Hungary: Middleware Architect Manager

Background

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 190 member National Societies. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, our work is guided by seven fundamental principles; humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

Organizational Context

The Information Technology Department (ITD) has the dual role of providing cost effective information and communications technology (ICT) solutions to enable the geographically distributed staff of the secretariat to function effectively, as well as advising National Societies on developing their use of ICT. The department provides all ICT services for the Secretariat with staff based in Geneva, Budapest and at important locations worldwide. Increasingly the IT department facilitates the development and sharing of best practices in ICT by National Societies and contributes to their ICT development, strengthening and capacity building. The IFRC is in the process to establish a Global Services Centre (GSC) in Budapest, Hungary and the IT services will be partially moved there as the first global shared service component. The Geneva based IT department is led by the Director, IT. The two Unit Managers (in Geneva & Budapest) are key members of the global IT department management team along with the Advisor, Innovation and National Society Development, contributing to the development and implementation of an IT strategy that best serves the IFRC’s business needs. The Middleware Architect is based in Budapest specialising in system architecture, development, implementation and heterogeneous systems interconnection. The position holder reports to the Manager, IT Services Unit in Budapest.

Job Purpose

The position owner will understand the business needs to architect, develop and implement enterprise solutions that solve business and technology problems. In partnership with IT department subject mater expert and business unit representative, he/she plans and manages the performance of the middleware platform engaged in the exchange of information between various systems.

The middleware manager oversees all middleware infrastructure, software and data resources mobilized at all applicational levels (system interfaces, data processing, data cleaning, reporting engines). Main responsibilities, but not limited to, are planning, managing and supporting the span of technology which consist of a range of product and technologies within the middleware solution area.

The middleware manager Job function works collaboratively and actively with the various team leaders of the support units (Infrastructure, Business & IT Applications, Service Desk) and with all participants in projects and operations and is supportive of business units by providing tools and services to deploy data interfaces into production.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

General duties:

• Ensure service quality and security, while respecting operating methods defined within the ITD quality standards.
• Manage operational tools (monitoring and management) to ensure sustainability of middleware platforms and services for the various IFRC business units and at end user level.
• Participate in long-term infrastructure technology strategy and planning for the organization and in defining middleware platform architecture and technology standards to optimize system performance and integrity.
• Interact proactively with the Infrastructure and Business & IT Applications team leader to manage inter system data collections and network infrastructures involved in the exchange of information between various systems.
• Provide consultation to application development team regarding infrastructure requirements and provide recommendations for both the design and action plans for system integration or migration.
• Review and make recommendations request for IT technology that deviate from the established architecture and technology standards.
• Establish credibility throughout the organization by being a proactive architect who understand the needs of each business and ensuring that all operational activities are directed towards meeting their goals and service levels.
• Provide leadership in planning for the future infrastructure, proposing new directions and technologies. Participate in setting of technical standards and drive migration efforts to the future middleware technology infrastructure.
• Actively participate in IT disaster recovery processes and efforts, ensuring redundancy of all middleware infrastructure platforms to mitigate major business losses in the event of disaster outages.
• Be point of contact for various business units in business requirement analysis to understand scope of upcoming needs, identifying timelines for development release, operational readiness and tracking risks.
• Contribute actively to the overall satisfaction level of IFRC en users while develop and promote effective working relationship within the ITD, the wider IFRC and the RCRC movements including ICRC. •Manage personal knowledge and continuously update your skillset on various systems and applications used at IFRC.
• Adhere to staff regulation of the IFRC Budapest Global Service Center regulations and to the IT security rules at all the times.
• Communicate effectively with the various IFRC stakeholders within the IT sector, share knowledge and be subject matter expert.
• Participate in all activites related to providing adequate and efficient release and change management services to all IFRC stakeholders distributed accross 5 regions.

Specific duties:

Operations support

• Provide technical expertise across business functions, understanding the relationship between the business and the infrastructure technologies that support the business, explain infrastructure capabilities
• Lead and Interact with the Infrastructure support team leader to establish, maintain and manage middleware platform reachability and availability, especially for SaaS hosted services.
• Lead and interact with the Business Application support team leader to establish, maintain and manage data flows and data collections between decentralized systems and the middleware platform.
• Interract with the Service Desk support team leader to identify reccuring incidents related to the middleware platform and propose remediation strategy with the help of other support units
• Ensure the middleware infrastructure is properly patched, monitored and maintained. Plan and implement major software upgrades and ensure that change management procedure and methodologies are implemented and followed.
• Lead project planning and requirements effort. Recommend and create action plans for system development and/or integration.
• Ensure all changes are planned, tested and follow the IT department change management procedures. Report on changes and events within the scope of support activities which could have and operational impact on the service availability.
• Work closely with the IT management team and Enterprise Architect to help shape a clear technology lifecycle strategy for all middleware infrastructure platforms.
• Build and maintain strong IT controls and secure environment ensuring priviledged access is only granted to those with an approved role. Work closely with the security officer to ensure policies and compliance standards are followed as well as respond to internal/external audits.
• Analyze assigned specifications; code, test and implement solutions leading software development team.
• Create and automate operational processes and procedures, provide management by metrics to facilitate capacity and performance management and continuous process improvement.
• Warranty established operational level agreements for the middleware infrastructure and running services in alignement with established operational procedures for IFRC worldwide and providers SLAs.
• Troubleshoot and diagnose complex and escalated problems. Work with multiple vendors coordinating solution between users and product/service providers. Escalate problems as required based on OLAs and inform management as appropriate.
• Review tracking log to identify reccuring problems. Identify training needs to users, share knowledge with business unit, development and support teams.
• Make proposal for new tools or methods to improve solutions, applications and tasks undertaken by the business application support unit.
• Manage technologies to support information privacy, confidentiality, security, integrity and availability requirements.

Reporting and Documentation

• Identify documentation requirements to maintain efficient operational level, anticipate documents needs and regularly update operational documentation.
• Create, maintain and improve the knowledge base and knowledge documentation managed through the Service Management Tool.
• Document releases and changes with relevant information to allow continuous improvement within the support team and the end user satisfaction level.
• Provide periodic reports upon request on Web applications usage, performances, capacity and availability to the direct level of reporting or the IT Service Manager on charge of the support units in Budapest.
• Record and Treat operational information (general and specific) accurately and confidentially.

External Relation

• Maintain regular contact with end users within the Secretariat as required. •Maintain contacts with other support teams involved during the request resolution process.

Office Activities

• Adhere to all administrative procedures linked to his/her work.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in computer sciences discipline or related field.

• ITIL certification or equivalent experience and proven track record of ITIL usage in enterprise environment.

• Microsoft certification MCSA on SQL Server (MCSE in Data Management and Analytics preferred)

• Project Management professional certification (PMP preferred)

  Experience

• 5 to 10 years of experience as a BizTalk or Senior BizTalk Administrator with responsibilities that include: BizTalk infrastructure architecting, engineering, installation, configuration, upgrading, patching and diagnosis.

• Minimum 5 years of SQL server administration (SQL Always On) & DataWarehouse concept (designing, maintaining, supporting).

• 5 to 10 years of relevant information technology work experience

Knowledge, skills and languages

***Required*:**

• Strong organizational skills, interpersonal skills and problem solving skills.
• Ability to drive situations when challenged with aggressive timelines.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate cross-functional teams toward task completion.
• Advanced knowledge of of software devolpment lifecycle in multiple system environments.
• Adept at analysis, problem solving, solution and end-user result oriented
• Fluently spoken and written English.

Preferred:

• Proven interpersonal and able to interfere with and coordinate stakeholders across different teams (internal or external), with or without direct hierarchical relation, for specific maintenance or support activities
• Affinity for team work, collaborative attitude, open-minded and adaptable
• Well organized, able to work under pressure and manage emergencies
• Good analytical skills to interprets problems, identifies solutions and possible side effects.
• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic); Knowledge on Russian and/or Hungarian is an asset.

Competencies and values

• Accountability
• National Society relations
• Teamwork
• Development
• Competencies and values
• Accountability
• National Society relations
• Teamwork
• Development
• Integrity
• Strategic Orientation
• Collaborating, influencing
• Managing performance
• Building alliances
• Building trustEffective communication

Comments

“This is a national staff position open to Hungarian nationals and others who are legally eligible to work in Hungary. Candidates must be able to provide proof of their eligibility to work in Hungary.”

The Federation is an equal opportunity employer

Please apply on the organisation's website: Click Here