establish and leverage DevOps principles to help teams increase observability, scalability, speed to market, and quality delivery.
Work with teams to nurture a culture of experimentation to ensure teams are learning quickly.
Work with Enterprise Architects, Business Leadership, Product Leadership, and other Technology Leaders to create an overarching design of services needed to provide customers and associates with a true unified commerce experience.
Drive consensus of architecture and design by working closely with all teams to deliver a cohesive digital commerce ecosystem, as well as effectively presenting growth and maturity opportunities to stakeholders across all levels of the organization.
Identify opportunities for stability and resiliency, and ensure teams have an effective disaster recovery playbook (both manual and automated).
Drive design consensus within and across teams while maintaining awareness across technology.
Find opportunities for teams to learn and implement new technologies and patterns, and develop/deliver technical training and business understanding for developers and peers.
Investigate new technologies and techniques, and research ongoing industry trends through a partnership with the Enterprise Architecture team.
Maintain and grow a deep knowledge and functional expertise of the supported technology ecosystem and touchpoints, and impacts of changing industry best practices for enterprise development and deployment.
Maintain and grow a deep knowledge of the retail, wholesale, marketplace and automotive industries, specifically from the point of view of how technology is being applied to power the customer experience from acquisition through retention.
Develop design diagrams and prototypes to communicate your architecture vision.
Maintain strong relationships with key product partners to ensure product plans are aligned with company objectives/plans.
Conduct architectural system design evaluations in support of your teams.
Partner closely with Lead Engineers to drive the digital commerce ecosystem forward. Make thoughtful decisions on the fly, constantly clearing roadblocks to getting to your target architecture.
Ensure target business areas have the appropriate level of awareness, knowledge, buy-in into our design and architecture roadmap.
Lead architecture discovery and drive innovation to identify forward-looking solutions, simple solutions to complex problems.
Creates and enhances guidelines, policies, practices, and procedures to drive improvements to the technical design and development processes; partner with other solution architects to identify opportunity areas and determine best practices.
Evaluate 3rd party vendor products within the context of architectural design and delivery in your solution boundaries.
What is CarMax Auto Finance (CAF)?
CAF is the captive finance company or wholly owned subsidiary of our retail arm, CarMax Auto Superstore. CAF is the 14th largest auto lender in the US and 5th largest originator of used car loans in the nation.
CAF customers are offered 24x7 account access to a digital web portal to manage their account or make payments online. The nearly 800 CAF associates based out of Kennesaw, Georgia are available to provide support from origination through payoff, including the return of their vehicle title.
What you will do – Essential Responsibilities
Design system solutions that meet requirements
Provide proposals for solutions to deliver business outcomes
Design sweeping applications that impact application environments within the engineering team
Identify areas of improvement in the development lifecycle and recommend action plans
Create, review, and develop software throughout the team’s environment and effectively communicate the rationale behind the design
Designs modifications to existing software, design reusable components, and eliminate redundancy in designs throughout the team’s environment
Drive design consensus within the team while maintaining awareness with other teams
Develop and deliver technical training and business understanding for developers
Drive efficient resolution for system outages as well as performance and functional shortcomings
Engage in a critical support situations and effectively, efficiently, and quickly drive to successful resolution
Investigate new technologies and techniques and research ongoing industry developments through a partnership with the Enterprise Architecture team
Evaluate the ROI of systems development and enhancements to the IT Enterprise environment and effectively weigh the financial alternatives involved with various technical solutions and proposals
Partner with IT Enterprise Architects to assist IT Leadership with the forecasting of technology implementation budgets
Assists in the budget process to identify the Total Cost of Ownership
Qualifications and Requirements
Basic Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, or IT related field.
8+ years of application development experience
6+ years of database development experience
Broad understanding of the business processes implemented across the team’s applications
Broad understanding of all aspects of the team’s technical software requirements including security, scalability, and usability
Develop long term application plans
Build consensus and acceptance of improvements and changes to CarMax development patterns, standards, and processes
Influence the technical direction of others in order to drive all projects to successful completion within the architectural standards and guidance
Courageously drive strategic initiatives and challenge upward and across the IT enterprise when necessary
Proven ability to effectively communicate architectural standards and best practices
Drive through obstacles and time constraints to successfully deliver a project to completion
Demonstrated ability to compare and contrast alternative approaches to meet objectives while assessing risk both quantitatively and qualitatively
Effectively estimate time required for technical efforts for projects of all sizes
Demonstrated communication skills to include but not limited to verbal and written communication, delivering organized presentations, able to tailor message to the audience, and facilitate group discussions with diplomacy and seek diverse opinions
Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and problem solving skills and performs well in high pressure or stressful situations
Demonstrated ability in statistical analysis, advanced calculations, and reporting
Demonstrated ability to effectively estimate effort, durations and enterprise impact required for large technical solutions
Evaluate long term impacts when making recommendations and decisions.
Software Specific Qualifications and Requirements
Experience in the following required:
Microsoft C#/.NET Core
Microsoft SQL Server scripting and data models
API concepts (REST & SOAP) and toolsets (Swagger, Postman)
HTML/CSS, Angular, and other web design components
Experience in the following preferred:
ServiceNow
GitHub
Splunk and Splunk Dashboard Designer
Globalscape EFT
Oracle SQL
Apache Airflow
Microsoft Azure
Python ETL
Work Authorization: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Sponsorship will be considered for this specific role.
Work Location and Arrangement: This role will be based out of the Richmond, VA Technology Innovation Center or the Dallas Tech Hub in Plano, TX and have a Hybrid work arrangement.
About CarMax
CarMax disrupted the auto industry by delivering the honest, transparent, and high-integrity experience customers want and deserve. This innovative thinking around the way cars are bought and sold has helped us become the nation’s largest retailer of used cars, with over 200 locations nationwide.
Our amazing team of more than 25,000 associates work together to deliver iconic customer experiences. Along the way, we help every associate grow their career and achieve their best, at work and in their community. We are recognized for our commitment to training and diversity and are one of the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For®.
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:
CarMax is committed to bringing together people from different backgrounds and perspectives, providing employees with a safe, welcoming, and inclusive work environment.
CarMax is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Upon an applicant's request, CarMax will consider reasonable accommodation to complete the CarMax Job Application.