Intermediate ESB Developer

The purpose of the Intermediate ESB Developer:

To develop message definition and implement these messages for a service orientated architecture on IBM MQ Series Messaging Tools including IBM WebSphere (WMQ), IBM Integration Bus (IIB/ IBM App Connect (ACE) and IBM Message File transfer (MFT). Firm understanding of SOA technologies and standards including Flat Files XML, XSD, WSDL, SOAP, SOAP/JMS as well as an understanding and experience in integrating applications using various protocols from Flat file transfer (FTP), Web services, API integration, Database integration, Queue based integration. The work contains a portion of support and refactoring of existing code as well as new development (extend it for new functionality) and adding of extra integration points.

Responsibilities/Tasks:

• Support existing and develop new functionality and components.
• Understand existing product and domain elements and work with business analysts to refine and implement new requirements.
• Refactor and improve the code to keep the product maintainable and adaptable to new requirements.
• Work effectively in a team environment and follow/develop product software development processes and standards.
• Evaluate and improve application performance, and high availability features.
• Create unit and integrated system tests to show that the developed functionality works as intended.
• Create technical documentation that explains how the various components of the system work and how to use them.
• Do root cause analysis on bugs to find and fix the cause of a problem in an integrated system.
• Build and deploy the system on an application server.
• Create and execute functional test scenarios (dev testing).
• Incorporate the work done by other developers and do whatever is necessary to get the system to work again with the changes, including debugging other people’s code, making changes to test data, etc.

Minimum Requirements:

• Relevant tertiary qualification in Information Technology or Computer/Engineering Sciences and/ or at least 4+ years relevant experience as a developer as part of a team in a software development environment
• A strong knowledge of MQ Message and IBM MQ Series development toolsets is essential.
• 2-3 years relevant experience in integration development as part of a team in a software development environment within a team.
• Experience in scripting languages is preferred (e.g., JavaScript, Angular, React)
• Ability to work in a team environment: Follow mentorship/provide team leader mentorship, collaborate on a common (UML) design model.
• A good understanding of the SDLC process, tools and techniques specifically as applied to software development methodology.

Skills and Knowledge requirements:

• Firm understanding and experience in implementing Object Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts.
• Firm understanding and experience in performing systems analysis.
• Firm understanding and experience with message formats & protocols
• Firm understanding and experience in incorporating best practices and patterns in defining integration designs:
  • Identifying end-to-end integration and data requirements from business requirement specifications
  • Applying OOP principles to integration requirements to effectively identify, define and reuse services
  • Determining when to use what integration mechanism, protocol, and message format
  • Understanding what patterns are available for integrating applications and when to use which pattern
  • Identifying and obtaining the non-functional requirements for the detailed integration design
• Firm understanding and experience in integrating applications using integration middleware
  • Understanding the components of an ESB and best practices for its usage
  • Effectively using an ESB to mediate integration between applications using disparate hardware platforms, operating systems, programming languages, databases, and protocols
  • Application and ESB responsibilities in an enterprise integration solution
  • Optimizing integration designs to provide for non-functional requirements (performance, throughput, etc.)
  • ESB integration patterns and when to use which pattern
• Firm understanding of and experience in implementing SOA
  • Understanding the business objectives of SOA and the value it can bring to an organization
  • Understanding the SOA lifecycle from service identification to decommissioning
  • Experience in producing SOA deliverables including SOA roadmaps, SOA reference architectures, service contracts, etc.
  • Understanding the differences between a service based SDLC versus a traditional SDLC and executing accordingly
  • Understanding and defining service orchestration requirements and designs
• Firm understanding and experience in implementing XML technologies
  • Defining canonical message models and translating into XML schema definitions
  • Defining XML schema definitions and WSDLs to serve as the basis of the service contract and messaging between applications
  • Working with and introducing different XML based standards including SOAP, ebXML, XBRL, XSLT, etc.
  • Defining mappings between disparate message/schema formats
• Delivery/creation of key integration artefacts
• Inclusive of XSD, schemas, mapping documents, logical integration designs, and technical integration designs for integrated solutions.
• Experience of the following technologies and toolsets:
  • IBM Websphere MQ (WMQ)
  • IBM Integration Bus (IIB) / IBM AppConnect (ACE)
  • IBM Message File Transfer (MFT)
• Ability to deliver production quality software by e.g., paying attention to detail, do extensive unit testing and support quality testing phases.
• Knowledge and experience of the following toolsets:
  • Visual Studio
  • SOAP/REST Services
  • SQL Server Management Studio 2012 upwards