Application Archiving SME (Subject Matter Expert)

Role Summary
The Application Archiving SME is responsible for leading end to end application data archiving initiatives, working closely with clients and internal stakeholders to define, design, and document archiving requirements across multiple applications. This role serves as the primary functional and technical authority on data archiving lifecycle practices, ensuring compliance with data retention policies, security standards, and end user access needs.
The SME will lead structured client workshops to capture archiving requirements for 20 applications, translating business, legal, and technical needs into clear, actionable documentation to support archiving, decommissioning, or offloading strategies.

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Key Responsibilities
Client Engagement & Requirements Gathering
* Lead and facilitate client workshops to elicit and document detailed application archiving requirements across business, legal, and IT stakeholders.
* Assess application landscapes to determine appropriate archiving approaches (e.g., application offloading vs. full decommissioning).
* Serve as the primary point of contact for archiving related discussions, decisions, and clarifications throughout the engagement lifecycle.
Data Archiving Lifecycle Expertise
* Define and document the full data archiving lifecycle, including:
o Data identification and eligibility
o Retention and deletion policies
o Legal hold considerations
o Archiving execution and validation
* Ensure alignment with regulatory, compliance, and audit requirements, including long term data retention and retrievability.
Security, Access & Governance
* Define role based security models for archived data, ensuring appropriate access controls for different user groups.
* Design and document end user access methods to archived data (e.g., web based access, reporting, read only views).
* Collaborate with security and compliance teams to ensure archived data meets enterprise security standards.
Documentation & Deliverables
* Produce high quality, client facing documentation, including:
o Archiving requirement specifications
o Data retention and access models
o Application archiving assessments and recommendations
* Ensure documentation is clear, complete, and suitable for technical implementation teams and client review.
Cross Functional Collaboration
* Work closely with solution architects, implementation teams, and project managers to ensure requirements are feasible and well understood.
* Support estimation, planning, and sequencing of archiving activities across multiple applications.

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Required Skills & Qualifications
Core Competencies
* Strong expertise in application and data archiving concepts, frameworks, and best practices across multiple application types.
* Demonstrated experience with data retention policies, legal hold requirements, and compliance driven archiving.
* Deep understanding of role based access control and secure data access methods for archived data.
Communication & Leadership
* Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with proven experience leading client workshops and stakeholder discussions.
* Strong analytical and documentation skills, with the ability to translate complex technical topics into clear business level requirements.
* Confident in client facing roles, capable of influencing decisions and providing expert guidance.
Experience
* Experience supporting archiving initiatives involving multiple applications (10–20+) is required.
* Background in application retirement, legacy system modernization, or data lifecycle management is required
* Familiarity with application decommissioning or portfolio rationalization initiatives

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Preferred Qualifications (Nice to Have)
* Experience with commercial or enterprise archiving platforms (e.g., SAP archiving, legacy data archives, structured/unstructured data repositories).
* Experience working in regulated industries (e.g., healthcare, insurance, finance, public sector).