Technical Lead

Would you like to help shape the technical development of a platform that is used every day to deliver digital products and services to end users? Are you interested in bringing architecture, software development, and product development together? And do you thrive in an environment where existing technology is evolved into more generic, reusable, and scalable solutions? If so, we’re looking for you.

Where you will work

SURF is the ICT cooperative for Dutch educational and research institutions. Together with them, we work on digital services and complex innovation challenges to enhance the quality of education and research.

Working at SURF means working for a unique and open organization. This is evident in everything: the structure of the organization, the setup of the project teams, the culture in our offices, and the atmosphere among colleagues. SURF offers excellent terms of employment and a flexible approach to work/life balance. Employees enjoy working independently. In addition, everyone is given the space and freedom to use and develop their talents as effectively and broadly as possible.

The team you will join

You’ll be working in the Procurement & Delivery department, as part of the SURFspot team.

Within the SURFspot team, we ensure that digital products and services are made available to students, staff, and other end users. The team is responsible for both the day-to-day operations and the ongoing development of the platform, its integrations, and the related services.

SURFspot is rapidly evolving. While the platform was traditionally used primarily as a web store, we are increasingly developing generic capabilities in areas such as product and catalog data, rights, pricing, target audiences, integrations, delivery, and support.

In doing so, we’re not only looking at what SURFspot needs today, but also at how existing technology and functionality can be deployed more broadly and reused. You’ll work closely with the Senior Product Manager, Engineers, Operations, Vendors, Architects, and other teams within SURF.

The coming period will be focused on further technical professionalization and transformation. That is why we are looking for a Technical Lead / Architect who can provide direction for technical development while remaining closely involved in its implementation.

What you will do

As Technical Lead / Architect, you are responsible for the technical direction, architecture, and technical quality of the platform and the associated services.
Together with the Senior Product Manager, you translate product goals and the roadmap into technically feasible, secure, manageable, and reusable solutions.

Your responsibilities include:

• Designing, documenting, and monitoring the target architecture;
  translating product goals and capabilities into technically feasible solutions;
• Working with the Senior Product Manager to determine which functionality will be implemented within Magento, outside of Magento, or in a hybrid architecture;
• Ensuring that new business logic is developed in the correct place within the architecture;
• Establishing and monitoring architectural principles and technical standards for APIs, integrations, data, security, logging, monitoring, error handling, and management;
• Ensuring that new solutions are developed to be generic and reusable wherever possible;
• Preventing the creation of unnecessary technical silos and dependencies;
• Assessing the technical feasibility, risks, and dependencies of roadmap items;
• Conducting architecture, solution, and code reviews;
• Monitoring the technical quality and production readiness of releases;
• Actively contributing to complex or strategic technical capabilities;
• Organizing technical documentation and knowledge transfer.

An important part of your role is mentoring and coaching a Junior Engineer. You’ll provide support in the design, development, testing, deployment, and implementation of software. In addition, you’ll help the Junior Engineer further develop their skills in Git, CI/CD, secure development, monitoring, and technical documentation. Together, you’ll determine which tasks can be handled independently and where additional guidance or technical review is needed.

During the current transformation phase, you will also temporarily take on a project leadership role. You will translate the target architecture into concrete phases, epics, capabilities, and releases. In doing so, you will monitor the technical planning, dependencies, risks, and progress. You will also organize and oversee activities such as discovery, refinement, technical reviews, and go/no-go decisions.

You’ll keep the Business Owner informed of technical progress, risks, and dependencies. As the transformation progresses, you’ll work toward a situation where less day-to-day project and development management is required. The structural focus of your role lies on architecture, technical quality, technical management, and coaching developers.

Your skills and experience

Must have

• Bachelor’s or Master’s level of working and thinking.
• Experience with software development, technical architecture, or technical leadership.
• Experience with APIs, integrations, and modern application architectures.
• Knowledge of designing secure, scalable, and manageable solutions.
• Knowledge of security, logging, monitoring, and operational management.
• Experience coaching and mentoring developers.
• The ability to clearly explain technical issues to non-technical stakeholders.
• The ability to balance speed, quality, technical debt, and future-proofing.

Nice to have

• Experience with Git, CI/CD (Magento), and automated testing.
• Experience with architecture, solution, and code reviews.
• Experience with Magento 2, e-commerce platforms, IAM, entitlement systems, vendor integrations, or platform transformations.
• Experience with programming languages such as PHP, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, or Java

Prior to starting this job, a VOG must be presented.

SURF takes pleasure in doing its recruitment itself; acquisition is therefore not appreciated.