Location: Grand Rapids, MI
URL: www.peopledesign.com
Seeking web software development lead for innovative multidisciplinary experience design firm.
About People Design:
People Design (Grand Rapids, MI, 22 employees) creates stories for companies and then we make things. Our Web Design and Development team is a small, focused team of User Interaction Designers and Developers, committed to providing companies who value design with unique user experiences that please users, influence behavior, and drive business value.
We’re a platform-agnostic and user-centered consultancy, having helped create a variety of technical solutions, from Microsoft to Ruby on Rails, websites to applications to kiosk experiences, for small startups to major fortune 100s. Our goal is to build a truly collaborative user experience agency who employ developers as designers, not merely programmers executing designs by disinterested aestheticians.
We’re looking for an experienced, team-oriented technical leader. If you are passionate about developing evolutionary user-centered online experiences and collaborating with industry leading user interface designers, come to Grand Rapids and do the best work of your life.
Opportunity:
We’re seeking a senior-level Director of Technology with 6+ years of experience in managing teams, defining processes, architecting systems architecture and solutions (build vs. buy), and programming web applications. This position would peer with a Director of Interaction Design to co-lead the Interaction Design group.
To be considered, candidates must demonstrate leadership experience at or above a senior software developer level. You must demonstrate proven collaborative and client-facing communication skills. You should demonstrate a history of designing and developing software applications with a rich presentation layer on a variety of technology platforms. Your work should exhibit a proven mastery of front-end technologies (HTML, standards-based development), database and application architecture, software and technology selection.
Individual is expected to push technology and user experience innovation within the firm, and stay up-to-date on current developments in web-based software development and trends (living and breathing the social web!), multi-platform development technology, methodologies, tools and resources.
Must be a client-facing, highly collaborative, motivated self-starter and be comfortable working to tight deadlines and high expectations of a technically challenging, design-oriented company run by entrepreneurial spirits.
Key Responsibilities:
- Translate business problems with great design into technical solutions relevant to the client’s business/project.
- Determine client technical capabilities and needs.
- Estimate projects, proposal writing, requirements documentation (UML experience a bonus).
- Create system architecture and database design(s).
- Advise clients on all technical decisions.
- Accurate and reliable project scoping and planning.
- Develop and manage strong and efficient development process.
- Hands-on programming, testing and documentation (test plan development and documentation a plus).
- Training, mentoring, and motivating development talent.
- Recommend hosting providers and plans.
- Traffic report, user log analysis.
- Collaborate with interactive design team.
Required Experience:
- Understanding of multiple platforms, experience managing large website builds.
- 5+ years with front end technologies: HTML, CSS, JS, Ajax, XML, RSS, working knowledge of Photoshop and Flash.
- Familiarity with PHP, Ruby on Rails (RoR), and/or other opensource.
- Familiarity with Microsoft .NET, JSP/Java, and/or other CMS/Portal/ enterprise systems (IBM, Vignette, Interwoven, etc.)
- Proven, in-depth experience with database modeling and management (MySQL or SQL Server); ideally experience with complex data warehousing solutions.
- Experience with internal business-process software (CRM, CMS etc.)
- Strong believer in managed agile development methodologies.
- Experience in leading and motivating a commercial development team.
- Actively using/developing evolving web implementations (Social web, SaaS).
- Security strategies (authentication).
- Integrating APIs, XML, on-site Search.
- Ecommerce integration (checkout, payment authorization, shipping, sales tax, metric reports, inventory management, taxonomies a bonus).
- Email ASPs (newsletters, user registration).
- Database optimization/normalization.
- Integration with back-end databases (ODBC).
- Hardware systems specification (server specification, network admin, load balancing) a bonus.
- SEO coding best practices.
To apply: Please send cover letter and resume to Diana Racek, Business Manager, at diana@peopledesign.com.