Domain architect Education

Would you like to contribute to innovative and agile education for students and teachers, and thus contribute to the future of education? Then we have the perfect challenge for you! We are looking for an education domain architect. In this position, you will design the architecture of a new platform for agile organised education. Does this appeal to you? Then we would love to hear from you!

Where you will work

The National Growth Fund programme Npuls is an eight-year programme designed to improve the quality of our education. Npuls works closely with SURF, the ICT cooperative of Dutch education and research institutions. Npuls sets the strategic direction for the future of education, while SURF provides the technological infrastructure and innovative ICT solutions to achieve the strategic goals. As a domain architect, you make an important contribution.

The team you will join

You will be working in the Architecture & Interoperability team. Within the new Accessible and Open Education & Research unit, this team is responsible for the architecture in this entire domain. In your role, it is particularly important to work closely with the Flexible Education team. This multidisciplinary team develops and manages services that enable educational institutions to organise their education in a more agile way. This gives learners more control over their own learning path. Together with your colleagues and experts from educational institutions, you will create a coherent service portfolio. The team's activities are linked to developments within Npuls, which has agile education and barrier-free learning as its key pillars.

Working at SURF means working for a unique and open organisation. This is evident in everything: the structure of the organisation, the set-up 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.

What you will do

You will be building the digital environments of the future. You will do this within SURF, together with the (technical) product managers of the Flexible Education team, and from Npuls with colleagues from chain partners such as Studielink. You will bring together information from various stakeholders to form a coherent whole, which will form the basis for the education domain architecture, and you will feel ownership of this. The first platform you will be working on is a sector facility for applying, registering and enrolling in education and educational units.

What else will you be involved in

• You translate the needs of educational institutions in further education into solutions within the educational platforms.
• You are the link between the enterprise architect, technical product managers, suppliers, developers and educational institutions, and you participate in national working groups and consultations on architecture.
• You implement architectural principles of SURF and the education sectors and contribute to their further development.
• You assist in the development of standards for data exchange in educational processes and advise colleagues on how to apply them.
• You contribute ideas to the strategy and long-term visions of projects and programmes.
• You actively seek coherence in the agile education service portfolio and involve the relevant stakeholders both within and outside SURF.

Your skills and experience

• You are enthusiastic about topics related to education and flexibility.
• You have technical and tactical insight, combined with a pragmatic attitude.
• You are a good communicator, a good listener and you get people on board, thereby ensuring that solutions are widely supported.
• You enjoy working with others and you easily establish links between different areas of expertise, education sectors, parts of SURF and Npuls, and developments at educational institutions. You work at an academic level and have at least 5 years of relevant work experience.
• You have a thorough understanding and knowledge of architectural issues and ICT strategies, developments and their significance for universities, colleges and vocational education institutions.
• You have knowledge of and experience with privacy-by-design and security-by-design.
• You express yourself effortlessly in both Dutch and English (SURF has a bilingual policy).
• Knowledge of, experience with or a network at educational institutions and national reference architectures, such as the Education Reference Architectures (HORA & MORA) or the Education Sector Architectures (HOSA & MOSA), is an advantage.
• It is an advantage if you have experience with Archimate.

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