Key Responsibilities

       Areas of Responsibility/Tasks:

• Understands the business requirements from Product Management and from the Customer and converts them into technical architectures and end-to-end functional specifications. This includes the agreement with the stakeholders on functional specifications and architecture. 
• Writes end-to-end functional specification documents both high level (solution sketch) as well as detailed (complete, end to end, detailed functional specification), based on the requirements from Product Management or Customer. This may be either the specification of an incremental functional enhancement, or a complete functional specification of a particular domain / component. 
• Provides estimations of the effort needed for the implementation of the functional specification 
• Explains the architectural concepts and the functional specifications to the development team; Acts as technical expert/lead/arch  for the implementation of the functional specification by coaching the delivery team in all the phases of the implementation (design, development plan, coding, QA, product documentation, product demo creation, ...). 
• Ensures that the design and the implementation fulfill the functional requirements, but also ensures that non-functional and technology-near requirements (e.g. performance, scalability, extensibility, customization capabilities, usability etc.) are met in a future-proof manner. This includes the review of the design documents for all layers of the software (e.g. database, application, API, UI) 
• Ensures that QA artifacts cover the requested functionality by reviewing test cases/scenarios 
• Ensures the complete and correct documentation of the implemented functionality; this includes the review of the product documentation. 
• Actively contributes to design and development. This implies coding and QA skills. 
• Continuously monitors and improves current architecture and design; this implies being pro-active in applying new technologies, patterns, tools and methodologies. 
• Collaborates with other architects by reviewing other functional specifications and involving other architects in the review process of own functional specifications; is aware of all architectural and functional enhancements, end-to-end 
• Takes technical responsibility on a certain domain (functional or non-functional); this implies that he/she:
  • Creates and maintains a specification of the architecture of that domain
  • Ensures that the architecture and of his domain of responsibility fits into and contributes to a healthy, solid, state of the art architecture of the end-to-end system 
• Understands and reviews the impact of every functional specification on his domain of responsibility, and ensures that all enhancements are in sync with the architecture of that domain. 
• Understands and complies to the software development process (focus on Agile) 
• Delivers the artifacts that are in his/her responsibility on time, and with the highest quality 

Desired Skills/Competencies

• 11+ years in Service-Oriented, Web-based, Java EE software architecture and development with 2-4 + years of experience as an Architect.
• Proficient in software architecture and design, including design patterns (see GoF)
• Proficient in using Unified Modeling Language (UML) for designing the artifacts of software systems
• Expertise in application integration patterns and concepts, service-oriented architectures (SOA) and enterprise middleware technologies (ESB, BPM) 
• Experience in modular software architecture, micro services and SOA, as well as EDA. Exposure to DDD is an advantage.
  Expertise (hands-on) in programming languages: Java, Java Script; development tools (Eclipse); build tools (Ant); unit test and test frameworks (JUnit, Soap UI); performance analysis and application profiling (VisualVM); SCM (Perforce, SVN) 
• Expertise in the implementation of multi-layer architectures:
  • Business Applications (Java/J2EE, multi-threading, Spring, JPA, JDBC, Hibernate, Jquery, CXF, ActiveMQ) and API technologies (Web Services SOAP and REST, JMS, XML/XSD) 
  • Database (Oracle, SQL) 
  • Web rich UI (Java, Javascript, Javascript libraries, Angular JS, Spring MVC, HTML5, DOJO, JQuery)
  • Hands-on experience in deployment and troubleshooting Application Servers, such as, Weblogic, WebSphere, Jboss.
  • Familiarity with Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) architecture
  • Experience in AWS, Google cloud, Phython, Ruby, Groovy scripting languages is a plus.
• Expertise in architectural patterns and design of non-functional concerns, e.g. high availability, clustering, geographical redundancy, scalability (up/down, out/in), migration, backward compatibility of interfaces, techniques to allow product customizations 
• Practical experience in designing professional enterprise applications in Utility (Energy Management, Smart metering, Rating, Billing of Energy) area is a significant plus 
• Should be a hands on Agile practitioner
• Experience with Unix / Linux command line commands and tools
• Experience with NoSQL databases such as Cassandra

Behavioral Competencies

• Strong analytical skills, attention to detail and excellent problem solving/troubleshooting skills 
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills 
• Highly driven, positive attitude, team player, self learning, self motivating and flexibility
• Strong customer focus
• Decent Networking and relationship management
• Flair for creativity and innovation

• Strategic thinking