Ascentium is a nationally managed, Microsoft Gold Partner with nearly 600 employees and offices in Bellevue, Spokane, Portland, Los Angeles, Baltimore and the UK. We have an integrated digital marketing and technology approach that separates us from most of the typical Microsoft Partner crowd. Our technology emphasis is on Portals and Collaboration, BI and CRM. We are Microsoft’s largest CRM Partner on the planet, Partner of the Year in Portals and Collaboration and our intent is to grow the same level of capability in our BI practice. Our business focuses on technology and marketing to help the operations, marketing and sales organizations inside companies work together to grow.

About the Job

A SharePoint Architect with 4-7 years of relevant experience on Microsoft platform is needed to help lead our technology team in the Bellevue office. Must provide thought leadership on best practices for architectural design, understand the Microsoft SharePoint solution stack, and have a thorough understanding of enterprise application integration involving Business Process and Forms, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, CRM, Enterprise Content Management, and Portals. This person will lead architecture and design reviews for all SharePoint projects that focus on planning, deploying, and targeting new or significant modifications of existing enterprise SharePoint implementations. Must provide individual or project support for complex projects or applications, adhere to project timelines and technical deliverables within different client environments; and analyze and provide quality technical solutions that exceed client expectations.

The SharePoint Architect will play a central role in the complete solution lifecycle from presales efforts and responding to RFP’s to designing the solution and envisioning follow up work to implementation and deployment into production systems. The implementation role will include software architecture, development, customization, integration as well as technical project management for various teams and ultimate responsibility for the technical deliverables of a project. This role requires a proven technical skill set that has been demonstrated in the development of enterprise Line of Business applications and their integration into heterogeneous enterprise systems.

Engagements will vary and will involve providing expert consultancy, mentoring, formulating SharePoint strategies and policies and acting as a “trusted advisor” to customers and internal teams on MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0, and Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007. Sound sense of business workflows and technical strategy required. Ability to work with or in parallel with multiple development teams consisting of several technical consultants, or large-scale projects is also imperative. Strong interpersonal skills, as well as solid strategic thinking, are key.

The ideal candidate will be capable of envisioning the solution based on the early client requirements, communicating the vision to both technical and business stakeholders, leading small to medium sized geographically dispersed teams through implementation, as well as mentoring and hands-on software development. The ideal candidate would demonstrate successful use of agile software development methods and enterprise application patterns on prior projects in addition to effective leadership skills.

To do this job successfully you must have an in-depth understanding of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0), SharePoint Designer 2007. In this region, projects range from helping clients drive demand for their products and services through creative and marketing solutions to improving internal productivity and efficiencies through portal and collaboration solutions built on SharePoint. This includes strategic technology roadmap planning and development for many clients to implement the recommendations utilizing the SharePoint Solutions Frameworks.

Our Minimum Bar

It is very hard to be hired at Ascentium, but once hired, people never leave here. We have the lowest voluntary attrition in the industry. We do this by only hiring the best, most customer-centric, devoted people we can find. So, for this position we have a minimum bar:

• Consulting background. You must have a natural talent for consulting with a demonstrated ability to find solutions that make a significant business difference. We need an expert in not just the technology, but the business itself.
• Demonstrable expert in SharePoint and related Microsoft technologies.
• 4 year degree
• Hands on ability. Someone who values working directly with a small team of very talented and independent thinking developers, information architects, project managers, analysts, testers and designers. While writing code is not part of the daily job description, demonstrated capability and experience in Microsoft .NET Technologies (ASP.NET 2.0/3.0, C#, XML, IIS, BizTalk Server, CRM, Analysis Services, PerformancePoint, SQL Server, etc.) is essential to the well-rounded candidate and within the role of a technology leader at Ascentium.
• SharePoint TS or MCSD certifications a plus

What We Look For

• Very smart, witty, funny and competitive people
• People who want to bring their friends to work here as well
• People who will fit in with a small team culture and who want to build a business
• People who can problem solve
• People who like making customers happy and can develop relationships with customers
• People who can write clear proposals that address business value
• People with stable and reliable work histories
• People who can work self-directed
• People with a life outside of work

More About Working at Ascentium

Careers

Ascentium is a career company that is owned by Partners, and we view nearly every person we hire as a potential Partner and stockholder. We try to advance everyone's career, sometimes even faster than they want us to. We have the lowest turnover rate in our industry, which is effectively zero. We work very hard at times when it's necessary, but we discourage long work weeks, and we actively try to find people with families who want to have a personal balance in their lives, and who don't want a lot of travel.

Culture

The company culture has been described as one of 'smart, hip, social, hard-working, upwardly mobile, confident, competitive, entrepreneurial, urbanites'. This was probably a bit of an exaggeration, because we have a large number of family people who are very senior, very knowledgeable and not all that hip. We also have a lot of very quiet programmers who talk about computer games. But there is some truth to it. There is a lot of energy here.

Relocation

We will happily relocate top people. It is our charter to have a percentage of the company come from outside the region so that we're constantly adding new people and ideas to our company and our customers.

Contact Us

Our recruiting division is responsible for helping the best people find out about what a great career they can have at Ascentium. If you think your background is suitable and you’re very smart, a great person to work with, and can inspire our clients, then send your resume and work samples to careers@ascentium.com. We’ll do our best to find you a place here.