European Patent Office

The Hague/Munich | Posted: 5 years ago

The European Patent Office With almost 7 000 employees, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Its headquarters are in Munich and it also has offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna. The EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching. In 2017, the EPO received over 165 000 patent applications and granted over 105 000 patents. Its free online patent database, Espacenet, contains more than 100 million technical documents from 100 countries, and its free neural machine translation service, Patent Translate, provides instant, high-quality translation in 32 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian.

The European Patent Office (EPO) is looking for senior solution architects in Principal Directorate Information Management (PD IM) to support stakeholders and internal customers.

PD IM has some 400 permanent staff, as well as a number of managed service providers, working on IT and information processing, with a professional and proactive focus on supporting the EPO's different business processes.

The EPO is about to embark on an extensive digital transformation programme that will involve seamlessly replacing legacy applications and costly mainframes with modern technologies covering the entire patent granting process. Continuous integration tools and cloud-native technologies have the potential to make the software development process faster and more efficient, but require sound reference architecture in order to be able to deliver these benefits.

As senior solution architect, you will be charged with strengthening PD IM's capabilities, specifically supporting the implementation of a modern reference architecture based on open standards and lightweight technologies.

You will be responsible for defining the reference architecture for a new CI/CD environment based on open standards and cloud-native architectures (containers, micro-services).

You will also be responsible for conducting research on existing systems and devising solutions that work within those systems. You may also interact direct with IM management to demonstrate solutions, answer questions regarding software capabilities and requirements, and work to resolve issues arising during the development cycle.

This role requires excellent attention to detail, as the solution architect frequently needs to examine functional specifications and translate them into system guidelines that shape project development, as well as find ways to align projects with the enterprise-level architecture.

Located in The Hague or in Munich, you will report direct to the Deputy CIO.

Your main responsibilities as senior solution architect in IM – Providing strategic input for technology investments to develop the reference architecture and maximise the return on investment – Within the agreed reference architecture, defining and designing technology solutions to help stakeholders and internal customers meet their objectives – Developing, testing and implementing technology solutions and reporting on delivery commitments to ensure that solutions are implemented as expected and within agreed time frames – Establishing life-cycle management for solutions based on the agreed reference architecture – Designing automated solutions and tools to monitor and support software development and release processes (including quality and performance testing) – Resolving and providing solutions to issues raised by different teams and affecting the technological landscape – Evaluating options for new IT solutions and services – Incorporating requirements and features in technical solution designs – Designing and improving CI/CD tools, processes and procedures – Working closely with the development and quality teams to ensure end-to-end quality – Co-ordinating tasks with the infrastructure team in charge of maintaining the CI/CD environment

What we expect from you – Relevant professional experience in similar positions in industry, the public sector or an international organisation of comparable size – Several years' experience working with multiple software development teams internationally and the ability to address issues and improve quality – Analytical and conceptual skills – Ability to prepare clear and comprehensive input for senior management decisions – Strong communication skills, fostering transparency and clear understanding – Ability to manage the effects on technical infrastructure layers such as networks and the impact on security – A track record with agile methodologies in project contexts – Excellent knowledge of cloud-native architectures (Kubernetes, Docker, container tools) – Excellent knowledge of SVN, Git – Excellent knowledge of Linux systems and scripting – Solid engineering experience of continuous integration, deployment and operations concepts – Knowledge and previous experience with Java is essential – Knowledge and practical experience managing IT tools that support the management of IP rights would be a plus – Knowledge of big data and AI tools and techniques would be a plus

Your qualifications – Diploma of completed studies at master's level or ‑ in exceptional cases ‑ equivalent professional experience. – Generally, an excellent knowledge (at least C1) of one official language (English, French and German) and ability to understand the other two. In exceptional cases, excellent knowledge (at least C1) of one official language and working knowledge (at least B2) of another. In such cases, the willingness to learn the third language and to reach level B2 within three years would be required. – Citizenship of one of the member states of the European Patent Organisation.

Time frame It is intended to hold the interviews in week 8, in The Hague.

Job group: 4; Grade: G7-10 (net (basic) monthly salary* for this vacancy: EUR 5 680 to 8 050, depending on experience); Duration of appointment: five years; Career path: Technical; Location: The Hague/Munich; Application deadline: 01.02.2019;

• after deduction of EPO internal tax and before deduction of staff contributions to the social-security and pension schemes. The salary level depends on experience.

To foster gender diversity, EPO encourages applications from female candidates. The EPO is an equal opportunities employer and supports workforce diversity as a signatory to the Diversity Charter (Charta der Vielfalt) since 2010. All applications for vacant positions will be welcomed and considered on the professional merits of the applicant against the role profile for the position regardless of nationality, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, parental responsibilities, age, religion or belief.