Director - Application Architect - Warner Bros.

Job Description

Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. seeks a Director Application Architect for the MIS Tech. Arch. & Planning department. This position is responsible for ensuring that applications developed and/or implemented by Warner Bros. (WB) Application Services are architected according to defined WB technology standards; establishing and communicating pattern & practice guidelines and providing a process for reuse of application development components to continuously improve the development and/or implementation processes. Additionally, this role is a key contributor in the effort to develop and maintain overall applications architecture for software applications, which tie into various business processes as well as collaborating with the Business Systems Planner(s) and Application Development Specialist(s) in Software Requirements Analysis and for supporting the Application Developer/Programmer(s) in software coding, testing, and implementation activities to ensure architectural fidelity. This individual must be instrumental in improving the productivity of the application development staff and increase the maintainability and usability of WB software systems. The individual must keep abreast of new developments and technologies and determine which should be accepted as standard within the WB organization, create and maintain Patterns & Practices for those technologies, ensure the use of these Patterns & Practices is incorporated into the application development process, and motivate others to utilize and leverage them. In addition, WBEI is moving toward a services oriented architecture (SOA) where component software design and reuse is of strategic value. The Director will be responsible for SOA program development and the SOA maturation process, to include establishing a taxonomy of services through development and maintenance of a Services Reference Model, designation of common services and calling protocols, and management of a hardened code repository and the associated processes for managing submissions from diverse code creators, insourced or otherwise.

Requirements
Bachelor degree in computer science, engineering or related discipline, &/or equivalent work experience required. Advanced degree in computer science or related preferred. 8-10 years experience in business system application design, development and installation including object oriented and database technologies. Experience successfully leading development teams through the full lifecycle of software development. Requires working and conceptual knowledge of information technologies and methodologies in mainframe, mid-range and PC environments. Minimum 5 years experience in designing and implementing advanced application architectures, with experience integrating systems in multi-user, multi-platform, multitasking operating systems environments. Hands-on experience in the application development and implementation software development lifecycle (SDLC) in multiple hardware and software environments. Requires experience of small, medium and large software development and integration projects for implementation for both single and multiple business units. Proven track record of success in large scale distributed, web, and n-tier development projects - qualifying opportunities, devising the solution, developing proposals, presenting to clients, and implementation. Successful record of verbal and written interaction with clients at all levels - corporate officers, vice-presidents, directors, business and technology management. Experience developing and reviewing standards and guidelines for application development. Experience reviewing architectures for both custom development and package software. Experience writing architecture, technical design and statement of work documents. Experience documenting architectures using Visio, UML and Rational Rose. Architecture and design experience using use cases, sequence diagrams, class diagrams, state transition diagrams and activity diagrams. Must have a thorough knowledge of current and future technology solutions for both client-based and web-based environments. Must have a thorough understanding of service-based architecture designs and design goals. Strong understanding of the impacts of architectural decisions across the full software development life-cycle, including enhancements and support J2EE application architecture for enterprise applications with rich UI applications. Knowledge of Web Services (UDDI, SOAP, WSDL and WS-I Basic Profile). Expertise in prevailing industry standard application architectures comprised of J2EE, Java and Microsoft .NET (ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET); client/server based / integration based application architecture including XML, HTML, JavaScript, JSP, Servlet, EJBs; SAP application architecture (SAP Netweaver), IBM Websphere Application Server (5.x) and Websphere Studio (5.x), IBM UDB/DB2 (7.x+), Oracle (8.x+) and/or MS SQL Server 2000+, IBM MQ Series (Websphere MQ) and MQSI (Websphere MQ Integrator), Rational ClearCase, Rational Rose, Mercury Load Runner, Informatica. Knowledge of Rational Unified Process (RUP). Understanding of hardware, clustering, capacity planning, performance and scalability issues in relation to application architecture. Requires extensive and frequent internal MIS contact for effective communication between TAP, TS and AS to ensure a coordinated and common adoption of the defined TAP Patterns & Practices and leveraging of the WB SCC contributions. Requires contact between external suppliers and vendors when evaluating or assisting in the evaluation of software tools, products or packages. Ability to apply any defined standards, patterns, practices and contacts equally applicable to the domestic and international MIS organizations. Must have the ability to understand, and to clearly relate to other members of the organization the business value of application development design principles embraced as standard by the TAP group and WB MIS executive management. Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills and be adept at presentation techniques for small, medium and large audiences. Must have excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to build consensus for new concepts and techniques (where benefits may not be immediately realized by contributors) by clearly sharing vision and direction. Ability to be accountable to the relevant executive, Project Manager or team and provide deliverables when consulting on specific projects within TAP and within other departments (AS, TS, etc.).