Director, Architecture & Software Development

Job Description

Somos is an innovative technology company that provides an expanding portfolio of products and services related to number administration for the Toll-Free, messaging and wider telecommunications industries. As an enabler of innovation, Somos is taking the lead in promoting the technological and market evolution taking place in these industries as well as building products that support and fuel such evolution.  We are looking for a forward-thinking leader, with a proven track record of taking ownership and making things happen.

The Director will provide leadership in the architecture, design, development, implementation and enhancement of Somos products.  Successful candidate is a “problem solver” and has an appetite for novel, new approaches for solution delivery. Role requires proven ability to forge inter-vendor relationships, while exceeding customer expectations by proactive identification of problem areas and developing timely solutions in a telecommunication setting.  Will be responsible for driving innovation, technology strategy, and architecture across a technically diverse application portfolio. 

This opportunity provides the ability to work in a dynamic, high-performing environment, with high-visibility that will allow your experience to help advance the future of telecommunications!

Responsibilities

• Extensive technical breadth in areas of application development, technical architecture, information management and deployment in a complex heterogeneous environment with expertise in telecommunications domain. 
• Participate in evaluating COTS solutions as well as participate in decisions with “Build vs. Buy vs. Outsource”
• Help define and refine existing corporate architectural standards and guidelines. 
• Participate in architecture group meetings and activities. 
• Inspire the team to develop best practices and continuous improvement (e.g. agile and continuous delivery)
• Help identify and execute improvements and simplification opportunities with business systems in a domain.  Identify and promote re-use of common services and components.
• Proven ability to establish and build professional relationships with executives of the enterprise to gather and articulate the technical vision and produce the strategic plan for realizing it through an architecture roadmap.
• Communicate compelling enterprise architecture vision and inspire others to support the vision.
• Ability to use broad industry knowledge to anticipate marketplace trends in application design accurately and to articulate credible, competitive, breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Excellent interpersonal, team management, facilitation and communications skills — must be able to communicate effectively at all levels of the organization.
• Ability to facilitate discussion on controversial topics and manage group dynamics to reach agreement on how to proceed, when necessary.
• Motivate, coach and guide engineering team members to perform at a high level, recognizing the importance of being a manager and mentor.
• Foster a creative and innovative culture with a strong emphasis on team.
• Enforce architectural standards, patterns and best practices.
• Accountable for managing the teams’ department goals, objectives and operating procedures.
• Manage engineering employees and resources ensuring that products are designed efficiently, cost effectively, on time and at optimum quality levels.
• Embrace and champion the corporate values by leading by example.

Desired Skills & Experience

• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience with progressive levels of responsibility, 5+ years of recent relevant experience leading architecture and development projects.
• Experience leading cross-functional/matrix project teams in the successful completion of assigned deliverables.
• Prior experience developing a strategy and roadmap for consolidating and modernizing a diverse telecommunication platform.
• Proven hands-on leader with the ability to drive prototyping and R&D solutions. 
• Must have the ability to communicate complex technical details. Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills. 
• Proven experience managing vendors and teams in diverse combination of in-house development and outsourced development. 
• First line architecture experience in a demanding rapidly changing environment.
• Effective at influencing and driving organizational change.
• Exceptional interpersonal and organizational skills. 
• Specific experience with high throughput, low latency, highly available transaction processing applications in a telecom environment is a must.
• Extensive experience (7+ years) with network and systems management to include experience building mobile, PSTN and IP applications.
• Solid hands-on troubleshooting and technical problem analysis skills. 
• Proven experience in building and mentoring teams and successfully delivering value with creative, self-initiated solutions.