About NetSpend NetSpend Corporation is one of the leading providers of prepaid debit cards in the United States. A pioneer in the industry since its inception in 1999, NetSpend prepaid debit cards give financial freedom and convenience to the more than 100 million underbanked consumers in the United States. NetSpend is the only company in the prepaid debit industry to offer an end-to-end solution for consumers and merchants with a proprietary processing platform, card fulfillment, customer service and risk management capabilities. More information about the company can be found at http://www.netspend.com or by following the company on Facebook or Twitter.NetSpend offers a competitive compensation and benefits package including: Cafeteria-style group medical, dental, and vision care plans for employees, with dependent coverage also available 100% employer paid $100,000 Life Insurance policy 100% employer paid short-term and long-term disability coverage Up to a 4% company match on 401K contributions IRS Flex Spending Accounts Employer paid parking for all employees Golds Gym corporate membership discount Free NetSpend All-Access® card Free soft drinks and coffee in all break rooms Three weeks of paid time off, plus paid holidaysPosition DescriptionThe Application Architect provides strategic and tactical level technical leadership for Netspend in the application architecture arena. Applications may include both package and custom applications. The architect defines how the applications interact with each other, with databases, servers, and external systems to provide the complete functional solution to the business requirements. This role also defines the technology stack, development standards, and User Interface standards. The Application Architect is part of the software development group and works with the project managers, technical staff, partner, and vendors. This role develops and communicates the detailed technology architecture and implementation strategy for a solution to the development team, and provides practical plans to implement architectural changes. The Application Architect is expected to assess business needs, acquire product and business process knowledge, and use the information in every aspect to influence key technical decisions to deliver the best solution. Responsibilities Coordinate development activities on major projects; includes leading design teams, developing and maintaining core architectural constructs, providing architectural leadership to development teams, and serving as the primary application architect resource. Responsible for quality of the implemented solution and its adherence to standards, governance, and best practices. Assist with application business analysis, joint application design, and application prototyping sessions. Communicate critical technical choices, specify requirements and constraints for design and implementation, and scope the level of architectural effort for development projects. Interpret business analysis documentation, including use cases and user stories. Provide high level scoping for deliverables. Mentor junior development staff in NetSpend architectural design and objectives. Review design documents and specifications. Analyze application design and performance metrics and propose improvement and redesigns. Monitor third party software versions and release notes, and recommend upgrades and patches as necessary. Verify deployment strategies for new features and components, asserting rollout plans are safe, progressive, and reversible. Willing to contribute to the development cycle when necessary. Requirements BS in Computer Science or related degree required; MS in Computer Science a plus. 5+ years of enterprise-level programming experience in Java, especially business and model layers. 5+ years experience working as software application architect using Java and J2EE. Experience in architecture planning for financial services organizations. Experience in architecting open source technologies like Tomcat, Apache, Jboss, etc in heavy transaction environments. Expert at OOA, OOD, OOP, workflow, transaction lifecycles, and component models, software design patterns. Experience with component software development, including EJB 3.0. Experience with XML, XML Schema, and web services and SOA. Experience in Database architecture: Oracle 11g and MySql, Toplink or Hibernate. Experience in capacity planning and scalability. Experience with enterprise level data security and encryption. Ability to work in a team environment. Excellent organizational, oral and written communication skills. Ability to interact with all levels of the organization in a professional, diplomatic and tactful manner. Experience with UML modeling. Experience with Agile methodologies is a plus. Experience with Atalla is a plus. Experience with ESB, Rules engines, Business work flow is a plus. All eligible candidates must be able to meet NetSpends Background Check policy: able to pass drug test; no felonies and/or misdemeanors on criminal history; less than $4,000 in collections and/or charge-offs on credit check.