Reporting to the Associate Director of Research Administration and Compliance Solutions, the Senior Software Engineer/ Architect serves as the primary architectural authority for the Grants Management Application Suite (GMAS), accountable for its long-term technical strategy, architectural integrity, scalability, and sustainability, Harvard’s enterprise system of record for sponsored programs. While focused on GMAS, this team member will also advise and execute projects in other areas across the IT portfolio. This role leads comprehensive development efforts for highly complex, large-scale, multi-faceted enterprise applications. The position delivers strategic and expert technical leadership, defines overarching development strategy, and partners with IT leadership to shape the long-term application portfolio roadmap. Define and drive the long-term architectural vision and technical roadmap for GMAS and related research administration systems. Provide strategic technical oversight and architectural guidance, while remaining capable of hands-on contribution when necessary. Lead development of technical solutions for highly complex business requirements. Guide modernization, scalability, performance optimization, and integration strategy. Ensure alignment of system architecture with University-wide IT standards while influencing enterprise architectural direction through participation in governance and review boards. Evaluate emerging technologies and make strategic recommendations for adoption. Accountable for architectural governance, resolution of complex cross-system design challenges, and mitigation of systemic technical risk across the application portfolio. Lead cross-functional development initiatives spanning multiple modules or systems. Oversee multiple concurrent technical initiatives of significant scope and complexity. Ensure delivery of high-quality, secure, scalable enterprise applications. Champion engineering excellence, DevOps maturity, and continuous improvement practices. Collaborate closely with business analysts, QA, security, infrastructure, and other enterprise teams. Represent application architecture in University-wide forums and cross-functional governance groups. Mentor senior and junior developers; elevate engineering standards across the team. Lead design reviews and architectural governance discussions. Provide architectural oversight for production release planning and complex deployment activities. Support complex production deployments as needed. Participate in rotating on-call support for research administration systems. Promote adherence to Harvard IT technical standards, policies, and Code of Conduct. Qualifications. Basic Qualifications:Basic Qualifications are the minimum threshold a candidate must meet in order to be considered for this role. Minimum of seven years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience. Additional Qualifications and Skills: Required Technical Expertise:Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field — or equivalent practical experience. Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in enterprise application development and architecture, including demonstrated leadership in defining enterprise technical strategy. Demonstrated highly specialized expertise in Java/ JEE enterprise architecture. Proven experience leading development for large-scale, complex, multi-tier enterprise systems. Experience contributing to long-term strategic planning and technical roadmap development. Demonstrated ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on technical levels. Strong systems-thinking mindset with focus on long-term sustainability. Proven ability to influence technical direction beyond immediate project teams. Experience working in Agile and DevOps environments. Commitment to continuous learning and technical innovation. Java/ JEE (7 years): JSP, Servlets, JDBC, JMS, JSF (Prime. Faces), Spring Framework. Enterprise Architecture & Multi-tier application design. REST and SOAP Web Services; API design and governance (Apigee preferred). Hibernate, SQL, PL/ SQL, Oracle data modeling. Integration architecture and service-oriented design. CI/ CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI). Git-based source control. Application servers: Web. Logic, Tomcat. Linux/ Unix environments. XML schema development and validation.