Lead Solutions Architect, Anaplan
Edwards Lifesciences · Irvine · $159,000–$226,000 (stated in the posting)
Innovation starts from the heart. At Edwards Lifesciences, we’re dedicated to developing ground-breaking technologies with a genuine impact on patients’ lives. At the core of this commitment is our investment in cutting-edge information technology. This supports our innovation and collaboration on a global scale, enabling our diverse teams to optimize both efficiency and success. As part of our IT team, your expertise and commitment will help facilitate our patient-focused mission by developing and enhancing technological solutions.
As a Distinguished Anaplan Solutions Architect at Edwards Lifesciences, you will serve as the strategic solution leader for enterprise planning initiatives, helping business teams transform planning processes into scalable, connected planning solutions. You will partner with stakeholders across Finance, Supply Chain, HR, Commercial, and IT to understand business objectives, define solution direction, and guide delivery teams in implementing effective planning capabilities.
On-site in Irvine, CA.
How you’ll make an impact:
Strategic Planning & Business Partnership
- Partner with business leaders to understand strategic objectives, planning challenges, and transformation opportunities.
- Facilitate planning process reviews, solution workshops, and future-state design sessions.
- Translate business requirements into solution concepts, roadmaps, and implementation priorities.
- Drive adoption of connected planning principles across business functions.
- Serve as a trusted advisor for planning transformation initiatives.
- Help business teams balance process improvements, user experience, governance, and operational needs.
Solution Architecture & Design Leadership
- Define end-to-end solution blueprints that align business objectives with platform capabilities.
- Establish solution design standards and best practices across planning applications.
- Lead solution design discussions and challenge assumptions to achieve optimal outcomes.
- Ensure consistency of planning processes, user experience, and solution approaches across business domains.
- Provide architectural guidance to developers, analysts, and implementation partners.
- Review solution designs and major enhancements to ensure scalability, maintainability, and business alignment.
Delivery Leadership & Team Enablement
- Guide teams in translating business requirements into actionable solution designs.
- Provide day-to-day architectural direction and support during project delivery. Help developers and analysts prioritize work based on business value and strategic objectives.
- Facilitate decision-making and resolution of complex business and solution challenges.
- Mentor team members on planning processes, solution design principles, and Anaplan best practices.
- Build organizational capability through coaching, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Platform Governance & Solution Quality
- Promote consistency, standardization, and governance across planning solutions.
- Establish and maintain solution design principles, reusable frameworks, and delivery standards.
- Support roadmap planning and prioritization decisions across the Anaplan portfolio.
- Ensure planning solutions align with organizational governance, compliance, and operational requirements.
- Identify and mitigate solution risks throughout project and operational lifecycles.
- Drive simplification and continuous improvement across planning processes and applications.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with data, integration, security, and enterprise architecture teams to support successful solution delivery.
- Define business and functional requirements for supporting data and integration capabilities.
- Ensure planning solutions are aligned with enterprise data, reporting, and technology strategies.
- Act as the primary liaison between business stakeholders and technical delivery teams.
- Coordinate across teams to remove barriers and maintain alignment on shared objectives.
Innovation & Continuous Improvement
- Evaluate emerging Anaplan capabilities, AI features, and planning technologies.
- Identify opportunities to improve planning effectiveness, user adoption, and business insight.
- Drive innovation by introducing new approaches, methodologies, and best practices.
- Support organizational change management and successful adoption of new capabilities.
- Influence the future direction of Edwards' enterprise planning ecosystem.
General & Administrative
- Maintain up-to-date architecture documentation, including integration flow diagrams, RACI matrices, and configuration records
- Support audit, compliance, and security review processes as they relate to the Anaplan platform and connected systems
- Contribute to vendor relationship management and contract/SOW reviews where architectural scope is involved
What you'll need (Required):
- Bachelor's Degree in related field
- A minimum of twelve years experience in IT
- Advanced degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Information Systems, Natural Sciences & Mathematics or a related discipline; professional certifications (e.g. TOGAF, COBIT, ITIL, CDMP, OCP)
- A minimum of thee years experience of demonstrably solid performance in an architect role working with cross-functional teams (within IT and/or within the business) on enterprise-level or complex/novel system implementations
What else we look for (Preferred):
- Proven experience delivering enterprise‑level, complex, or novel system implementations, including use cases in FP&A, Sales and Supply Chain – highly preferred
- Certified Master Anaplanner (CMA) and/or Certified Anaplan Solution Architect (Professional) – highly preferred
- Additional architecture or IT governance certifications such as TOGAF, COBIT, ITIL, OCP, CDMP, or similar – a strong plus
- Experience with Anaplan ADO (Anaplan Data Orchestrator), Anaplan AI, and PlanIQ – highly preferred
- Strong business acumen with the ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions
- Strong interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills, with the ability to influence and guide stakeholders
- People leadership experience, including indirect leadership or matrix leadership, is highly preferred
Aligning our overall business objectives with performance, we offer competitive salaries, performance-based incentives, and a wide variety of benefits programs to address the diverse individual needs of our employees and their families.
For California (CA), the base pay range for this position is $159,000 to $226,000 (highly experienced).
The pay for the successful candidate will depend on various factors (e.g., qualifications, education, prior experience). Applications will be accepted while this position is posted on our Careers website.
Edwards is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer including protected Veterans and individuals with disabilities.
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