Principal Solution Architect

• Architecture and Service Design (A&SD), Digital Transformation Office, Health Service Executive
• Experience: typically 10–15 years architecture experience
• IASA level: CITA-D (Distinguished)
• Reports to: Chief Architect, Architecture and Service Design
• Location: National role; hybrid, with travel to HSE and Health Region sites as required

Role Summary

The Principal Solution Architect is a senior leader and recognised expert in healthcare solution architecture within the HSE. The post holder leads portfolio-level architecture strategy across the national digital health programmes that deliver Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024–2030, sets technical direction for the organisation, and works with the HSE executive, the Department of Health, Health Region leadership and national programme boards to shape how Ireland's health service adopts and governs digital technology.

This is a strategic leadership role. It is concerned with shaping the HSE's architecture strategy and culture, leading transformational change at national scale, building the architecture practice within A&SD, and establishing the HSE's reputation as a leader in healthcare architecture nationally and internationally.

Context

Digital for Care commits the HSE to a digitally enabled health service in which patients are empowered partners in their own care, the workforce is supported by fit-for-purpose tools, services are driven by data, and the foundations are secure, interoperable and built to national standards. Delivering this depends on a coherent national architecture that spans the national electronic health record (One Health Record), shared care records, the national patient and health-identifier foundations, ePrescribing, imaging, laboratory and terminology services, patient-facing digital services, and the systems that Health Regions and hospital groups operate today.

The Architecture and Service Design function within the Digital Transformation Office holds enterprise architecture governance for the HSE. It operates through the Digital Transformation Design Authority (DTDA), the Cross-Functional Architecture Board (CFAB) and the Architecture Working Group (AWG), and works alongside the Chief Data and Analytics Officer, the Chief Technology Officer and the Chief Information Security Officer functions. The Principal Solution Architect is a senior member of that function and a principal contributor to its governance.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Architecture Direction and Organisational Transformation

Architecture strategy. Develop and own solution architecture strategy for the HSE, aligned to Digital for Care, Sláintecare and the HSE Corporate Plan, and translate it into architecture principles, standards and roadmaps that programmes and Health Regions can act on.

Technical vision. Articulate and drive the technical vision for the HSE's digital transformation. Set strategic direction for technology choices across clinical, community, corporate and patient-facing systems, and make the case for those choices to executive and clinical leadership.

Portfolio architecture. Lead architecture across the portfolio of national programmes, including One Health Record and its foundational services, so that programmes are coherent, integrate cleanly and do not duplicate capability. Own the architecture dependencies and trade-offs between programmes.

Health Region and hospital alignment. Work with Health Region and hospital digital leadership to align regional and local architecture with national direction, and to plan the transition of legacy estates onto national platforms.

Executive and governance leadership. Present architecture strategy, options and risks to the DTDA, the Digital for Care Oversight Group, the HSE Executive Management Team and Board committees as required. Advise senior leaders on strategic technology options, investment priorities and the architectural consequences of policy decisions.

• Enterprise Solution Architecture

Enterprise architecture. Design enterprise-wide solution architecture spanning acute, community, primary care, mental health, older persons and public health settings, and the corporate and workforce systems that support them.

Reference architectures. Develop and maintain HSE reference architectures for the major solution types: electronic health record, integration and interoperability, data and analytics platforms, identity and access, patient engagement and digital front door, medical device integration, and cloud hosting.

Technology strategy. Develop technology strategies for the key domains of cloud, integration, data, identity, security and AI, and drive standardisation of platforms and patterns across the HSE estate.

Procurement and vendor strategy. Shape procurement strategy for major digital investments, including competitive dialogue and framework procurements, so that architecture requirements are set before the market is engaged. Lead strategic vendor engagements and represent the HSE's architecture position in negotiation of major technology agreements.

Policy and standards alignment. Ensure HSE architecture aligns with and gives effect to national policy and regulation, including the Health Information Act, HIQA national standards for health information, GDPR, the European Health Data Space, and the HSE's own interoperability and data standards policies.

Architecture assurance. Lead architecture review of business cases, tender documents and solution designs through the HSE's gate process and design authority, and provide architecture assurance on programmes at risk.

• Architecture Capability and Organisational Development

Practice leadership. Lead the solution architecture practice within A&SD. Recruit, develop and line-manage lead, senior and junior architects, and build a practice that can meet national demand for architecture review and design.

Capability development. Develop architecture capability across the HSE and the Health Regions. Embed architecture discipline in programme delivery, product teams and procurement so that architecture is done by default rather than by exception.

Federated operating model. Contribute to the design and operation of a federated architecture model that spans national programmes, Health Regions, clinical domains and product teams, with clear responsibilities and escalation routes.

Culture. Champion a culture of architecture-led, engineering-excellence thinking across the Digital Transformation Office and its partners.

Talent and succession. Identify and develop high-potential architecture talent. Create career pathways, professional development routes and succession plans for the architecture profession within the HSE.

Community leadership. Lead the HSE architecture community. Organise guilds, forums and learning events that bring together architects from the HSE, Health Regions, Section 38 and 39 organisations and the wider Irish health sector.

• Thought Leadership and External Impact

Visibility and reputation. Be recognised as a leading expert in healthcare solution architecture in Ireland and internationally, and bring that standing to bear on behalf of the HSE.

Publication and speaking. Publish papers, articles and case studies drawn from HSE programmes. Present at national and international forums such as HL7 working group meetings, IHE Connectathons, HIMSS and IASA events, and contribute to professional discourse on public healthcare architecture.

External partnerships. Lead partnerships with other health systems, Irish and international universities, research bodies and professional bodies including IASA, HL7 Ireland and IHE, and position the HSE as a credible innovation partner.

Policy influence. Engage with the Department of Health, HIQA and other national bodies to shape healthcare technology policy and regulation through architecture expertise.

Standards leadership. Contribute to the development and national adoption of healthcare IT standards including HL7 FHIR, IHE profiles, SNOMED CT, DICOM and the HSE data and interoperability standards. Represent the HSE in national and international standards bodies.

• Innovation and Research Leadership

Innovation agenda. Set the architecture contribution to the HSE innovation agenda. Commission and lead major innovation initiatives that are grounded in a sound national architecture rather than isolated pilots.

Emerging technologies. Lead evaluation and responsible adoption of emerging technologies including AI and machine learning, FHIR-native platforms, precision medicine and genomics integration, remote monitoring and digital therapeutics, with due regard to clinical safety, data protection and equity of access.

Research leadership. Lead architecture research initiatives in partnership with academic institutions, HRB-funded programmes and international collaborators, and ensure research outputs feed back into the national architecture.

Methodological leadership. Develop and mature the HSE's architecture methods, artefacts and repository so that the HSE is recognised for the quality and rigour of its architecture practice.

Essential Skills and Experience

Education and Background

• Qualification. Master's degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, Health Informatics or a related field, or equivalent professional experience. Professional architecture qualifications such as IASA CITA-D or TOGAF Open CA are expected.
• Professional experience. Ten to fifteen or more years in solution architecture, with at least five years in strategic leadership roles, ideally including experience in a public health system or comparably regulated environment.
• Demonstrated impact. Documented track record of leading major healthcare transformation programmes with significant, measurable impact on services, safety or cost.
• Recognised expertise. Recognised nationally or internationally as an expert in healthcare solution architecture, with a visible external profile.
• Strategic and Leadership Skills (Expert)
• BTABOK Pillar: Business Technology Strategy (BTS) – Expert
• Strategic leadership. Sets organisational technical direction and shapes organisational strategy at national scale.
• Business strategy alignment. Deep understanding of how technology enables service transformation, and the ability to translate Digital for Care and Sláintecare commitments into architecture.
• Healthcare strategy. Expert understanding of Irish health policy, health economics and service delivery, and of how digital transformation improves care systems in a publicly funded, regionally structured health service.
• Portfolio management. Expert in portfolio architecture and investment optimisation across major national programmes, managing dependencies and trade-offs between them.
• Value analysis. Exceptional ability to analyse and quantify the value of architecture options and to build strategic business cases that meet HSE, Department of Health and Public Spending Code requirements.
• BTABOK Pillar: Human Dynamics (HD) – Expert
• Executive leadership. Comfortable at executive and Board level. Advises senior leaders, clinicians and public officials on technology strategy and transformation.
• Organisational change. Expert in leading transformational change across large, complex, unionised public organisations, shifting culture and embedding new ways of working.
• Visionary thinking. Articulates a compelling vision of future healthcare delivery enabled by technology, and mobilises clinical and operational leaders behind it.
• Influence and persuasion. Exceptional ability to influence without direct authority, across national programmes, Health Regions, clinical bodies and vendors, through technical authority, strategic insight and clear communication.
• Governance. Experience with executive, Board and public-sector governance processes. Presents complex strategy in decision-ready form and understands the accountability that comes with public funds.

Advanced Technical Skills (Expert)

• BTABOK Pillar: IT Environment (ITE) – Expert
• Healthcare IT. Expert knowledge of the healthcare IT landscape, standards and emerging trends, and of the Irish and European regulatory context.
• Cloud architecture. Expert in cloud-native architecture, hybrid and multi-cloud strategy, cloud economics and public-sector cloud policy.
• Integration architecture. Expert in enterprise integration patterns, FHIR-based integration, HL7 v2 and DICOM, and national health information exchange.
• Data architecture. Expert in healthcare data architecture including FHIR, data platforms, real-time analytics, semantic interoperability and clinical terminology services.
• Security architecture. Expert in security architecture, threat modelling, zero trust and healthcare data protection, and able to work as a peer with the CISO function.
• BTABOK Pillar: Design (D) – Expert
• Architecture patterns. Expert-level knowledge of architecture patterns. Develops new patterns and reference architectures for the HSE.
• Design leadership. Exceptional design thinking and leadership. Leads complex design processes across multiple programmes and vendors.
• Modelling. Expert in architecture modelling and communication. Produces architecture narratives that clinicians, executives and engineers can each act on.
• BTABOK Pillar: Quality Attributes (QA) – Expert
• Quality attribute analysis. Expert in quality attribute analysis and trade-off decisions at national scale, including clinical safety, availability, resilience and data protection.
• Security, performance and resilience. Expert-level knowledge across the full range of quality attributes, and a recognised authority on their application in healthcare.
• Thought Leadership and Impact
• Publications. Track record of publications, articles, conference papers and professional contributions.
• Speaking. Regularly invited to present at major national and international forums.
• Network. Strong professional network. Recognised and respected across the Irish and international healthcare IT and architecture communities.
• Advisory roles. Holds or has held advisory roles with policy makers, professional bodies or other health organisations.