Software Architect - $140-170k: TopTech Ventures

TopTech Ventures is a recruiting firm that places technology professionals in full-time permanent jobs with top-tier technology companies. Unfortunately we’re not in a position to place consultants/contractors, telecommuters, corp-to-corp, or new H1 sponsorships, although H1 transfers are possible.

If you are qualified for this position with our client and would like to pursue it, please send your resume in Word (or html or text) format and be sure to paste the job description in your email.

If you have any friends or colleagues who may be interested in career advancement in the technology industry, please introduce them to me. If we place someone referred by you, we'll thank you with a significant referral reward.

If interested in knowing about our many other full-time permanent openings in please let me know and send your resume in Word (or html) format.

Matthew Strassberg

Manager, Sr. Technical Recruiter

TopTech Ventures

Matthew [at] toptechventures [dot] com

Software Architect

Mountain View, CA

Position Summary

This company is looking for an exceptional and highly motivated software architect with a strong track record of designing and developing multi-tiered web applications that are high quality, scalable, and reliable. We prefer generalists who have driven feature development at every layer of the stack.

As a key member of our engineering team, the Software Architect has broad responsibilities, including technical leadership, application design and development, project management, and cross-department communication and mentoring. To be successful, you need a deep understanding of social networking sites, development methodologies, common web and application architectures as well as strong analytical skills.

Key Responsibilities

• Define robust architectures for new applications, leveraging and enhancing existing building blocks or creating new reusable components. Monitor and review implementation of same.
• Provide technical leadership to the development team(s)
• Build early prototypes of product components and validate them for technical design and performance
• Understand the long-term business objectives and suggest technical strategies to meet those objectives
• Be responsive and decisive on adjusting our product architecture as customer requirements, market conditions, and technology evolve
• Partner with others, inside and outside the product development team, to gather requirements and formulate appropriate architecture, deciding when to advocate and when to compromise to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution
• Actively participate in the development process, as needed
• Provide any necessary support to operations and development teams to mitigate and fix site problems. Participate in and lead post-mortem analyses to aid with continual improvement in the areas of incident prevention and resolution.

Position Requirements

• 10+ years experience in application design with 3+ years as an architect
• Experience in an architect role on large-scale, distributed, web-based applications, particularly "owning" the design of portions of such a system.
• Comfortable in communicating architecture to all levels of management and customers
• Track record that includes the design and release of high-quality, high-performance software products / applications
• Strong analytical problem solving and decision making skills
• Strong time management, organization, and prioritization skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Expert-level knowledge of application design and coding techniques, as well as a thorough understanding of installation, testing methodologies and troubleshooting techniques.
• Possessing skills in the following technology areas: PHP, C++, Web Services, XML, XSL, HTML, Javascript, Java, HTTP, SQL
• Extensive experience in any of the following is a plus: Apache, MySQL, memcached, Linux, mobile device integration (SMS and WAP)

Company Benefits

• A fast-paced, fun environment with smart people and a great opportunity to learn, grow and succeed.
• A great job in a cutting edge field at a top 20 website with a wealth of assets, opportunities and potential, yet all managed by a small team of about 80 employees
• Compensation will depend on experience. The company offers a competitive benefits package