IT Architect - Utah Geospatial Resource Center (UGRC)

Full Job Description

The Utah Geospatial Resource Center (UGRC) is seeking a motivated individual to be the technical expert for our Application Development Team.

The incumbent will have the opportunity to direct work on a variety of projects including web GIS, backend data pipelines, and other projects that help support our mission.

The successful candidate will be experienced in establishing and enforcing data architecture and application architecture standards.

The IT Architect provides ongoing technical mentorship and guidance as an internal consultant within Technology Services and serves as a technical resource for IT Analysts.

They direct the analysis, design, and implementation of software programs that support UGRC clients, employees, and the organization’s mission.

The IT Architect documents or approves the documentation of systems and programming actions from initial design through maintenance and problem resolution.

This role is distinguished from an IT Analyst by its focus on architecting new projects, identifying solutions for complex technical challenges, and recommending improvements to team standards or the technical stack to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the integrity of the development environment.

This position provides technical leadership but does not supervise employees.

This position is currently a hybrid of both in-office and telework days (two days a week, in office required at the Taylorsville State Office Building (4315 S 2700 W, Taylorsville, UT).

Please note, a position's eligibility for telework is established by agency management and is subject to change at their discretion at any time and for any reason.

Why join our team?

We have great business partners who want to serve Utah citizens efficiently and effectively, while working within the guidance of their federal and state partners. This is an opportunity to make a difference for Utah citizens while being a pivotal part of an exciting IT team.

What's in it for you?

You will receive great health and retirement benefits. In this position, you would enjoy the generous benefits package offered by the State of Utah. We have an extremely competitive total compensation package!

Health Insurance - Public Employee Health Program (PEHP):

• 3 medical plan options. Choose a Traditional or High Deductible Health Plan. (There is an Opt-Out Cash Benefit option for those that have other medical insurance coverage)
• 5 dental plan options (There is an Opt-Out Cash Benefit option for those that have other dental insurance coverage)
• 2 vision plan options under EyeMed

Retirement - Utah Retirement Systems (URS):

• Employees hired on or after than 7/1/2011 and have never been in the URS retirement system have two options for retirement in the Tier II System. Employer contributions to your 401(k) are vested after four years.
• Employees who have any service credit with an employer covered by the Utah Retirement Systems prior to 7/1/2011 are in Tier I Public Employees System.
• Tier 2 Hybrid Retirement System. Employer contributes an amount equal to 10% of your salary between both plans (pension and 401(k))
• Tier 2 Defined Contribution Plan. Employer contributes an amount equal to 10% of your salary to a 401(k) plan only.
• Employees who have any service credit with an employer covered by the Utah Retirement Systems prior to 7/1/2011 are in Tier I Public Employees System.

Paid Time Off:

• Annual leave and sick leave are accrued at 4 hours per pay period each (4 hours annual, 4 hours sick).
• Annual leave increases with years of service.
• There are also 12 paid holidays

The Agency:

To learn more about The Division of Technology Services check us out click here. The State's environment is a highly optimized blend of systems responsible for collecting, processing, and distributing millions of data elements every day.

Requirements

Mentoring: Providing technical leadership and guidance to team members, focusing on architectural principles, system design, workflows, and software development.

This includes conducting specialized sessions to help team members understand complex technical concepts and best practices in application architecture.

Cross-team Collaboration: Enhancing technical collaboration across teams by providing architectural insights and solutions. Coordinate with management, application teams, DevOps, and business product owners to ensure alignment on technical standards, integration points, and system designs.

Suggestion Review: Welcoming and fully considering suggestions from any team member (regardless of role) resulting from mentorship and collaboration. They respond to the suggester with a decision, explaining the pros and cons considered, which is viewed as continued mentorship.

Development Standards: Design and implement development standards that lead to reliable, secure and maintainable systems.

Architectural Planning: Developing detailed architectural plans and technical specifications for business consideration at project initiation.

Project Estimates: Collaborating with the Project Manager to ensure all technical aspects are considered in project estimates.

Risk Management: Identifying and assessing potential risks associated with architectural decisions, and developing mitigation strategies to address identified risks.

Documentation: Maintaining up-to-date documentation of systems architecture, technical specifications, and integration processes during and post-go-live.

Technical Conflict Resolution: Providing technical insights to creatively resolve conflicts related to system design, technology choices, implementation strategies, and application support issues.

Strategy Alignment: Aligning business and technology strategies and goals to meet architectural requirements, and translating business needs into technical requirements. They also identify tasks and critical areas of a system and design scalable, compliant, and secure systems.

Technology Evaluation: Evaluating and collaborating with team members to select technologies and platforms to meet the team's needs. They also stay updated on emerging technologies and industry trends by setting aside time for research and training.

CI/CD: Designing and planning the integration and delivery architecture, focusing on a seamless and efficient continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) process. They ensure the technical framework supports scalability and reliability.

Development: Contribute to projects in a development capacity.

Qualifications

• Education/Experience: Master’s or bachelor's degree in geography, computer science, or a related field of study, or equivalent experience.

• Professional Experience: Multiple years of experience with demonstrated technical leadership in disciplines such as solution architecture, application development, cybersecurity, data engineering, data modeling and management, and application support operations.

• Geographic Information Systems: Extensive experience with GIS software, data, principles, and processes.

• Data Management: Experience managing geospatial databases and modeling data in complex applications and building both public and private APIs to integrate data between systems.

• Automation: Experience automating processes including testing and deployment of applications.

• Professional Skills: Strong analytical, planning, and organizational skills, with the ability to manage competing demands and make sound decisions.

• Communication: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and persuade business and IT leaders as well as staff at all levels.

• Business Acumen: Strong knowledge and understanding of business needs with the ability to establish and maintain a high level of customer trust and confidence.

• Public Sector Experience: Government or public-sector experience working with a variety of organizations from local to federal levels.

• Cloud: Experience developing and deploying applications using the Google Cloud Platform and Firebase.

• Full-stack Geospatial Web Development: Demonstrated experience designing, developing, and deploying applications using the following technologies: TypeScript/JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React, Tailwind, Vite, NodeJS

• Automated Data Pipelines Development: Demonstrated experience designing, developing, and deploying automated geospatial data pipelines using the following technologies: Python, Arcpy/ArcGIS, Geopandas

• Base maps: Demonstrated experience managing large-scale vector and traditional raster base map caches

• Containers: Demonstrated experience using container based development and deployment environments using Docker

• Infrastructure as Code: Knowledge of principles and design patterns related to managing cloud infrastructure and code bases using Terraform.

• GitHub: Deep understanding of working with GitHub for version control as well as CI/CD pipelines.

• C# .NET experience a plus

Additional Information

• Employment contingent on passing a drug screening and a background check.

• Risks found in the typical office setting, which is adequately lighted, heated and ventilated, e.g., safe use of office equipment, avoiding trips and falls, observing fire regulations, etc.

• Typically, the employee may sit comfortably to perform the work; however, there may be some walking; standing; bending; carrying light items; driving an automobile, etc. Special physical demands are not required to perform the work.

• Preference may be given to current Government Operations Division of Technology Services (DTS) employees

• DHRM Rules apply to transfers.