About us
We have been at the heart of the UK energy market for 25 years and are today playing a critical role in decarbonising the UK energy system. As a major energy services and smart metering company with technology, data and sustainability at the core of our ethos and business model, SMS is committed to delivering the future of smart energy.
We are proud of being both an equal opportunity employer and an accredited real living wage employer! We look out for our customers and our focus is ‘putting our people first’.
Our people enable us to do all of this by living our 5 core values: Safety, Customer excellence, Sustainability, Innovation and Pride.
The Role
Reporting to the Head of Development , the Technical Architect is responsible for leading the technical design of software systems developed at SMS. The role bridges the gap between business requirements and technology solutions, outlining the architecture and design that will become the blueprint for delivery.
In addition to guiding the implementation approach of product development teams, a technical architect is responsible for conducting research on existing systems and devising solutions that work within those systems. They may also meet directly with clients to demonstrate solutions, answer questions regarding software capabilities and requirements. Working closely with software delivery team they provide guidance and resolve issues during the full development lifecycle. Some UK travel required.
Typical Duties
- Working with a range of stakeholders to translate business and non-functional requirements into technology solutions
- Designing and planning secure, highly available solutions using cloud hosting (AWS) and private virtualized hosting
- Working with internal development teams and external implementors to provide technical architecture guidance on solutions implementation
- Reviewing and prioritizing changes to existing platforms to ensure they are fit for purpose
- Maintaining architecture documentation including roadmaps and current / future state representations
- Taking an active role in the technology strategy of SMS
- Evaluating new technologies to determine how they could benefit our products
- Providing training and mentoring of junior personnel
- Some hands-on software development if required
Essential Skills
- Technical architecture and design
- Excellent knowledge of programming languages such as C# or Java
- Strong understanding of object-oriented programming and SOLID principles
- Experienced in agile development processes
- Strong knowledge of cloud platforms ideally AWS
- Knowledge of security best practices and tools
- Excellent problem-solving ability including leading teams to identify, research and coordinate resource to diagnose and troubleshoot complex issues
- Excellent communication and presentation skills
- Collaborative working
- Ability to influence and negotiate
- Leadership skills
Education and Professional Qualifications
- Degree (or equivalent), preferably in computer science or related subject
Experience
- Technical software development disciplines
- Cloud based infrastructure development
- Software architecture and design
- Working in an Agile development environment
- Business Analysis desirable
- DevOps desirable
- Team Leadership
In Return
- 25 personal holiday days per year with additional allocation of 8 public holidays
- After 5 years of service you will be rewarded with an additional 5 days annual leave taking it to 30 personal days and 8 public holidays.
- Length of service cash incentive
- Refer a friend bonus (£500)
- Cycle to work scheme
- Corporate season ticket travel
- Automatic enrolment into the Company Stakeholder Pension Scheme (will commence following 3 months employment)
- Eligibility to join the Share Incentive Plan following 6 months employment
- Life Insurance cover where your next of kin will receive 4 times your annual salary