Senior Software Architect

Senior Software Architect

Location: Royston, Hybrid Working from Home Available

Salary: Up to £90,000

KO2 is working with a well-established manufacturer of advanced, ruggedised electronic hardware, precision equipment built to perform reliably in demanding realworld conditions. A considerable body of software sits behind each product, running across multiple processing units, and the business is now seeking a Senior Software Architect to take ownership of the software vision and steer it forward.

This is a role of genuine scope, and it is worth being clear about what it is not. It is not an architect position where a set of requirements is handed over and the task is simply to work out how to deliver them. The business is looking for the person who defines how the entire software platform ought to look, across every component and including the data management strategy. You would be the technical figurehead the software team looks to, the person who sets the direction and brings colleagues with them.

The remit

The business runs two mature software platforms that developed separately, in different countries, performing much the same function but built in very different ways with very different front ends. The first task is to understand both in real depth: how they are constructed, why, and where the strengths and the liabilities lie. From there, you would decide the way forward. That may mean retaining what works and extending it, or it may mean concluding that a platform has reached the end of its useful life and defining a new one. That judgement, and the ability to argue it convincingly, sits at the heart of the role.

Alongside this you would:

Work closely with product management, together with the hardware and technology leads, to define the software portion of the roadmap and the shape of the platform's future

Take on line management of the software team, and in time responsibility for software colleagues based in another country

Partner with a technical lead elsewhere to determine, on a global basis, what gets built and how

Engage directly with customers where appropriate, since a good deal of what shapes the software returns through the organisation from those using the product

Balance how much is exposed to the customer against how much is automated beneath the surface, so that the end user is well served with a product that is straightforward to useThe technical picture

The core o...