NWEA has a new opening for Application Architect within our Platform Strategy group. This is a full-time opportunity where you will lead open source web application architecture and standards to design NWEA products and services. NWEA offers competitive compensation, a generous benefits package and career growth opportunities.
Founded by educators nearly 40 years ago, Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA™) is a global not-for-profit educational services organization known for our flagship interim assessment, Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®). More than 7,400 partners in U.S. schools, districts, education agencies, and international schools trust us to offer pre-kindergarten through grade 12 assessments that accurately measure student growth and learning needs, professional development that fosters educators’ ability to accelerate student learning, and research that supports assessment validity and data interpretation. To better inform instruction and maximize every learner’s academic growth, educators currently use NWEA assessments and items with nearly 10 million students. Our research-based core lets us do what’s driven us from the beginning: give educators tools proven to help them make a difference. We are searching for talented individuals who desire to make a difference in education by demonstrating a commitment to our mission: Partnering to help all kids learn®.
Position summary
NWEA employs Application Architects to ensure high quality level development of software applications for clients and internal users. The Application Architect leads open source web application architecture and standards to design NWEA products and services. Application Architects are expected to be experts in software development and masters of software languages used or required by NWEA. This position requires being adaptable to changing technology environments. Application Architects work collaboratively with all participants across software development projects.
Responsibilities
• Provide guidance and structure for creating new and maintaining the organization’s existing software assets
o Creating, defining, or choosing a consistent infrastructure for the applications
o Provide continuity in all major application solution decisions
o Advise on the use of emerging technology for maximizing business benefits; research, prototype, and document the organization’s best practices based on industry standards for new technology usage
o Recommend IS operational action necessary to manage technology debt
o Recognize and recommend the potential of each asset in support of SOA methodology
• Translate business requirements into technical solutions
o Create application architecture artifacts such as UML design models, conceptual and state diagrams, application program-to-program communication design, solution design principles
o Ensure application architecture meets internal and external policies and requirements for technical standards, security, operation, and support.
o Assist in making build vs. buy decisions; coordinate with other business units in the organization to stay informed of packaged software implementations
• Support project teams
o Provide support to development teams for solving challenging technical problems through application of prototypes, core library development, and knowledge of industry best practices
o Provide mentoring on software design, construction and development methodologies through one-on-one interaction, meetings, and brown bag sessions
o Participate in design and code reviews; assign priority of remediation
• Perform other duties as assigned to ensure the success of the team and the entire organization