Software Architect

About Nearfield InstrumentsNearfield Instruments (NFI) is a fast-growing scale-up high-tech company. We design, develop, integrate, market and service advanced metrology machines. Our machines enable our customers - the world’s leading chipmakers – to increase the production yields, and thus, functionality of their microchips, which in turn leads to smaller, more powerful consumer electronics.Where you will be working?Within our Design & Engineering department this role is part of the Software Group. The SW Group consists of roughly 40 engineers within several teams working on the areas of Machine Control, Device Control, Integration and Data Science. Our technology stack is based on C# and Python but our true passion lies making customer solutions. Here are the different aspects of our stack:Machine Control: business logic, UI and semiconductor-foundry communication logic of our machines, giving commands to device control.Device Control: governing the motion and measurement aspects of our machine in close collaboration with mechatronics engineers in cross disciplinary teams.Data Science: Converting signals into images into KPI’s for our customers.Integration: Making sure individually tested components work together and with our machine.Further, there are cross-cutting concerns of customer integrations, cybersecurity, computation, requirement gathering and AI where architects play a crucial role.What will you be doing?You will take a responsible for the architecture, design, and lifecycle management of one of the aspects above, while taking the lead in one of the cross-cutting concerns. At the same time, you will have a deep understanding of our domain, our machine and use this to perform requirement-analysis and come up with MVP-proposal so that we can truly be agile.Your responsibilities include:Collecting requirements from (Internal) Customers and translate product requirements to SW level requirements for large projectsMaking a high-level architecture and design to fulfill both SW level requirements and product requirementsLeading the development of multiple features along with a handful of other developersTroubleshooting technical issues that involve software development, engineering tasks and product releasesDriving software quality and reliability through structured testing strategies, validation, and continuous improvementProactively identifying system-level risks and resolving complex technical issuesLeading and supporting the integration of multi-disciplinary subsystemsActing as a mentor and escalation point for senior software engineersWhile software architecture is mostly a post-developer role, you are expected to stay hands-on and enjoy locking yourself in and turning your brilliant ideas in to production code. That said, we don’t care what language you have developed in as long as its modern.Why is this position interesting for you?You take ownership of complex technical systems and make architectural decisionsYou are recognized as a subject matter expert within the organizationYou work on high-performance mechatronic systems using advanced technologiesYou operate in an environment where engineering excellence and autonomy are valuedJob requirementsAs a scaleup, we can provide phenomenal learning and development opportunities but can also be a hectic environment at times. You should understand agile quite well. You embrace the culture and keep working on following aspects such as customer collaboration, Individuals and interaction, responding to change over following a structured plan, prototyping/working solutions over comprehensive documentation.Education: Master’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Physics or ElectronicsAbove 10 years of experience in software developmentAbove 7 years of experience in software architecture and designExperience with modern software development practices, languages and tools (git, CI/CD, automated testing, JIRA, C#, Python, PlantUML and use of LLMs)Outstanding communication skills: You can describe a complex technical topic in 2 sentences to a non-software personAbove 7 years of experience with precision equipment or semiconductor industryCoaching ability, as a technical advisor, you make sure that the team stays up-to-date with relevant knowledgeAbility to influence other lead engineers, managers and teams in the organization and convince them of your technical vision and direction