When you are looking to hire a senior staff member, you want all the best candidates to apply. This is especially true in the software industry, where the vast majority of programmers are young and only have a few years of experience. But if your job description fails to hold an applicant’s attention, it’s unlikely that your ideal candidates will even apply.
Because of this, it’s essential that your senior staff software architect job description is interesting enough to hold a reader’s attention, but at the same time informative enough that they will be interested in the job. To master this balance, you’ll need to write a candidate-centered job description that gives a concise overview of what your company has to offer a new employee.
Before you get started, take a look at at a sample senior staff software architect job description template and the following tips.
Senior Staff Software Architect Job Description Template
Job Summary:
As our new Senior Staff Software Architect, you will lead the software architecture design and development of a minimally-invasive flexible surgical robotic platform. This position is a hands-on role for an early-stage medical device company. With strategic development responsibility, you will decide which development tools, platform, and infrastructure will be used for the robotic system. It is imperative that you ensure that software designs are correct, efficient, safe, robust, and ready for regulatory review. You will apply advanced knowledge and expertise to overall software requirements while developing subsystem requirements, architecture, and designs. You will report to the VP of software development.
Job Skills & Qualifications:
Required:
- 7-10+ years of SW architecture and development experience, from concept to production.
- Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or Computer Science
- Experience building software platform from the ground-up, creating standards, guidelines, and development methods.
- Experience leading a complex software program with multiple simultaneous projects
- Master’s Degree in Engineering or Computer Science
- PhD in Engineering or Computer Science
Preferred:
What to Include in a Winning Senior Staff Software Architect Job Description
Now that you’ve reviewed the senior staff software architect job description template, it’s time to learn how to write your own winning job description. A great job description is easy to read and contains four main parts:
Job Summary: In this section, you want to draw your reader in with a brief, intriguing outline of their job. To keep your reader interested in learning more, it’s important that you start with a broad description here and don’t go into the nitty-gritty of their responsibilities quite yet.
Duties & Responsibilities: The next thing your applicant will want to know is his daily responsibilities at your company. In this section, include what specific projects he will be working on, who he will report to, and what deliverables he is responsible for producing.
Skills: The skills section needs to include two parts: required skills and recommended skills. Required skills are must-haves that will disqualify any candidate who lacks even just one. For a software architect, this could include work experience or a bachelor’s degree. Recommended skills, on the other hand, aren’t absolutely necessary but they boost an application. For example, software architects commonly have graduate degrees, even though they aren’t necessarily required.
Company Overview: This section is where your company shines. Provide information about what makes your company so great to work for, including any awards won, benefits offered, or expansion planned. Most senior staff software architects will read through many job descriptions, some from your competitors, so make sure that this section portrays your company as the best place to work.
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Senior Staff Software Architect Job Description Writing Do’s & Don’ts
- Do specify which programming languages and IDEs your applicant needs to be familiar with. This ensures that all candidates have experience in the correct concentration.
- Don’t include every responsibility that your software architect will be accountable for. Since senior staff members generally balance a lot of responsibilities, the list would be too long and would quickly lose your applicant’s attention.
- Do take your time and double check your spelling and grammar. An experienced developer won’t respond well to a company that seems unprofessional.
- Don’t fill your job description with buzz words or clichés. Most software engineers are type-A thinkers who don’t see value in added fluff.
- Do focus on the candidate and emphasize what benefits your company provides.
- Don’t oversimplify the language in your job description; software professionals will understand. Notice how the senior staff software architect job description template includes advanced terminology and industry-specific jargon.