Java Software Architect - Alpha Team

The Mission:

Several strategic projects are initiated or in process to be started in ING Tech Romania. A solid basis is vital for the success of each of these projects.

This basis is set by a group of key technical people, highly skilled in their area of expertise and knowledgeable of the ING procedures and standards.

Hence, we are aiming to build a team of highly skilled engineers with a clear purpose of helping out in setting the grounds of the new projects 

Your day to day:

You are a recognized and respected content leader and trusted advisor for your platform.
• Define the architecture for a domain/ strategic program including demarcation to other domains and in between all building blocks
• Manage end-to-end chains within domain and de-couple points between domains
• Take a supportive/leading role in technical architecture
• You take into account strategic and legacy building blocks to ensure a smooth transition
• Break-down desired (business) themes into epics and features across multiple building blocks, that Feature or Dev/Ops Engineers can further refine into implementable stories.
• Define realistic roadmap for the upcoming quarters, being aware of the domain backlog, capacity and interdependencies.
• Ensure that the architecture is implemented according to plan, minimizing technical/tactical debt and maintaining a close feedback loop.
• Take responsibility for delivery/execution and escalate to management / chief architect if required
• Provide guidance to Development Engineers, L2/L3 manages and Dev/Ops teams in your domain on your platform. With your strong communication (verbal and written) and presentation skills you facilitate workshops, guide and constraint Dev/Ops engineers. Your master builder skills allow you to discuss latest technology with the engineers.
• Describe conceptual design patterns in Cookbooks, that give guidance to the Engineers. Furthermore, describe how these best practices can actually be implemented in practice.

What you bring to the team:

Your education, experience and background: 

• IT-related background (Bachelor degree or higher)
• 7+ years of experience in IT and preferable in banking and demonstrates deep and wide knowledge  
• Track record in reducing complexity and reducing technical debt  
• Appetite for global collaboration (± 20% time)
• Experience in international collaboration (differences in cultures and context)
 

Competencies: 

• Demonstrates co-creation skills (workshop facilitation, guiding, constraining, selling – telling);
• Demonstrates “convincing people” skills based on facts and business cases
• Experience in international collaboration (differences in cultures and context); Demonstrates abstraction & problem solving skills; (e.g. mastery of enterprise integration patterns)
• Outside-in thinker: visits conferences, potentially gives a talk now and then
• Empathy and ability to think from somebody’s else point of view
• Energetic/positive thinker.
• Open to your environment/perceptive.
• Determined/persevering and a good decision maker.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Resistance to stress.
• Out-of-the-box/innovative change-oriented attitude.
• Linking a market focus (IT developments and business developments) to ING's strategy. Stronger outside-in view: Giving rapid developments in the financial industry and with FinTechs emerging, and disruptive technology trends the architect is able to internalize developments in the outside world into ING.
• With strong communication, verbal, presentation skills to facilitate workshops, guide and constraint Dev/Ops engineers he make a valuable contribution in the overall model.  
• Demonstrates mastery of REST architectural style, REST design of the domain APIs, content negotiation, and API patterns as per Lonely Planet, API trust mechanisms;
• Demonstrates mastery of Experience Design skills (customer journeys, service blueprinting)
• Owns the resilience and latency of the whole IT chain;
• Working knowledge of the technologies used in the domain (e.g. can explain the pros and cons of queuing in the IT chain)
• Track record in reducing complexity and reducing technical debt.