Lead Technical Designer, Information Technology

University of Ottawa

5d

About The Position

Information Technology is a dynamic and collaborative environment. We are focused on prioritizing and optimizing technological investments that facilitate the best student experience, as well as the activities of faculty, researchers and staff. Our greatest strength are the people working with us. People like you, professionals eager to flex their intellectual muscle and achieve new heights in their career. Working here gives you access to a great IT environment, rich with a diverse range of platforms, products, and services. This is a place where innovative ideas are welcome. In a nutshell: working here is challenging and rewarding. It’ll bring out the best of you. We want people that have the drive to advance IT in higher education. We have the technologies to keep your inner fires burning, and benefits that can help you sustain a better lifestyle. And all this minutes away from gyms, the Byward Market, downtown, and the Rideau Canal at lunch time for runners and skaters.

Reporting to the Senior Manager, IT Infrastructure and Systems, the incumbent designs and implements solutions to support the University’s business objectives. Is involved in all phases of systems analysis, the planning of system development and the technical design University wide. The systems impacted include large-scale mission critical systems. Provides leadership and guidelines in the implementation of application solutions, ensuring the use of best practices and adhering to the architectural roadmap. Works with IT managers and Application Managers to plan, estimate, prioritize and assign work to technical resources. Supports and maintains operational applications and works on the design, testing and improvement of the applications that support various endeavours. Works with minimum supervision and acts as a specialist with a deep knowledge of complex technologies to enable and support critical University-wide systems and the supporting technologies.

Requirements

• A University degree in Computer Science or Information Technology or a related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in a complex and diverse IT environment.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in application development and implementation.
• Advanced knowledge of various programming languages (and scripting languages and of computing hardware, software and software development methodologies.
• Application Integration architectures and data conversion experience.
• Knowledge and experience of relational database concepts, querying, data warehousing, ETL process, and requirements gathering.
• Knowledge and experience of technology performance: analysis and tuning for applications.
• Experience in Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and Functional Programming.
• Experience in project management and meeting strict deadlines.
• In-depth analytical skills for complex problem solving – identification, diagnosis, resolution.
• Leadership skills, ability to coach and mentor other IT professionals.
• Ability to design end-to-end business system solutions in a complex application and technology environment.
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills to interact with team members and provide. technical guidance and expertise to management.
• Ability to build and maintain strong working relationships with all levels of management and staff.
• Ability to keep abreast of new/emerging technologies.
• Bilingualism – French and English (written and spoken).

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge of the University’s information technology policies, procedures and standards would be considered an asset.

Responsibilities

• Planning, Design and Deployment: Directs the development team with respect to application design guidance based on a thorough understanding of the appropriate mission-critical systems and their underlying technology. Designs and develops solutions and production enhancements using the appropriate tools and technology.
• Team Lead: Works with the IT Manager to plan, estimate, prioritize and assign work to technical resources. Provides advice to staff regarding system development methods, design alternatives and technical options.
• Support and Consulting: Works closely with the Tech team to perform an in depth review of suitable options and of the existence of delivered functionality before customizing. Provides supporting documentation to request and justify any customization.
• Project Management: Oversees overall systems testing, systems performance and migration of projects to the Production environment. Ensures that appropriate controls and progress reports are prepared regularly. Ensures that risks are monitored and that risk-mitigation strategies are implemented when necessary.
• Methods, tools, techniques and standards: Ensures development standards and design frameworks are adhered to by the development team. Leads the efforts to document best practices for development activities related to a particular system. Reviews and analyzes new functionality introduced in third party system updates and provides an impact assessment to the team.
• Troubleshooting: Develops strong relationships with Application Managers, Business Analysts and developers to effectively troubleshoot and resolve system issues. Documents all problems, diagnosis, and resolutions for problems, including effective support for contingency situations.
• Development Life Cycle: Analyzes complex business requirements, assist in fit/gap analysis, evaluates system impacts, architecture design and validate proposed solutions and write supporting technical design document, work on implementation, QA testing and migration as appropriate. Reviews program logic and oversee the preparation of test data, testing and debugging. Writes documentation for programs and system charges. Leads and coordinates the creation and maintenance of production support documentation such as job failures and restart procedures for a specific system. Advises IT Manager on options, risks, and any impacts on other processes or systems.
• Maintenance: Works with PeopleSoft Security Admins to build and maintain roles and permission lists, schedule system maintenance windows and migrations into production and maintain the performance of the system.

Benefits

• The University of Ottawa offers a generous pay and benefits package that includes a competitive salary, a defined benefit pension plan, group insurance coverage and an employee and family assistance program.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees