Software Architect, Mobile Health Innovation

Status:    Project Employee (12 months from date of hire, possibility of extension)
Location:  Seattle, WA
Class:     Exempt
Starting Date:  Immediate

About the Grameen Foundation Mobile Health Innovations Program

The Grameen Foundation envisions a world where poor individuals in developing countries and the healthcare professionals who serve them can use a mobile phone to access health information that is discoverable, relevant, actionable, and affordable.  We are looking for a technology leader who can help us shape this world. 

The Mobile Health Innovation program develops and deploys services that provide relevant and actionable health information over mobile phones.  The target users of these systems are poor individuals and the healthcare professionals who serve them.  The open-source systems we build are designed to be scaled across multiple countries and multiple health domains working with multiple organizations.  The first version of the software platform will ship in mid-2010 in Ghana (called MoTeCH – Mobile Technology for Community Health).  The first demonstration of replication and adaptation of the MoTeCH platform will be in India in late 2010.  We are currently exploring additional ideas for new software platforms to facilitate the searching and delivery of content targeted for mobile phones. 

Job Summary:  The Software Architect will drive and coordinate the design, development, and deployment of software services that deliver and process health information via mobile phones.  The ideal candidate will have extremely strong technical skills, significant experience managing engineers on distributed teams(both developers and QA), a strong track record of shipping software products, a solid focus on customer-facing requirements, experience with open source software development environments and agile methodologies, and excellent communication and collaboration skills. This is a hands-on position; the software development manager will be expected to work deep in the code as well as in a management and strategic capacity. 

Reporting and relationships:  The Software Architect reports to the Director of Mobile Health Innovations.   

Availability:  The Software Architect will be expected to work a standard workweek of 37.5 hours and may be required to work in the evenings and on weekends occasionally.  Occasional international and domestic travel will be required.   

Essential Job Functions

• Collaborate with external partners to determine architecture and technologies to incorporate into the MoTeCH platform
• Identify and manage third party software engineers and testers to build new functionality for MoTeCH
• Manage software development and testing schedules
• Conduct platform architecture reviews
• Create prototypes of services
• Actively engage with the MoTeCH code base; write code, tests, and review code from other internal and external contributors
• Cultivate the MoTeCH open source community to better enable contributions from members around the world
• Act as primary contact between software development team and other teams on the MoTeCH Initiative; work with program management team to drive technical solutions to functionality and other technical requirements in the software
• Set technical priorities for MoTeCH in cooperation with other developers, testers, and Mobile Health Innovation management team
• Understand user requirements and translate to technical requirements
• Drive architectural discussions and decisions for key strategies and functionality
• Define requirements and build out software development infrastructure
• Key contributor to overall MoTeCH vision and roadmap
• Drive overall software development strategy and key tactics to achieve the vision

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Superb technical design and implementation skills; 3 years of experience with Java/J2EE (preferably) or C++ enterprise applications. Experience with Tomcat, Spring Framework, Hibernate, MySQL strongly preferred.
• Experience working on open source projects strongly preferred
• Experience working on mobile phone software a plus
• Strong drive for results and focus on customers
• Ability and interest in engaging in functional and strategy discussions as well as deep technical conversations; strong capacity to take on a wide variety of technical and non-technical challenges
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• Exposure to low bandwidth environments and developing countries helpful.
• Passion for the mission of Grameen Foundation and the MoTeCH Initiative
• Willingness to travel internationally and domestically.
• Fluency in English required.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science. 
• 5+ years experience as a software developer; demonstrated ability to ship
• 3+ years experience managing engineers

Physical and Environmental Conditions 

This position does not require unusual demands for physical effort.  This position may occasionally require physical effort to lift and transport boxes weighing no more than 50 pounds. 

Work environment involves everyday risks or discomforts that require normal safety precautions typical of places such as offices, meeting or training rooms, residences, or commercial vehicles; e.g., use of safe work place practices with office equipment, and/or avoidance of trips and falls, and observance of fire regulations and traffic signals. 

Additional Comment

The above job description is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job. 

Reasonable accommodations may be made in appropriate circumstances to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job. 

For more information about Grameen Foundation USA or this position, please visit  www.grameenfoundation.org. Interested candidates may apply by email to jobs@grameenfoundation.org. Please put “Software Architect - MoTeCH” in the subject line.  No Calls Please.