Azhar Akbari
Toronto,ON
Summary
Architecture Governance| Strategic Technology Leader | System Modernization | Cloud & Digital Transformation Versatile IT leader with over two decades of global experience delivering complex technology transformations across Finance, Insurance, Telecom, Airlines, Logistics, Retail, and Government sectors. Skilled in cloud strategy, AI/ML, and modernization initiatives. Proven success in leading $MM programs and crossfunctional teams, designing enterprise architecture, and managing vendors. Trusted advisor in both technical and client-facing roles. Holds Government of Canada Secret Level II & Reliability Clearance.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Sr Architect- Enterprise Architecture
Intact Financial Corporation
01.2025 - Current
- Leading Finance architecture designing, providing enterprise directions to the Engineering and Business Teams (including presentations to executives and review boards) on the acquisitions, IFRS17 and Pillar 2 programs, achieving savings over $2.8M in finance operational overhead.
- Designed a pattern for 3rd party user access to Oracle Fusion ERP (AP, CM, PO, HCM, Expense Management) and EPM (EPBCS), using B2B Guest, as well as 2 IDP solution (using Entra ID), integrated with SailPoint IIQ/ ISC.
- Designed integrations with external parties like BrokerLink, RSA UK&I, KPMG, RBC, US Bank as well as Zii Travel.
- Leading the team of two IT architects, engaged on migration initiatives for IFRS17 compliance and data integrations.
Architecture Consultant
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
07.2024 - 12.2024
- Lead the team of 5 resources for reverse engineering and modernizing three business critical applications for the department, used across all regions in Canada. Created transition plan for architecture migration of all three systems.
- Collaborated with key stake holders for the requirements and plan.
Sr. Architect - Enterprise Group - Head of Document Portfolio Architecture
Intact Financial Corporation
05.2022 - 07.2024
- Analyzed the current state at RSA and Johnson Insurance, as well as IFC for critical portfolios including Group Benefits and Travel, Commercial and Specialty Lines of Business - Policy, Claims, Digital, and Document Management portfolios, Observability.
- Achieved over $4MM in savings with the architecture migration for RSA.
- Designed Patterns for Document Management Portfolio to generate static and dynamic documents, as well as ingesting the policy and claims documents.
- Presented critical artifacts to the steering and executive committees (including C-level) for alignment with the organization goals and securing approvals for creating/ updating roadmaps in each business domain.
- Created strategy (Lean Conceptual Architecture) for migrating the policy administration from the legacy and other on-prem systems over to the new cloudbased Salesforce Vlocity platform.
- Designed integration on on-prem, Azure hosted services/ APIs, and Experience Cloud based custom APIs on Salesforce platform.
- Lead the architecture designing and roadmap for document management domain to ingest documents using Optical Character Recognition (AI integrated) tools like AD'DOC Capture Pro. The document generation using Opentext Exstream and Engage One.
- Designed architecture for automating quote document ingestion through IBM CCM, IBM Notes, automated through RPA for interacting with the email workflow systems and ingesting into the Quote and Claims systems, integrated with LLM AI (IBM v.AI) Model to triaging the document and categorization.
- Achieved operational efficiencies on the document management system 40% reduction in document ingestion processing overheads with automation.
- Migrated document management from IBM ECM to Salesforce Document Management System, having custom integration with EngageOne.
- Designed the payment processing system based on Moneris services for Travel Insurance online purchases.
Cloud Designing and Implementation
ANA IT Solutions Inc
01.2022 - 07.2024
- Designed and implemented Cloud infrastructure (GCP, Azure) in multi-zone implementation including automated provisioning of services. Leveraged Stripe payment processing and tokenization (for pre-auth payments), as well as subscriptions.
Architecture Consultant
Bell Canada
08.2020 - 05.2022
- Designed and lead implementation of architecture roadmap for the Digital Customer Experience (DCX) group to integrate Crave TV with mobility achieving over $1M in revenue generation.
- Designed self-serve order fulfillment automation, creating and integrating the portal with a suite of services and downstream systems.
Cloud Implementation
Questrade
06.2020 - 11.2020
- Designed, developed and executed Terraform scripts to create resources in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Principal Architect
Loblaw
02.2020 - 08.2020
- Lead designing and implementation of several SAP and Cloud initiatives (including SAP integration roadmap, presented to executives) including Loyalty, Specialty Health Network and Pharmacy Systems as well as Internal Purchasing Systems leveraging Pivotal Cloud Foundry, Open Text Content Storage, Google Cloud Storage, Sales Force Cloud and SAP cloud - Ariba integration using Cloud Integration Gateway.
- Managed the team of 4 resources, including hiring and reviews.
- Key member of the cloud migration strategy committee, and Architecture Review Board.
- Managed vendors for COTS; Experian Data Quality, PCIPal, Chronos, ADE OCR solutions - Deloitte, Accenture, Zuora, Salesforce and SAP, Google.
- Designed multiple Business Analytics systems using cross platform architecture, integrating on-prem systems with private cloud as well as SaaS systems ensuring Availability, Performance and Security SLAs/ requirements.
- Designed the product catalog generation based on the vendor product documentation leveraging pre-trained Google document AI.
Solutions Consultant
Alfa Laval
04.2009 - 05.2020
- Designed and developed time management system in.Net for the employees and the contractors. Created Reporting portal using SSRS-Crystal Reports.
Enterprise Architect
IBM Canada (Air Canada Account)
03.2018 - 02.2020
- Lead several programs and projects (over $4M) to migrate over 10,000 workstations, kiosks, handheld devices and printers from legacy/ on-prem (Sabre) to cloud-based systems (Altea) around the globe at all airport locations with Air Canada presence. This includes custom components as well.
- Involved in the business and mission critical enterprise level programs to migrate Air Canada's critical systems from legacy to cloud (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, IaaC, Azure, AWS) and design integration between various systems.
Enterprise Account Architect
HP/ DXC Canada-CIBC Account
01.2017 - 03.2018
- Managed 10 project team members, and collaborate with CIBC architects on on-going projects and design activities. Design system architecture based on Service Request Response projects amounting to more than $7 Million for critical systems including web and mobile banking.
- Designed and implemented HP Autonomy IDOL based elastic search engine system for cibc.com and new infrastructure build to save over $2MM in infra and support costs.
- Designed integration of on-prem online banking systems with SaaS based third party systems.
Sr. Solutions Architect
CIBC
05.2015 - 01.2017
- Designed a pattern for performance & capacity management for the back-office critical systems.
- Reverse engineered the existing systems and databases and identified opportunities to stabilize the system environments.
- Designed system enhancements to stabilize per 99.7% HA-SLA, for Pega based workflow system, along with significant performance improvements.
- Designed and lead implemented integration of COMPASS (Pega) with DSM, Customer Management and Credit Card Management systems.
Sr. Solution Architect
TD Canada Trust
08.2014 - 05.2015
- Oversaw research and development for new initiatives to deploy NoSQL based solutions for the Consolidated Credit Protection Information System.
- Managed project teams and worked with vendor consultants to coordinate project activities, schedule releases and provide directions on architecture design and governance.
- Lead architecture side of business-critical initiatives including new business channels, new credit protection products and reconciliation of processes projecting over $3M in revenue generation.
Lead Enterprise Architect
Hewlett Packard (HP) Canada
03.2013 - 08.2014
- Designed and delivered $6M complex program initiative taken by Government of Ontario (Ontario Public Sector - OPS) - Tourism Ministry to modernize and migrate architecture from legacy to new technology stack, created a roadmap including transition architecture, to achieve over 50% over additional revenue.
- Managed the team of 2 architects, 1 BA, 4 developers and 2 QA resources, including hiring and reviews.
- Lead operations activities capacity planning, architecture framework migration and data center move (DCM - Swing-gear) and server refresh while maintaining SLAs.
- Created ZACHMAN (GO-ITS) artefacts. Lead Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and Threat Risk Assessment (TRA) compliance activities.
- Managed vendor for UX designing, Draft-FCB for responsive designing and front-end guidelines in compliance with WCAG requirements.
- Presented architecture views to the ARB and CAMT (executive ARB); design, milestones and obtain approvals from MGC (Govt. Cluster).
Architecture Lead
FedEx Canada
07.2007 - 03.2013
- Managed the team of 5 people on the modernization program to reengineer and automate the existing business processes.
- Lead design and development of new/ streamlined business processes and architecture (SOA, SOAP, Restful), provided on-site and off-site end-user training, and published job aid documents; reduced vehicle management costs from $1 Million to less than $500,000.
Java Architect
Rogers Inc
06.2006 - 07.2007
- Restructured and automated Quality of Service monitoring and enhancements for back-bone network services provided to major clients.
Application Architect
Canadian Tire
02.2005 - 05.2006
- Created the Roadside Assistance Management System by designing and developing web services and new functional units.
Technical Lead/Solutions Architect
Accenture
01.2003 - 02.2005
- Managed 6 people including hiring and reviews. Led designing and project lifecycle activities by researching project specifications, evaluating code and performing reverse engineering for various clients including Bell, Japan Tobacco, General Reinsurance.
Education
Mini-MBA -
Rutgers Business School
01.2018
Project Management Diploma Certificate - undefined
Humber College of Applied Sciences
01.2010
Business Communications - undefined
University of Toronto
01.2007
Bachelor of Computer Science - undefined
National University of Emerging Sciences
01.2000
Skills
- DotNet Core development
- AD'DOC Capture Pro (OCR)
- AI/ML
- AMDOCS
- APIGee
- AWS (S3, EC2)
- Agile
- Agile Architecture
- Application Modernization
- Archimate
- Artifactory
- Azure (platform, Functions, services, Entra ID, Access Package, SQL, VM, WAF)
- Azure Sentinel
- BDAT architecture framework
- BURaaS
- Billing Centre (Guidewire)
- CI/CD
- COTS (OCR)
- COTS (assessments/implementation)
- CRM
- CSS
- Cleargoals (Proffer)
- Conceptual Architecture Views
- Confluence
- Contextual Architecture Views
- Control-M
- DB2
- DBaaS
- Data Lake
- Data governance
- Datapower
- Detailed Designing
- Docker (Net Core)
- Dynatrace
- EPBCS
- ESB (Oracle Services Bus)
- ESX
- Eclipse
- Elastic Search
- Enterprise Architect
- Entra ID
- F5 - Firewall
- Fast Reports
- Figma
- Financial Services Cloud
- GCP (Google Cloud Platform)
- GIT
- GKE (Kubernetes)
- GL (Oracle Fusion ERP)
- GO-ITS
- Google Vision API
- Guidewire
- HA/DR
- HIPAA Compliance
- HP Autonomy (IDOL)
- HP Diagnostics
- HTML5
- IAM (Security)
- IBM Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
- ITIL
- IaaS
- Informatica
- Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS)
- J2EE
- JBOSS
- JIRA
- JSON
- Jasper
- Java
- Jenkins
- KAFKA
- Kibana
- Kubernetes
- Libman
- Linux
- Linux KSH Scripting
- Linux Shell Scripting
- Logstash
Accomplishments
Lead several legacy to modern architecture migrations for mergers/ acquisitions and modernization initiatives, resulting over $8M in operational overhead savings and revenue generations.
Languages
English
Full Professional
Hindi
Native or Bilingual
Affiliations
Project Management Institute, MIT
Certification
- 2024, Google Cloud Platform - Professional Cloud Architect (PCA)
- 2014, TOGAF - Certified Enterprise Architect
- 2012, PMP - Project Management Professional
- 2013, PMI-ACP - Agile Certified Practitioner
- 2010, ITIL - v3 Foundation
- 2008, SUN - Sun Certified Enterprise Architect
Timeline
Sr Architect- Enterprise Architecture
Intact Financial Corporation
01.2025 - Current
Architecture Consultant
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
07.2024 - 12.2024
Sr. Architect - Enterprise Group - Head of Document Portfolio Architecture
Intact Financial Corporation
05.2022 - 07.2024
Cloud Designing and Implementation
ANA IT Solutions Inc
01.2022 - 07.2024
Architecture Consultant
Bell Canada
08.2020 - 05.2022
Cloud Implementation
Questrade
06.2020 - 11.2020
Principal Architect
Loblaw
02.2020 - 08.2020
Enterprise Architect
IBM Canada (Air Canada Account)
03.2018 - 02.2020
Enterprise Account Architect
HP/ DXC Canada-CIBC Account
01.2017 - 03.2018
Sr. Solutions Architect
CIBC
05.2015 - 01.2017
Sr. Solution Architect
TD Canada Trust
08.2014 - 05.2015
Lead Enterprise Architect
Hewlett Packard (HP) Canada
03.2013 - 08.2014
Solutions Consultant
Alfa Laval
04.2009 - 05.2020
Architecture Lead
FedEx Canada
07.2007 - 03.2013
Java Architect
Rogers Inc
06.2006 - 07.2007
Application Architect
Canadian Tire
02.2005 - 05.2006
Technical Lead/Solutions Architect
Accenture
01.2003 - 02.2005
Project Management Diploma Certificate - undefined
Humber College of Applied Sciences
Business Communications - undefined
University of Toronto
Bachelor of Computer Science - undefined
National University of Emerging Sciences
Mini-MBA -
Rutgers Business School
Technologies And Standards
- .Net Core
- AD'DOC Capture Pro (OCR)
- AI/ML
- AMDOCS
- APIGee
- AWS (S3, EC2)
- Agile
- Agile Architecture
- Application Modernization
- Archimate
- Artifactory
- Azure (platform, Functions, services, Entra ID, Access Package, SQL, VM, WAF)
- Azure Sentinel
- BDAT architecture framework
- BURaaS
- Billing Centre (Guidewire)
- CI/CD
- COTS (OCR)
- COTS (assessments/implementation)
- CRM
- CSS
- Cleargoals (Proffer)
- Conceptual Architecture Views
- Confluence
- Contextual Architecture Views
- Control-M
- DB2
- DBaaS
- Data Lake
- Data governance
- Datapower
- Detailed Designing
- Docker (.Net Core)
- Dynatrace
- EPBCS
- ESB (Oracle Services Bus)
- ESX
- Eclipse
- Elastic Search
- Enterprise Architect
- Entra ID
- F5 - Firewall
- Fast Reports
- Figma
- Financial Services Cloud
- GCP (Google Cloud Platform)
- GIT
- GKE (Kubernetes)
- GL (Oracle Fusion ERP)
- GO-ITS
- Google Vision API
- Guidewire
- HA/DR
- HIPAA Compliance
- HP Autonomy (IDOL)
- HP Diagnostics
- HTML5
- IAM (Security)
- IBM Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
- ITIL
- IaaS
- Informatica
- Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS)
- J2EE
- JBOSS
- JIRA
- JSON
- Jasper
- Java
- Jenkins
- KAFKA
- Kibana
- Kubernetes
- Libman
- Linux
- Linux KSH Scripting
- Linux Shell Scripting
- Logstash
- Logical Architect Views
- MS Project
- MS Reporting Service (SSRS)
- MS Visio
- Magic
- Marketing Cloud
- MicroStrategy
- Microservices
- Miro Board
- Moneris
- MySQL
- NM1 (AMDOCS)
- NPM Server
- Nginx
- Node.js
- OCR (AD'DOC Capture Pro, COTS)
- Observability (Dynatrace, HP Diagnostics, Kibana, Logstash, Azure Sentinel, Splunk, HP IDOL)
- Open Source (Linux, MySQL)
- Openshift Cloud
- Oracle (RAC)
- Oracle DB (RAC)
- Oracle Fusion ERP Cloud (GL, EM, CM, AP, PO, EPBCS, EDMCS, PCMCS)
- Orbusinfinity (iServer)
- PCMCS
- PL/SQL
- PO (Oracle Fusion ERP)
- PaaS
- Pega
- Performance Analysis/Tuning
- QuickSense
- RBC/US Bank Integration
- RESTful
- RPA
- SAP Ariba (integration)
- SAST
- SOA
- SOAP API / Domain Driven API
- SPA
- SQL
- SSRS (MS Reporting Service)
- SaaS
- Sailpoint IIQ
- Salesforce Experience Cloud
- Security (PCI-DSS, Application, Data, IAM)
- Sencha EXT JS
- SharePoint
- Sparx Enterprise Architect
- Splunk
- Springboot
- Stripe
- Stripe (integration)
- TOGAF
- TeraData (Warehouse)
- Technical Architecture Views
- Tomcat
- UI Path (RPA)
- VM
- Vlocity
- Weblogic
- Weblogic (Clustering)
- Websphere
- Widgets
- Workday
- ZACHMAN
- ZenWorks (Management System)
- Zii