Collinson Group is a global leader in driving loyalty and engagement for many of the world’s largest companies, through the provision of travel related benefits within a market leading digital travel ecosystem. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading experience in delivering products and services across four core capabilities: Loyalty, Lifestyle Benefits, and Insurance.
The group provides unrivalled insight and expertise around affluent consumers and frequent travellers, creating and delivering products and services now accessible to over 400m end consumers.
We have more than 25 years’ experience, with 28 global locations, servicing over 800 clients in 170 countries, employing 1,800 people.
We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP.
Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.
Purpose of the job
As the Salesforce Architect, and a core member of the Architecture and Assurance team, you will bring considerable technical, functional, and product expertise to design and direct the delivery of best-in-class solutions across the Collinson group globally. Your main responsibility will be leading the process of analysing our customers’ business and technical requirements and creating architecture designs to develop end-to-end solutions using Salesforce Cloud stack including Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Loyalty Management, Salesforce Service Cloud, Data Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Experience Cloud, and Tableau.
This Architecture role will operate within our Technology and Data department who design, build, implement, and maintain loyalty technology products, managed services, integration pipelines, automation for our business and clients and partners.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop comprehensive Salesforce solutions that align with business requirements, engineering guardrails and that integrate seamlessly with existing systems.
- Design scalable and maintainable Salesforce architectures, including complex data models, integrations, and custom applications.
- Contribute to the shape and vision of the products and services roadmap with specific representation of solution and enterprise architecture requirements.
- Understand, capture, and define market needs as requirements and relay these to the relevant product or development teams in the form of epics, user stories or high-level designs for addition to product backlogs and future development.
- Identify and implement improvements to Salesforce performance, usability, and user experience.
- Create detailed technical documentation, including architecture diagrams and design specifications.
- Peer review architecture designs.
- Work with business and technology stakeholders to translate business problems into technical designs. Create an optimal solution design through iterative process, aligning user needs with the system requirements and organisational objectives.
- Produce strategies for technology that meets business needs. Create, refine, and challenge patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps, and vision statements.
- Participate in tenders and evaluate which apps/products to use based on cost benefit analysis and research.
- Provide technical guidance and leadership to the Salesforce centre of excellence, ensuring adherence to best practices and standards.
- Be a stakeholder for global tech initiatives, drive collaboration across divisions and provide guidance and direction to junior team members.
- Be articulate and conversant in the end-to-end technology ecosystem within the organization and offer commercially viable recommendations to business problems using the available toolset.
- As required supervise and/or contribute to development of projects, products, and applications.
- Work with Regional/Global team or external development partners on platforms/solutions.
- Provide current market technology expertise/knowledge and actionable insights to business leaders.
- Commission and manage interoffice/third party partners in the development and delivery of the Salesforce platform and services.
Knowledge, Skills, and experience required
- Must have recent experience designing and developing Salesforce Core, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Customer Data Cloud or Salesforce Experience Cloud.
- Must have recent experience designing and developing APIs and API integrations.
- Must have recent experience working with Apex, Visualforce, and Lightning Components.
- Significant experience in a technology-driven role using cloud, automation, integration, and implementation projects across the software delivery lifecycle.
- Demonstrable experience in Salesforce architecture and development.
- Salesforce Architect certifications (e.g., Application Architect, System Architect).
- A proven track of leading projects from idea inception through to delivery.
- Experience working with Architecture frameworks – TOGAF or others.
- Experience collaborating with global teams in an agile methodology.
- Ability to turn ideas into solutions.
- A proven record of building relationships and creating change.
- Understanding of the modern technology landscape, how to apply this to business problems and identify the limitations and localisations.
- Experience onboarding and rolling out new platforms and technologies, as part of transformation initiatives, ideally one or more of the following: Cloud, Mobile App, Microservices.
- Ability to visualise services and present them to other technical stakeholders.
- Ability to work in a challenging environment and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
- Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to design and implement innovative solutions.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
Person Specification
- Enthusiastic about the automation landscape and presenting ideas back to senior stakeholders.
- An enterprising spirit.
- Effective communicator across different lines of business functions.
- Always challenging ambiguity.
- With strong character and presence - capable of handling and challenging tough and demanding stakeholders in a respectful and productive manner.
- A creative, innovative person that likes getting stuck in and is keen to learn and grow.
- Able to build strong relationships across the organisational structure.
- Nimble, open-minded thinking, flexible on process but committed to impact.
- Initiative-taker, able to work with minimal supervision and oversight, able to overcome challenges independently.
- Lifelong learner – always identifying areas of improvement and staying up to date with evolving technology and business landscape.