Omni Conversion Program Manager

6-12 month contract
Candidate must be able to travel between Quincy and Windsor CT.

OmniPlus experience will be viewed favorably.



Objective: Manage the overall project execution and 10 sub teams to convert an existing book of Retirement Plans from one recordkeeping platform to another.

• Both platforms have OmniPlus as the core recordkeeping engine, with different surrounding peripheral applications.

• Each sub-team will include business SMEs, Project Management and Business Analyst resources.

• Engagement: Immediately through 12/31/09


Responsible for the management of the following tasks:
o Pilot client strategy
o Customer upgrade timing
- Define global considerations / business rules
- Consider all interested parties (including commission recipients)
o New features to be offered (or takeaways) in the new environment
o Document / service agreement update
o Product level defaults

• Execution
o Coordinate and deliver external communication
o Coordinate and track new plan doc execution (if required)
o ID all SuperOmni parameters and corresponding legacy location
o Develop strategy to automate setup where cost effective
o Document manual process to establish non-automated parameters
o Build and test programs to build set-up parameters on an automated basis
o ID all SuperOmni data points and corresponding legacy location
o Develop strategy to convert where possible, and application impact if not possible
o Document manual process to establish non-automated parameters
o Define pre- and post-conversion data


Please contact Albert Barsoumian with qualified resumes via email at albert@collabstaff.com or via phone at 508-872-7402.

SQL Server Database Administrator - Permanent

Top tier investment firm in the financial district of Boston.

This is a full time, permanent position.

Department Profile:

The Database Administration and architecture team is responsible for supporting and architecture of a global SQL environment. Responsibilities would encompass day-to-day administration, daily maintenance and optimization tasks and assisting developers in the creation of new databases. The team also provides support to all vendor and packaged applications which use SQL server as a backend.

Overview:

Reporting to the Manager of Database and Architect, this senior level DBA would assist in providing world class support and leadership to our developers, application support and business teams.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Manage a production environment consisting of 300+ databases, and 30 production SQL Server’s, most of which are read-intensive databases with a large data load cycle while some are OLTP-based mission critical trading systems
- Spearhead the restructuring and management of the production level backup and restore processes
- Manage HA solutions such as MS Cluster Server, XOSoft, PolyServe, SQL Replication, etc
- Manage DR solutions such as Database Mirroring, Log Shipping, Double-Take GeoCluster, SQL Replication
- Assist in the development of a GDOC (Global Database Operations Center) where our systems will be continuously monitored via 3rd party products, in-house scripts and a operational dashboard
- Manage the database security models, both in-house developed as well as Windows Auth (AD) based security. Also develop policies to restrict over-privileging and enforce it
- Provide 24x7 support to all mission critical production level systems
- Develop custom scripts to automate various database management processes (e.g. programmatically searching for non-indexed tables)
- Leverage 3rd party tools (e.g. Red-Gate) or in-house developed tools to troubleshoot
- Safeguard our production systems by implementing the right security policies as well as managing the MS service pack/hotfix deployment process
- Assist in the migration of SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005 and/or 2008
- Assist in the database release management process, be the “gate-keeper” and ensure only QUALITY code is released into production
- Help troubleshoot performance problems using a variety of methods (tracing, query optimization review, error logs, etc)
- Assist in the build out of our SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 (SSAS) OLAP databases
- Provide development and production support for complex SSIS packages
- Architect and implement reports within SQL Server Reporting Services 2000/2005
- Define and maintain critical documentation including: Database Standards, Naming Conventions, Administrative Techniques, Troubleshooting Techniques, Processes, Rules and Regulations, Change Management, Best Practices, etc.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
- An average of 5-6+ years total IT experience
- An average of 4-5+ years Database Administration (Includes Development, QA experience)
- An average of 1-2+ years Systems / Network / Application Administration
- Knowledge of the financial industry is preferred



Please contact Albert Barsoumian with qualified resumes via email at albert@collabstaff.com or via phone at 508-872-7402.

Enterprise Architect

Client is a $110 billion investment management firm in Boston.

Reporting to the Infrastructure Leader, the Enterprise Architecture ensures the viability, interoperability and reliability of technology by translating business requirements and business strategy into effective Enterprise solutions. This individual is also responsible for articulating the architectural vision, conceptualizing and experimenting with alternative architectural approaches, validating the architecture against business requirements, guide and support IT solutions, design and mentor development teams on methodologies, processes and guidelines.


Primary Responsibilities:

• Demonstrated application of architecture strategies, standards, processes, and tools in their solution designs
• Design of high quality application architectures that meet their customers requirements and are consistent with enterprise architectural standards
• Increased re-use and reduced redundancy in applications and technology designs
• Supports the development of strategy, frameworks, best practices and patterns for the application architects.
• Ensures compliance with all architecture directions and standards through cross organization consulting in development efforts.
• Works with constituents and the architectures to gain consensus and establish application architecture standards, policies and directions.
• Support the definition and selection of enterprise tools, technologies and processes
• Ensure representation from the all stakeholders in the design of application solutions
• Act as an expert in application design and development
• Monitor adherence to company standards in application design, development, and testing
• Assist in aligning business strategy to IT strategy. Actively seek opportunities to leverage current IT solutions for new business offerings and services. Align IT solutions with business functions to improve flexibility, facilitate large scale reuse, and improve comprehensibility and visibility of IT’s value to the business.
• Assess, formulate, and communicate go forward information architecture and technology direction for company, collaborating with IT development teams and business sponsors.
• Review and approve project deliverables to ensure that they are architecturally sound and achieve as great a degree of fit with the desired architectures as possible.
• Aggressively identify enterprise IT solution/technology initiatives that are of value. Collaborate with other architects and teams in execution of the initiatives
• Facilitate the availability of relevant technologies and tools to development teams in a timely manner, subject to technology availability
• Facilitate cross team collaboration.

Must have the ability to contribute to future vision and strategy by conducting research and proof of concepts, maintaining a broad knowledge of new technical tools and trends, and envisioning how those tools could be used in improving the business processes

Mandatory requirements:
• 10+ years in an IT Solutions Architecture role with heavy emphasis in .Net / Java (ideally in Financial sector)
• 10+ years in IT, application design, development and maintenance (ideally in the Financial sector)
• 10+ years experience managing technical organizations
• 3+ years experience with offshore vendors

Skills:
• Translate business strategy into technical vision and strategy
• Excellent communication skills, written and verbal
• Understand what the teams want and need from architecture
• Help teams see the value of the architecture and understand how to use it successfully
• Strong understanding of architecture principles and frameworks
• Experience with application and Integration design methodologies, standards and best practices
• Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and business integration
• TIBCO, NetApps, or IBM MQ integration environments
• Experience with BI, EDWs, and DB environment
• Experience with security architecture
• Application Design, Development, and Testing – Software Life Cycle
• Management techniques and Tools for managing requirements, processes, and object versioning


Please contact Albert Barsoumian with qualified resumes via email at albert@collabstaff.com or via phone at 508-872-7402.

2 SQL DBAs - Contract to hire or Permanent

Client is a world leading Private Equity firm headquartered in Boston.

There are two roles. Candidate be hired direct permanent or in a contract to hire role.

DESCRIPTION:
The Database Administrator will be part of the Information Technology department. Under the guidance of the Infrastructure Manager you will operate and maintain back office technologies.

TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE:
• 5+ years experience with SQL Server. Knowledge of versions 2000/2005/2008
• SQL server installation, database upgrades, performance tuning, profiler, named instances, backup/restore
• Experience with Data Warehouse Technology including ETL Process (Configure and Troubleshooting)
• Understanding of Storage requirements as they relate to Database Servers (SAN,Raid Types and Configurations)


RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Provide consistent SQL Server installations for Dev/QA/UAT/Prod including related components and version upgrades. Adhere to company security policies and standards to provide db access to groups of users and to administrators
• Work with Production and Development Teams on all designs, build and architectures for newly formed environments
• Set up of standard backup, re-indexing, consistency checking jobs. Administer security for users and applications. Set up Database Mail, log shipping, Replication, Linked Servers, monitoring and adjusting available drive space, SQL jobs
• Work with Production and Development to troubleshoot all Database related issues
• Work with Production and Development to report against and optimize all Database activity to provide reliable and efficient environments
• Work with Infrastructure group and other DBA’s to help design, implement and test Disaster Recovery for all production Tier One Database Servers
• Work with Infrastructure Team to design, implement and build scalable, reliable and efficient hardware (Including Clustering) into production environments
• Work with Worldwide Teams to help monitor, troubleshoot and optimize international Databases.
• Adhere to company change control polity and processes by providing release of changes to production databases. Ensure that changes to database security adhere to company security policy
• Work with all teams on production rollouts of applications and system builds
• Maintaining patch levels and applying service packs
• Provide after hours support on roll outs, upgrades and Tier One Incidents
• Monitor production hardware utilization and make recommendations as needed to ensure systems are working optimally. Make hardware recommendations for new database servers
• Provide Production Backup and restore of files for UAT/QA/Dev

Please contact Albert Barsoumian with qualified resumes via email at albert@collabstaff.com or via phone at 508-872-7402.

CRM Business Analyst - Pivotal preferred

$105 billion asset management firm in Boston
Full time position

This is an experienced BA who is familiar with the web (internet,intranet) and CRM systems, preferably Pivotal.


Primary Responsibilities:
• Elicit the business community’s requirements for enhancing existing systems and creating new applications
• Work with the project manager to document the product’s vision and the project’s scope, analyzing systems and processes to identify gaps and opportunities
• Create detailed requirements documentation, including text, examples, workflows, and other diagrams where appropriate to facilitate understanding of the requirements
• Write requirements specifications according to standard templates, using natural language simply, clearly, unambiguously, and concisely
• Manage the requirements specifications, working as part of a team of in-house staff and outside consultants to confirm and implement the required changes
• Ensure that Quality Assurance test plans are executed before releasing product enhancements for User Acceptance Testing
• Facilitate the production release of new functionality and provide assistance in support of production issues
• Provide project managers with timely updates on the progress of assigned tasks
• Participate in high-level aspects of project budgeting

Mandatory Requirements:
• Undergraduate degree in technology discipline or equivalent experience
• 5+ years experience in an IT organization
• 3-5 years experience in a business analyst role, including experience writing business requirements documents and QA test plans
• 3+ years experience in the financial services industry, preferably in the asset management sector
• 2-3 years experience with database applications, software development, and implementation projects

Skills and Competencies:
• Extremely strong interpersonal, interviewing, and listening skills
• Proven ability to work directly with the business community, handle demanding user groups, and communicate with internal clients at all enterprise levels
• Analytical skills, including the ability to critically evaluate the information gathered from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high-level information into details, abstract up from low-level information to a more general understanding, and distinguish requests and solution ideas from requirements
• Writing skills, capability to communicate information effectively and provide quality documentation of processes, UML preferred
• Attention to process and procedures to comply with internal/external audits


Please contact Albert Barsoumian with qualified resumes via email at albert@collabstaff.com or via phone at 508-872-7402.

Performance Business Systems Analyst

$105 billion asset management firm in Boston
Full time position

This is a seasoned BA who has specialized knowledge of investment performance and analysis including experience in the areas of asset allocation; asset classes; absolute return strategies; and performance measurement, attribution, and evaluation.

This person will be the Subject Matter Expert for the new Global Performance Reporting System. New system development is currently in the early, early stages of requirements gathering/documentation.

Primary Responsibilities:
• Work with business users to develop and document business rules and requirements for performing investment performance analysis
• Elicit requirements using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, surveys, site visits, business process descriptions, use cases, scenarios, business analysis, task and workflow analysis.
• Critically evaluate information gathered from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high-level information into details, abstract up from low-level information to a general understanding, and distinguish user requests from the underlying true business needs.
• Utilize a broad-based knowledge of enterprise-wide requirements definition processes and methodologies to analyze information needs, business objectives, and requirements to document all project artifacts (such as Functional requirements, Business Rules, Use Cases, and Interface designs)
• Be the liaison between the business units, technology teams and support teams and serve as the conduit between the customer community (internal and external customers) and the software development team through which requirements flow.
• Collaborate with developers and subject matter experts to establish the technical vision and analyze tradeoffs that may be required to meet business needs.

Mandatory Requirements:
• Minimum of five years of investment-related experience in the financial services industry
• Specialized knowledge of investment performance and analysis including experience in the areas of asset allocation; asset classes; absolute return strategies; and performance measurement, attribution, and evaluation
• Strong analytical and product management skills required, including a thorough understanding of how to interpret customer business needs and translate them into application and operational requirements.

Desirable Requirements:
• Professional certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) or progress towards that certification is highly desirable
• A Certificate Investment in Investment Performance Management (CIPM) is very highly desirable

Skills and Competencies:
• Extremely strong interpersonal, interviewing, and listening skills
• Proven ability to work directly with the business community, handle demanding user groups, and communicate with internal clients at all enterprise levels
• Writing skills, capability to communicate information effectively and provide quality documentation of processes, UML preferred
• Organizational skills, strong attention to detail, ability to prioritize multiple tasks, handle diverse situations, set goals, and meet deadlines
• Attention to process and procedures to comply with internal/external audits



Please contact Albert Barsoumian with qualified resumes via email at albert@collabstaff.com or via phone at 508-872-7402.