Lead Architect – to £100k – London – BANKING

As lead architect you will help to establish best practices, supporting critical issues and serve as counsel for other architects.
You will partner with other senior architecture leaders to align enterprise, domain and solution architecture areas of work. Heading the team you will define overall strategy and co-ordinate work within a divisional unit.

With ownership of high level design you will be responsible for all aspects of architecture to drive the correct balance between business need and total cost of ownership.

Experience of:
* Has proven solution architect and technical leadership skills of complex integration projects.
* Working within agile and iterative project delivery methodologies, eg Scrum
* Experience and proven knowledge of system architecture frameworks and process, and the concepts of loosely coupled architectures based on Service Orientated Architecture (SOA)
* A range of platforms and solid skills across several enterprise technologies, including J2EE multi-tier architectures, and Portal technologies
* Database and data models
* Content management and search
* Experience with customer and stakeholder management
* Integration with front to back banking platforms
* Security implications
* TOGAF beneficial
* Ideally a business management or IT qualification
* Estimating, project planning and scheduling
Java, J2EE
* Application Servers, eg Tomcat, JBoss, WebSphere
* Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and web services technologies, ESB
* JSF
* Spring
* Struts
* Ajax
* Apache

£80k – Project Manager – Asset Management / Hedge Fund

Job Description
Position:
Based in prestigious offices in Central London, you will manage a growing team of implementation consultants. This team will manage the full life cycle implementation of Asset Management, Hedge Fund and Compliance solutions in respect of front-office investment processes. You will also manage general consultancy services around these related products such as installations, training, business and technical reviews and configuration of new functionality.
Responsibilities will include:
• Managing the team of Implementation Consultants for Asset Management and Hedge Fund Solutions
• Plan resource allocation
• Act as a Project Manager and Lead for complex implementation projects
• Manage the transition of clients from Projects to Operational Support
• Mentor, motivate and lead the team
• Take ownership for continuous process improvement
Required Skills
• Strong team leadership & people management ability
• Excellent communication (both oral and written) and interpersonal skills are essential
• Convey engaging, informative and well-organised presentations
• Excellent Structured Project Management skills are required
For a full Job Desciption, please contact Robin Carton – rjc@arcamresources.com – 01920 877111

Programme Director – Banking – London – £excellent

Job description
Opportunity for a high calibre, Director-level candidate to join a Global Professional Services organisation operating at Group level and initiating and driving forward major transformation programmes. The successful applicant will be a proven operator at Senior Exec/Board level within major Financial and Banking organisations, and will have delivered big-ticket transformation with line and matrix responsibility for c100+ people.

The successful candidate will demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Delivery of major, technology enabled finance transformation programmes with budgets of £20+ M
Portfolio design and high-level strategy
Competent operator at Board-level within a Global Bank

Excellent opportunity to delivery high-impact programmes into a complex and challenging environments.

Please contact Robin Carton – rjc@arcamresources.com

2x Programme Managers – Financial Services – £80k+ – London

Job Description – Programme Manager
On behalf of my client, a large Tier 1 Global Consultancy, I am looking for two Senior Programmes with a strong Business Transformation and financial services / banking backgrounds;
• Credit Cards and Payment Systems
• Core Banking Systems
• Corporate Banking
• Investment Banking
• Insurance
Main Job Purpose
 To take total accountability for planning, structuring, leading and executing programmes of high risk and complexity. Responsible for managing the programme team consisting of project management, business analysis and software development staff.
 Duties and Responsibilities
 Manage the programme’s budget on behalf of the programme director, monitoring the expenditures and costs against delivered and realised benefits as the programme progresses.
 Plan the programme and monitoring its overall progress, resolving issues and initiating corrective action as appropriate.
 Management and analysis of issues.
 Build, manage and motivate the Programme team.
 Ensure the delivery of new products or services from the projects is to the appropriate levels of quality, on time and within budget, in accordance with the programme plan.
 Be responsible for the quality assurance and overall integrity of the programme.
 Manage third party contributions to the programme as appropriate.
 Communicate with all stakeholders.
 Manage both the dependencies and the interfaces between projects.
 Manage the risks to the programme’s successful outcome.
 Report progress of the programme at regular intervals to the programme director.

Skills / Attributes Required
 A minimum of 8 years experience in Project / Programme Management using leading methodologies and processes.
 Experience of managing multiple parties including Senior Project Managers and third party vendors on high profile and technologically innovative enterprise solutions
 The ability to manage large teams (50-80) across multiple locations
 Prince 2 level training or equivalent.
 MS Project.
 Understand budgetary control and resource allocation procedures.
 Ability to create a sense of community amongst the disparate members of the programme teams.

Release Manager – Digital Media – London

Job Description – Release Manager

Experience

 Experience in software configuration and release practices
 5 years proven history of success in project, test management and release delivery
 Self-critical and little need for direct management
 Ability to balance multiple tasks and schedules and report the status of these
 Experience of formal test methods
 Sound understanding of the full software development life cycle
 Strong skills in maintaining control over test environments
 Experience in software configuration and release practices (ITIL advantageous)
 Leadership and communication skills across all levels of stakeholders
 Has solid experience in functional and non-functional testing of web based applications

Responsibilities
 Effectively manage the end-to-end delivery of web based software applications, containing multiple interacting systems and components into a variety of environments, including functional test, UAT, integration, staging and production environments.
 Develop test plans and strategies for each project ensuring an adequate level of test coverage is achieved to deliver a quality solution to the end customer.
 Plan and manage the generation of all test scripts and test estimates
 Manage/Co-ordinate both onshore and offshore testing teams
 Manage / Co-ordinate test execution phases for the projects
 Report and communicate risks to the project team and management
 Give status reports on testing progress and outcomes to project stakeholders
 Scheduling, controlling and managing the transition of releases through the various environments from inception through to production
 Manage test environments, data and harnesses as necessary
 Experience in transition from development to support

Requirements
Education & Certification
 Foundation ITIL certification (preferred)
 College or university degree (preferred)

Personal attributes
 Excellent written and oral communication skills
 Excellent interpersonal skills
 Strong focus on quality and consistency
 Keen attention to detail
 Highly self-motivated and directed
 Very strong customer service orientation
 Ability to understand and comprehend technical concepts

Senior Java Developer – Digital Media

Role summary:
Partake in the creation, specification, costing, production and post-production of web development and communications projects.
The successful applicant will have a minimum of 5 years of experience with a range of Internet technologies and Java/JEE architectures. A passion for creative and emerging technology greatly benefits the successful applicant.

Required Knowledge and skills:
• Server side focused developer with up to date and excellent skills in Core Java & JEE APIs and SQL (at least 5 years).
• Software design and architecture using patterns and object oriented design.
• Familiarity with Open Source persistency and web framework projects
• SOA: RESTful and/or SOAP based Web Services
• Linux and Windows operating systems
• Code control using CVS, GIT or Subversion
• Build management using Ant or Maven2
• Unit Testing and the use of code coverage metrics
• Quality Assurance
• Troubleshooting and Problem Resolution.
• Capability to work independently
• Excellent at communicating concepts, risks and ideas
• Full software life-cycle experience
• A degree in Computer Science
Useful extra knowledge and skills:
• XHTML / CSS / JavaScript desirable.
• Accessibility and Usability issues relating to site development.
• Some low-level understanding of internet protocols such as HTTP and SOAP
Key responsibilities:
• Some limited third party interaction to negotiate, define and document any interfaces, protocols, processes and procedures needed for the project
• Take part in creative discussions and steer those discussions in the most technically appropriate direction, recommending best technical approach
• Work with the project team to define and document project scope, specifications and plans required
• Work to plan the technical delivery, and help Producers track progress against this
• Provide accurate cost, assumption and risk information in a timely manner based on varying qualities of brief. On an ongoing basis, communicate effectively with Producers, providing up to date information on project status and risks as the project progresses
• Assist with the recruitment of the team onto the project. Brief team members and manage them in the production of work to the brief
• Ensure that knowledge gained is always shared outwards to the teams and the company as a whole
• Ensure that the project is delivered to high standards of quality in all aspects including, but not limited to code, documentation, configuration management, source code control and best practice
• Contribute directly towards the project deliverables, including coding and documentation
• Take on responsibility for the full technical project delivery

Challenges of the role
The Senior Developer is regularly found in both internal and client facing meetings where they will be called upon to provide technical guidance and expertise. The Senior Developer is the representatives of the technical offering of the agency and as such they need to be strong & articulate communicators, charismatic and convincing thought leaders.

Oracle / SQL DBA – Investment Banking – London – £50K+

On behalf of my Global Investment Bank, I am looking for an experienced Oracle DBA that has also some administration experience of SQL Server. You will help take day to day responsibility of their production database infrastructure; tuning, patching, installs, upgrades, DR, health checks etc. Any previous experience of Oracle 10g to Oracle 11g migrations would be also be beneficial.

Required Experience:
– Oracle 10g, 11g, Oracle RAC, Oracle TNS
– Some experience of – SQL Server 2005, 2008
– ASM
– RMAN
– Grid Control
– Dataguard
– SQL
– Unix, Linux
– Shell Scripting
– SAN Technologies
Please contact Robin Carton – rjc@arcamresources.com — 01920 877111

2x Programme Managers – Financial Services – £80k+ – London

Job Description – Programme Manager
On behalf of my client, a large Tier 1 Global Consultancy, I am looking for two Senior Programmes with a strong Business Transformation and financial services / banking backgrounds;
• Credit Cards and Payment Systems
• Core Banking Systems
• Corporate Banking
• Investment Banking
• Insurance
Main Job Purpose
 To take total accountability for planning, structuring, leading and executing programmes of high risk and complexity. Responsible for managing the programme team consisting of project management, business analysis and software development staff.
 Duties and Responsibilities
 Manage the programme’s budget on behalf of the programme director, monitoring the expenditures and costs against delivered and realised benefits as the programme progresses.
 Plan the programme and monitoring its overall progress, resolving issues and initiating corrective action as appropriate.
 Management and analysis of issues.
 Build, manage and motivate the Programme team.
 Ensure the delivery of new products or services from the projects is to the appropriate levels of quality, on time and within budget, in accordance with the programme plan.
 Be responsible for the quality assurance and overall integrity of the programme.
 Manage third party contributions to the programme as appropriate.
 Communicate with all stakeholders.
 Manage both the dependencies and the interfaces between projects.
 Manage the risks to the programme’s successful outcome.
 Report progress of the programme at regular intervals to the programme director.

Skills / Attributes Required
 A minimum of 8 years experience in Project / Programme Management using leading methodologies and processes.
 Experience of managing multiple parties including Senior Project Managers and third party vendors on high profile and technologically innovative enterprise solutions
 The ability to manage large teams (50-80) across multiple locations
 Prince 2 level training or equivalent.
 MS Project.
 Understand budgetary control and resource allocation procedures.
 Ability to create a sense of community amongst the disparate members of the programme teams.

PHP Lead / Technical Manager – £50 – 70k – London

This is an excellent opportunity within a growing and ambitious company that is looking to float (options available) in the not too distant future.
Responsibilities
• Planning and executing technical projects that continually improve client offering and support new websites and products, including roll out across the portfolio of sites
• Estimating, scheduling, and determining resource allocation for software development tasks within the team – make outsourcing decisions where necessary – in order to meet the requirements and priorities of the business
• Providing management and leadership to the assigned development team, managing their tasks for effective delivery, mentoring, skills and career development, recruitment, performance management, etc.
• Ensuring that the assigned development team makes commitments it can stick to, delivering good quality software when promised. Provide good visibility of progress. Highlighting and addressing risks and issues. Giving the development team a clear direction and motivate team members.
• Implementing and consistently applying appropriate development practices (agreed with the CTO) to ensure technical quality
• Ensuring that the technical architecture of the development team’s solutions is sound, with appropriate consideration for performance, scalability, security, extensibility, support & maintenance, etc.
• Continuing to take responsibility for some hands-on development projects
• Ensuring a rapid response to support issues, providing appropriate advice and solutions in a timely manner.
• Working with third party technology providers to ensure successful integration with sites and services
Required Experience
• Previous experience in online development, working in a multi-website environments (currently 60+, looking to scale to c250 websites)
• Proven track record developing high volume, high performance web applications.
• Significant experience and an advanced level of competence working in each of the following is essential: PHP, MySQL, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, AJAX, Linux Apache and XML
• Experience of the following is highly desirable: asp and vbscript, squid and reverse squid or similar, load balancing, linux administration, windows server administration, terminal services, PCI compliance
• Strong project management skills including estimation and requirements definition/evaluation.
• QA experience or a good understanding of QA processes
• Line management experience providing leadership to a team of high calibre technical individuals.
• Strong delivery focus and passion for quality and innovation; solution orientated with great problem solving skills; a highly motivated individual able to work flexibly in high-growth commercial environment

Programme Manager – Digital Media – LONDON

Overview of Role
– To co-ordinate project and portfolio management processes across all Group initiatives
– To manage the current and plan the future portfolio of projects
– To measure and report on Group project and initiative performance and develop recommendations for improvements wherever appropriate
– To motivate and manage the project managers assigned to Group Product initiatives

Key Tasks
1. Managing the PMO team, ensuring that all projects are delivered according to the appropriate agile processes and that all required documentation is developed
2. Managing the project management team to ensure that high quality deliverables are produced and that individuals provide exceptional services to the businesses and to the Group.
3. Supporting all project managers in the embedded PM roles within each Group initiative and providing help and back-up for the team as required.
4. Managing project risks and issues where required and raising risks and issues for discussion and resolution with the appropriate Technology and Executive Management
5. Sharing information regarding predicted resource and budget availability to Product and Technology Management as appropriate
6. Developing and managing the strategically aligned Initiative reports and Key Performance Indicator scorecard, gathering data as required, generating reports and working with the Technology Management Team to make recommendations for improvements to IT performance
7. Developing and managing qualitative customer satisfaction processes within Group and key stakeholders
8. Co-ordinating process and procedure improvements to Initiative and project KPI reporting
9. Completing root-cause analysis on areas where project achievements are lower than anticipated and making recommendations for improvement
10. Any other tasks commensurate with the position

Key Relationships
1. Working with the Technology Management Team to outline initiative and project performance achievements, and to agree improvements
2. Working with the Management teams to ensure first class co-ordination for all Group initiatives that impact upon business and/or resources.
3. Working with Product managers and Initiative Business Owners to assess project and Initiative performance against agreed standards
4. Reporting as required at Executive Committee level on pan program issues and progress.

Key Technical Skills Required Key Personal Skills Required
Essential:
1. Project and Programme Management Processes
2. Project/Portfolio Management standards
3. Agile methodology and Scrum management experience
4. Planning and performance management Processes
5. Change and Communications Management
6. Quality Control Processes
1. 2. Business acumen
3. Excellent organisation skills
4. Leadership qualities and ability to motivate and manage teams and individuals in a matrix management structure
5. Decision making and accountability
6. Quality focus
7. Ability to provide constructive, well thought out and timely feedback for individuals
8. Communication skills in a multi-national operating environment
9. Confidence in interacting with senior business representatives
10. Excellent negotiation skills
11. Ability to explain complex issues in simple terms

Knowledge Qualifications
1. Knowledge of the technology, and information architecture of online commercial businesses
2. Deep understanding of all Project Portfolio Management processes
3. Knowledge of performance management processes and alignment with Key Performance Indicators Essential
• University graduate with a degree or further studies in Business, IT or a related subject
• Agile process management and project management training
Desired
• PRINCE2 (or other equivalent project management qualification)

Previous Experience
1. 7+ years experience in IT or a complex technology-dependent environment with an emphasis on portfolio project management in a leading consultancy or as part of an internal role
2. Performance and board level KPI reporting experience