Senior Web Application Architect
GlobalSoft Solutions is a young and growing developer of web applications for early stage ventures. We help turn business ideas into reality by matching our technical expertise, project leadership, and skilled development resources with our clients’ vision of the next big thing.
Position description
As Senior Web Application Architect, you will be involved in all stages of the client experience including pre-sales, engagement planning, implementation, project management, client management, and post-deployment escalation support. You will engage with clients and team both as a leader and as an individual contributor, building and maintaining a high-level of technical and business credibility with our clients and partners. You will be a key contributor to the development of our software and services offerings by relating customer experience to internal teams. Your job duties will vary and require excellent analytical skills and business judgment.
Summary Responsibilities
Architect Activities (20%):
• Produce designs and solutions to meet identified requirements, factoring risks, assumptions, and costs. Prototype new features and proposed design changes
• Develop conceptual models, leveraging both proven and innovative technology approaches.
• Review existing web-based solutions/content and incorporate current best practices in web development
Development Activities (60%):
• Work with client and internal team members to understand client initiatives, research solutions, evaluate and propose recommendations.
• Formulate project estimates, coordinate and develop application solutions, including design, coding, testing, debugging and documenting
• Develop new functionality and solutions that client needs.
• Move new content/functionality into production
Team Support (20%):
• Provide technical instruction, assistance, and direction to team members. Mentor team members on adherence to design and architecture guidelines.
• Provide documentation, training and mentoring.
Key Responsibilities
1. Interact with clients to understand their business and application requirements and define solution architectures that help them achieve their business objectives and leverage the value of open source applications and services around the standard frameworks.
2. Complete all stages of the implementation process in both an individual and team capacity. These stages include requirements/design, installation, configuration, customization, testing, training, knowledge transfer, and operations.
3. Provide technical leadership to project teams. Effectively navigate client relationships to achieve success with both specific engagements and the overall relationship.
4. Become an active member of the Drupal community and acknowledged expert on Drupal technology and social-publishing scenarios.
5. Support GlobalSoft sales and marketing teams on the technical aspects of their work. Work with clients to scope engagements, analyze risk, and plan their engagements.
6. Develop Statements of Work that are accurately scoped and estimated.
7. Develop and review thorough and readable documentation that is technically accurate, fulfills engagement objectives, and is presented in a professional format.
8. Build sufficient knowledge with related Open Source projects and partner software products to effectively implement complex integrations.
9. Collaborate with other team members to resolve systems and product issues on their engagements. Provide post-deployment escalation support for client technical issues.
10. Prepare and publish reports, documents, and tools to increase the effectiveness of GlobalSoft services team and increase customer success.
11. Demonstrate strong leadership, encourage individual and team accomplishments, mentor junior colleagues and contribute to a culture of sharing, collaboration, and excellence.
12. Submit all administrative work in a timely fashion (expense reports, timesheets, etc.).
Requirements & Qualifications
• Strong customer focus and proven track record of delivering client projects & commitments
• 8+ years of experience in technical leadership role involving open-source platform for enterprise or Internet software applications. Minimum of 2 years experience in a Drupal Framework with a good standing in the community activities
• Small company/start-up experience strongly preferred.
• Comprehensive knowledge of LAMP stacks architectures and deployments, commercial databases, and content management solutions. Competency in SQL and scripting languages strongly preferred.
• Administration and troubleshooting experience in commercial Unix and Windows server environments strongly preferred.
• Programming and architecture skills in PHP or a related web development technology required. PHP experience strongly preferred.
• Experience with Agile methodologies required. Leadership experience with one or more Agile approaches preferred.
• Strong presentation/white boarding skills. Must be able to lead technical discussions with technically sound clients.
• Experience scoping projects and preparing Statements of Work and project plans.
• Experience managing projects or technical teams.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and strong verbal and written communication skills required.
• Strong problem solving abilities, initiative, and the ability to work well under pressure.
• Experience working with geographically and culturally diverse teams.
• Experience providing technical support or consulting for content management or collaboration software preferred.
• Experience providing technical support for Open Source applications preferred.
• Strong consideration given candidates in the Bangalore & Chennai area.
• University degree in computer science, mathematics, or other related technical field is required
Preferred skills for this role include
Technical:
• Familiar with Zend Framework, preferably Zend certification
• Must have been involved in at least one enterprise project involving high-volume access and/or data
• Familiarity with various JavaScript frameworks/libraries and building Web2.0 standard applications
Personal attributes:
• Highly detail oriented, accurate, and organized
• Ability to perform comfortably in a fast-paced, deadline oriented work environment
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Must be flexible and comfortable with change
