Mobile Platform Manager* Job in San Francisco, California US
Mobile Platform Manager, Blackboard Mobile
San Francisco, CA
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Blackboard Mobile is a division of Blackboard Inc, a global leader in enterprise technology and innovative solutions that improves the experience of millions of students around the world, every day. Blackboard Mobile allows education institutions to deliver a rich set of campus life services and content to mobile devices, uniquely branded for each institution, to better connect current students, parents, faculty, prospective students, and alumni to the campus experience in a way that wasn't possible before.
With an Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry, or other device with a mobile Web browser, Blackboard Mobile users can navigate course catalogs and campus maps, e-mail professors and classmates, and get real-time updates on their course schedules, campus events, news, and sports teams. Stanford and Duke University were the first schools to adopt the Blackboard Mobile platform—now over 140 higher-ed (Texas AM, University of Chicago, Florida State University, University of Washington, Northwestern, etc.), K-12, and international institutions use the platform.
We pride ourselves on creating well-designed mobile solutions that leverage powerful components of the Android, iPhone, and other mobile devices. Thousands of students and faculty members use our product at each of our institutions. The Blackboard Mobile team is hiring experienced, talented, and passionate people to join our growing team and continue innovating this new area of mobility in education.
POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES
Blackboard's Mobile team is committed to delivering high-quality and unique mobile applications that utilize the most interesting and powerful aspects of mobile technology. In particular, our team is looking for a platform manager who has experience and ambition overseeing the development of mobile software. Our goal is add somebody to our team who can:
- Collaborate, as a project manager, with Bb Mobile engineers and explore creative opportunities on our mobile platforms.
- Oversee internal development of certain aspects of the mobile platform.
- Help continue to extend Blackboard's mobile platform and existing functionality to the iOS, Android, and Blackberry platforms, and other devices.
- Be responsible for breaking down large/complex problems and be involved and/or lead the process of design and implementation of solutions.
- Contribute feedback and guidance to the development of functional and technical specifications.
- Work with other developers to set standards and define best practices for coding and design.
- Shape the future of eLearning and Campus Mobility by helping develop the next generation of mobile products.
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
- 4+ years of software design and development experience in commercial large scale, multi-platform environments.
- 2+ years of project management experience.
- Expertise of advanced software engineering concepts, most importantly object oriented design.
- A firm understanding of building mobile applications that utilize web-services (either HTTP based, XML, SOAP, JSON or other services), in order to tie our applications to critical server-side APIs.
- Ability to lead a team of engineers in cross-functional teams (including QA, Product Management, Mobile Engineering, etc).
- Experience building Mobile Applications using the iOS, Android, and Blackberry API is a plus—a strong preference is reserved for applicants who have contributed to Applications that have been available to the public.
- Should be familiar with version control (Subversion)
- Familiar with the event-dispatching UI pattern (such as Swing).
- Expertise or familiarity with well-designed user interfaces, specifically for iOS, Android, and Blackberry or other common mobile devices, to adhere to more sensible Human-Computer-Interaction principles.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical individuals. Effective at collaborating with product management and UI team to help define and specify requirements.
PREFERRED
- B.S. in Computer Science or related area of study.
- Experience with code-signing and finalizing applications for distribution is a plus.
