ZapThink frequently writes about how organizational, political, and funding issues are typically the greatest challenges facing Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) initiatives in most organizations. Such roadblocks are large and varied: project-based funding approaches impede cross-departmental initiatives, lack of business buy-in marginalizes architectural efforts, and the absence of a committed executive champion can lead to tactical decisions trumping strategic ones just when strategic initiatives like SOA need the most support. Among the various approaches organizations take to overcome such obstacles, one technique is increasing dramatically in popularity: bringing on board a new executive responsible for the enterprise's SOA initiatives. Finding the right person for this complex, cross-functional role, however, is far from easy. To aid these efforts, therefore, ZapThink presents our take on the job description for your new VP of SOA.
Job Description for the VP of SOA
Visionary, hardworking executive wanted to drive this Fortune 500 or public sector firm's cross-organizational SOA efforts. The ideal candidate will first and foremost be a business process guru who also has broad experience in IT. Must have a background in architecture and ten-plus years in increasingly senior management roles. Must be able to communicate to both business and technical audiences. The successful candidate will be part team builder, part evangelist, and part bean counter. This position reports directly to the CIO with dotted line responsibility to the COO, and will be responsible for a seven-figure annual budget.
Job responsibilities include:
Compensation:
Base salary in the $200K range plus substantial bonus. Annual bonus will be based on the following milestones:
Not Your Everyday Architecture Executive
A few of the criteria for the VP of SOA are worth calling out. First, this role is busines
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s process-centric first and architecture-centric second. If the VP of SOA gets this equation reversed, the risk is that the SOA initiative will remain pigeonholed as an IT initiative. However, even though the VP of SOA reports to the CIO, the role is primarily a business role, and the mandated C-level reporting guarantees ongoing visibility into the organizations SOA efforts at the highest levels.
Secondly, the VP of SOA gets to wield a substantial budget that isn't tied either to any particular line of business (LOB) or to any individual IT silo. Instead, every dollar the VP of SOA wields focuses on cross-departmental, cross-LOB value. Tying the bonus to such value drives home this fact. As a result, hiring a VP of SOA drives the cross-departmental efforts in two ways: through executive leadership as well as through funding.
Third, a major part of the VP of SOA's role is interacting with a diverse set of people across the organization -- fellow executives both in IT and LOB, architects, and others. Perhaps the greatest part of the day-to-day role of this person is as a combination liaison and evangelist. There's no question that people skills are more important than technology skills for this job.
What's more, it's also important to notice that technology is missing entirely from the job description altogether. Java vs. .NET, ESB vs. intermediary, vendor selection, etc. -- all left out of the role intentionally. The VP of SOA should be interacting with the IT department on the architecture and governance levels only, not on the technology level.
The ZapThink Take
Your organization may desperately need a VP of SOA even though no one in your company realizes it. In many ways, the VP of SOA position is a fundamentally new role, and the thought process that your firm will have to undertake to consider such a hire will necessarily lead to rethinking how you've organized your IT organization, as well as how IT and lines of business interact. The reorganization that results may be every bit as important as the duties of the new executive.
You may wonder, however, whether there exist quality VP of SOA candidates to be had. How plentiful the supply of such people actually is remains to be seen, but the basic question is how many executive-level candidates have the right combination of business process and architecture skills. If your search uncovers such candidates, there's a good chance one of them will be a fit in this role.
Another question you may have is whether ZapThink is looking for a VP of SOA -- or alternately, whether have one that might fit the bill at your organization. Well, we don't have any off-hand, but we can serve a matchmaking role. So, if you read the above job description and feel that it describes you, then drop us a line at vpofsoa@zapthink.com. Likewise, if you read the description and find you desperately need such a person at your organization, then you should email us at vpofsoa@zapthink.com as well. Who knows? Maybe we'll make everyone happy!
