Senior Application Architect

A Senior Application Architect provides the overall technical leadership for the development of desktop and web-based, customer-facing research products. An application architect participates in all phases of the software development lifecycle, driving application design and overseeing implementation, testing and deployment activities. The application architect also works closely with project management to plan, estimate and oversee the progress of application development projects. This position requires a thorough understanding of the technical and architectural details of assigned applications.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Works with application business owners and stakeholders to review business requirements and clarify application expectations. Participates in requirements gathering sessions. May assist in analyzing competitive products from a technical perspective to ensure requirements are complete.
Works with project managers and other development stakeholders to develop approaches and estimates for development activities. Provides detailed development tasks and estimates, and identifies skills necessary for application implementation.
Develops high-level application designs. Drives detailed design activities and oversees the design work of developers, interface designers and deployment specialists. Ensures the quality and integrity of designs, and including adherence to standards and project requirements. Identifies risks and issues related to design and drives the mitigation of risks.
Performs trade-off analyses in support of product business cases. Performs build vs. buy analysis and assists with vendor selection when required.
Oversees the day-to-day work of assigned development resources during implementation. Performs code reviews and configuration management duties. Provides project feedback and performance evaluation input for development resources.
Assists in assessing suitability of off-shore development to particular projects. When applicable, works with off-shore development teams to implement designs and performs formal acceptance of off-shore designs, code and test documentation.
Plans and drives unit, system and integration testing activities. Evaluates reported defects and oversees the correction of prioritized defects. Gives approval for user acceptance testing based on testing results.
Participates in the assessment of the impact of change requests. Develops options and makes recommendations for change requests.
Drives the identification of deployment requirements and directs deployment specialists for application deployment/release. Oversees application staging and production deployments. Verifies that application documentation reflects the final deployed application.
May be called upon to provide design or code reviews as a peer architect.
Stays current on emerging technologies and technology trends. Analyzes new and emerging technologies and drive the organizational shifts to implement new technologies as appropriate. Participates in external technology forums.
Defines and drives the implementation of technology and implementation standards. Communicates and defends standards at the organizational level to ensure they are applied consistently.

Scope of Responsibilities:
Typically serves as the application architect for products that span multiple business units or involve multiple business owners Responsibilities typically involve multiple concurrent projects and geographically disbursed project teams.

Supervisory Responsibilities:
The application architect oversees assigned development resources including developers, interface designers and deployment specialists for project implementation purposes, but does not have direct departmental resource management responsibilities. This position may also involve mentoring, coaching and advising less experienced or developing architects.

Education and/or Experience:
BS or MS in Computer Science or a related technology field
3 + years of application architect experience with customer-facing internet and/or desktop applications is required.
5 + years of experience as an application developer/programmer analyst developing customer facing internet and/or desktop applications is required.
A working knowledge of and experience with software development processes and procedures is required. A demonstrated ability to tailor and scale approach to the needs of the project is also required.
A proven track record of successfully translating customer requirements into workable application solutions is required. Experience with research application domains such as accounting, tax, law, marketing is desirable.
Excellent application design and analysis skills are required.
Prior experience in architecting applications for off-shore development is highly desirable.
Prior experience working in a large corporate IT organization is required. Experience with an out-sourced IT infrastructure is desirable.
Prior experience with application sizing methodologies including, but not limited, to function point sizing is desirable.

Skills:
A demonstrated expertise in the use of the Microsoft .NET platform for Internet and desktop application development is required.
A strong understanding of web application hosting and deployment including IIS, Microsoft SiteServer, Windows Server 2000/2003 operating systems is recommended.
A demonstrated expertise in multiple Internet and desktop development technologies is required, including, but not limited to, the following: : C++/ MFC, ATL, COM/DCOM, Visual Basic, C#, WinForms, ADO.NET, ASP, ASP.NET, scripting languages (Javascript, VBscript), CSS, XML/XSL, and HTML.
A strong understanding of logical database design and development, especially in Microsoft SQL Server is required.
Experience with documentation and source code repository tools such as Domino.Doc, Visual SourceSafe, and MS SharePoint is required.
A demonstrated expertise in the use of Microsoft development tools and technologies including Visual Studio 2003, and Visio is required. Strong skills in explaining, describing and graphically portraying architecture to technical and non-technical audiences are required.
Strong negotiation and facilitation skills.
Good interpersonal and coaching skills.
Strong business perspective and the ability to apply and convey technology concepts to satisfy business requirements.
This position may require working some evenings, weekends or holiday hours.
Position may require some travel.
Position may require wearing a cell phone and being available ("on-call") during product production releases.

You must have all of the experience listed above to qualify. COMSYS is an
Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for
employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin,
ancestry, citizenship, disability, age, military or veteran status, and other
characteristics protected under federal, state, and local law.