Systems Architect

DIRECTV is one of the world's leading providers of digital television entertainment services delivering a premium video experience through state-of-the-art technology, unmatched programming, and industry leading customer service to more than 32 million customers in the U.S. and Latin America.

The DIRECTV Broadcast Systems Engineering group is seeking an exceptional and motivated Systems Architect to support various domains in media distribution. This position requires strong business system analysis skills, capability to translate business requirements into technical specifications, architecture and designs, understanding the long-term impact of architecture, design and the technology stack used, ability to serve as a subject matter expert in a particular domain with in media distribution.

Responsibilities:

• Perform In-depth and Independent Research - Analysis on the relevant domains, technologies and solution options- including trends, vendor choices & innovation concepts 
• Study, Understand and document current application Architectures, Implementations for the domains assigned. Create “as-is” vs “to-be” architecture and Gap Analysis documents 
•  Domain Research: Research various areas of media distribution such as streaming, satellite based delivery, content ingestion, processing and user experience. Be a subject matter expert in the assigned functional domain
• White Paper: Ability to author white papers similar to those available from Gartner. The content of a white paper shall provide useful information for business stakeholders and executives seeking to understand an issue; solve a problem or make a decision.
• Security Governance and Approval: Ability to work with Security and Governance board, experience in cloud security is a plus
• Generate Build vs. Buy decision matrix.
• Vendor Selection/Management: Participate in commercial-off-the-shelf product evaluation and selection
• Research emerging trends and technologies, Technology Roadmap and Technology Blueprint
• Best Practices: recommending best practices for application architects, development and test teams
• Review and provide guidance-consultation to Tech Leads, Implementation groups on the detailed design, implementation of the Blueprint Architecture for the Domain(s).

• Bachelor's degree (Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems or related field), Master's degree preferred

• 15+ years relevant experience with at least 5+ years as an Architect in a fast paced environment required, Experience working in a large corporate environment required.

• Demonstrated success in working with senior executives, product management, program management and ability to build and maintain trusted relationships with development teams, technical leads and application architects. 

• Leadership qualities, including ability to facilitate technical discussions with diverse and cross-functional groups, organizational and negotiation skills.

• Must possess a unique blend of business and technical savvy; a big-picture vision, and the drive to make management vision a reality.

• Experience in Business Systems Analysis, Requirements Elaboration, high-level architecture and detailed designs.

• Ability to consolidate complex existing Engineering environmental descriptions into an existing Enterprise Architecture for a current state architecture and the development of an ongoing future state Enterprise Architecture.

• Must possess a drive for excellence and a get-it-done attitude while being mindful of existing organizational knowledge and platforms.

• Experience with distributed media applications, video-on-demand and broadcast systems 

• Self-motivated with the ability to make solid technical decisions with minimal managerial direction.

• Ability to use models and architectural frameworks to identify relationships between business objectives, processes and technology capabilities. Expressing use cases, designs using UML is required.

• Ability to integrate Enterprise Architecture processes with other planning and operational processes.

• Ability to develop and deliver roadmaps that enhance operational efficiency and provide visionary guidance for business and technology portfolios.

• Understanding of software development methodologies and structured approaches to system development and ongoing maintenance of systems is required.

• Experience in developing Scalable Web Architecture and Distributed Systems is required

• Experience in open source and cloud technologies is required.

• Experience in big data architecture and technology is preferred.

• Experience in web services integration with platforms like web, smart phones, tablets is required. Set top box or over-the-top device experience is a plus.

• Business and Technology Consulting is a plus.

Experience

• Experience in Broadcast/broadband Television, Video-On-Demand, Pay Per View
• Understanding of video encoding, streaming and downloading on Internet
• Understanding of digital rights management
• Understanding of video content management
• Understanding of mobile technologies (mobile phones, tablets)
• Experience in identity management and industry standard frameworks such as OAuth, Open ID Connect, SAML etc.

This opportunity is a Long Term Contract