Telecommunications Architect

Job Description

Job Description

Summary

The Telecommunications Architect designs, engineers and supports Great HealthWorks' voice and contact center technology end to end. The role carries two equally weighted areas of ownership: the Company's self-hosted open-source voice platform built on Kazoo, FreeSWITCH and Kamailio across a Linux server estate; and the NICE InContact (CXone) cloud contact center, including script design and tier-3 support. A third core responsibility bridges the two: managing and maintaining the API integrations that connect the voice platform, the contact center, the Omilia speech IVR and the in-house GHW-Pay SMS application into a single customer experience. This is an architect-level position as much as an engineering one. Given the age of the current voice platform, the incumbent is expected to assess it, define a modern target state, and lead its redesign or rebuild. The Architect sets technical standards across the communications estate and provides technical direction to the telecom administrator and the contact center managed services partner, without direct reports. Clear, current technical documentation is a required deliverable of the role, not an afterthought.

Key Responsibilities 

Voice Platform and Infrastructure: Open Source

• Own the architecture of the Company's voice platform. Assess the current Kazoo (2600Hz), FreeSWITCH, Kamailio, RabbitMQ, BigCouch/CouchDB and HAProxy environment, define a modern target state, and design the rebuild where platform age, supportability or business need requires it
• Lead the technical design, build, migration and cutover of voice platform modernization projects, including proof of concept, capacity and resiliency planning, testing strategy and rollback planning
• Administer, patch and upgrade the voice platform and its supporting application components, partnering with the Network Operations team, who own server operating system lifecycle, patching and hardening
• Author, test and troubleshoot FreeSWITCH XML dialplans, Sofia SIP profiles and gateways, and Kamailio routing configuration
• Operate the Erlang/OTP services underpinning the platform (Kazoo, RabbitMQ, BigCouch), including node and cluster health, distribution and service recovery
• Maintain IP phone provisioning infrastructure, device configuration templates and firmware distribution
• Create IVR and auto-attendant call routes and perform IVR development on the open-source voice platform

Contact Center Platform: NICE InContact (CXone)

• Design, configure and implement contact center solutions and scripts in NICE InContact (CXone) Studio, including routing logic, queues, skills, prompts, data dips, agent states and disposition handling
• Build and maintain callback, overflow, after-hours and holiday routing, points of contact, and business hours profiles
• Provide tier-3 support, root-cause analysis and resolution for contact center issues escalated by the telecom administrator or managed services partner
• Build and maintain contact center reporting, historical data extracts and dashboards for business stakeholders
• Manage contact center release, feature and configuration changes, including regression testing prior to production release
• Support the Omilia speech IVR (sIVR) fronting NICE InContact, including call and data hand-off and fault isolation across the Omilia-to-NICE boundary

Integrations and APIs

• Manage and maintain the REST API integrations between the contact center, the voice platform, the Omilia speech IVR and the in-house GHW-Pay SMS application
• Maintain automation and integration scripts in Python and Bash, version controlled in Git with GitLab CI pipelines
• Manage and support authentication, webhooks, callbacks, retry logic and error handling across integrated platforms
• Partner with the AppDev team on interface contracts, change coordination and defect triage for the internally built GHW-Pay application
• Trace a customer interaction end to end across the speech IVR, contact center routing, agent desktop, call detail records and SMS confirmation, and identify and resolve the point of failure

Documentation, Monitoring and Change Management

• Produce and maintain current architecture documentation, call flow and network diagrams, configuration standards and operational runbooks for every supported platform; documentation is a required deliverable of each change and project
• Maintain and update voice portals for carriers including call routes for DIDs and 8XX, number porting and SIP trunk turn-up
• Configure alerts and monitoring for telephony systems, applications and services, and monitor QoS, jitter, packet loss, dropped calls, service levels and availability to deliver approved service levels to the business
• Operate call detail recording and reporting across the voice and contact center platforms
• Perform load, failover and pre-change validation testing using SIPp and equivalent tooling
• Work within established configuration and change management policies to ensure awareness, approval and success of changes made to the communications infrastructure
• Participate in an on-call rotation supporting a 24x7 production voice and contact center environment

Escalation, Vendor and Project Support

• Serve as the final internal escalation point for complex voice and contact center issues that cannot be resolved by the telecom administrator or the managed services partner
• Monitor the telecom service ticket queue in InvGate for escalated service requests
• Set technical and configuration standards for the communications estate, provide technical direction to the telecom administrator and the contact center managed services partner, and review their work for quality and adherence to those standards
• Serve as liaison to vendors and carriers on all aspects of the business communication systems
• Work with business users to develop and implement acceptance test plans to ensure that solutions meet customer requirements and expectations
• Other related duties as assigned by management
  

Required Qualifications 

Minimum Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in an IT related program, or equivalent professional experience
• 8 + years of professional, related experience
• Demonstrable hands-on experience in both areas of this role: open-source VoIP platform engineering on Linux, and cloud contact center administration and scripting
• Demonstrated experience designing, rebuilding or migrating a production voice platform, not solely administering one
• Previous experience supporting call center environments required
• Previous experience managing or supporting REST API integrations between communications platforms required
• Previous experience inspecting network traffic from a voice perspective a plus
• Experience setting technical standards and providing technical direction to internal administrators and managed service partners
• Experience with formal change management
• Relevant certification is a plus (NICE CXone, SIP School SSCA, RHCSA or Linux Foundation LFCS, 2600Hz Kazoo)

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Voice Platform and Open Source

• Working knowledge of Kazoo (2600Hz), FreeSWITCH and Kamailio
• Ability to architect and document a target-state voice platform, including migration, cutover and rollback planning
• Linux administration at the application layer across RHEL-family and Debian-family distributions
• Knowledge of RabbitMQ, CouchDB/BigCouch and MariaDB in a production voice environment
• Ability to read SIP messaging, and working knowledge of SDP, RTP/SRTP, NAT traversal, codecs and T.38 fax
• Knowledge of Wireshark or similar products required

Contact Center

• Working knowledge of NICE InContact (CXone), including Studio script development, routing, skill and queue design
• Knowledge of speech or conversational IVR platforms and their integration with a cloud contact center (Omilia or equivalent)
• Ability to build contact center reporting and interpret operational and service level metrics

Integration and Automation

• Working knowledge of REST APIs, JSON, and authentication methods including OAuth 2.0, tokens and API keys
• Scripting and automation ability in Python and Bash, with version control in Git

General

• Knowledge of voice networking fundamentals including QoS, VLANs, multicast, DNS and SRV records, and NTP
• Strong technical documentation discipline. The ability to produce and maintain architecture diagrams, call flow documentation, configuration standards and operational runbooks is a core requirement of this role
  

Physical/Work Environment/Expectations

While performing duties of job, incumbent is occasionally required to:

• Operate in a professional office environment
• Constantly use work related equipment
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds
• Ability to stand for long periods of time
• Ability to work in an elevated area (Ladder)
• Ability to work regular, full-time schedule, Monday through Friday with flexibility to work additional hours depending on business demands

Note: This job description is not totally inclusive nor it is designed to cover or contain a complete comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.