Employees cite Blue Slate as a great place to work for a whole slew of reasons.

The sheer challenge of the problems solved here. The opportunity to work with leaders and employees of exceptional caliber. The unusual team approach that takes synergy to an exciting level. The culture of collegiality that makes work a joy. Our employees’ enthusiasm for these strengths placed Blue Slate among the Business Review’s Great Places to Work in 2007 and 2009.

Does this sound appealing? You might belong here. Please explore the openings below and apply to jobs@blueslate.net.

Consultant

Description

A Blue Slate Solutions Consultant works with clients to align their operational and technical strategy with their overall business strategy.  Blue Slate is currently seeking an experienced Wealth Management Industry professional with an acute aptitude for technology.  This consultant will devote their time individually or with a team, analyzing and improving operations for clients in the Securities Industry, while cultivating relationships with our clients and partners.

The consultant with this experience will be required to successfully complete a 7-week course to become a certified expert in a specific portfolio management software suite.  Upon becoming certified, the Consultant will travel to client sites to understand their current processes, implement the portfolio accounting and reporting software, and perform subsequent technical and process training.  The Consultant is the critical communication link to the client and the Blue Slate team and therefore must possess an entrepreneurial, self-motivated drive to gain trust, build new client relationships and foster their growth.

It is expected that this individual will continue to learn about complementary processes and technologies from both clients and the Blue Slate team.  Understanding components of optimization of operational aspects of Wealth Management firms (portfolio accounting, trade order management or the customer relationship lifecycle) will enhance the Consultant’s success with Blue Slate clients.

This position will involve 70-80% travel.

Specific Activities for the Consultant

  • Understand client needs from both a functional and technical perspective
  • Document technical and functional requirements
  • Assess clients’ technical platform and work collaboratively to install application suite in a manner that optimizes efficiency
  • Train the client on utilization of the optimized processes and tools
  • Follow up with clients to ensure the implementation was successful and to understand if there are any additional opportunities for Blue Slate to add value to their business
  • Complete detailed client visit reports that will be utilized as project management tools to ensure consistent delivery to our clients

Skills and experience required

  • Minimum of 2-3 years of experience in wealth management
  • Experience within buy-side middle and back office operations
  • Knowledge of securities through education or experience
  • Technical aptitude with Microsoft technologies
  • Ability to be self-directed and effectively work autonomously
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills
  • Ability to work within tight schedules and budgets
  • Excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication skills
  • Strong communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively
  • Ability to travel 80%

Skills and experience preferred

  • Experience on Advent Office or similar products a plus
  • CFA or NASD licenses
  • Hands on experience with SQL
  • Project Management experience
  • Consulting (internal or external)
Consulting Software Engineer/Lead Consulting Software Engineer

Description

The Consulting Software Engineer works with the customer, project manager and analyst to design, construct, integrate, test and deploy enterprise-level applications.  This individual may be called upon to perform analysis tasks based on project needs and staffing.

The typical tasks for the Consulting Software Engineer include creating OO-design artifacts (class diagrams, sequence diagrams), creating prototypical applications as proof-of-concept, creating software solutions using industry standard tools and languages, integrating partner and other vendors’ products, assisting QA to assure stability of the solution and working with the client to deploy the solution.

The individual should be well versed in OO design, including the use of UML.  He or she should also be fluent in Java and willing to pursue other languages, such as C++, C#, or VB.NET.  Experience with multiple platforms, such as Microsoft Windows, Solaris, and Linux, is preferred.

It is expected that the individual will also have begun to learn about complementary technologies, and will continue to pursue such knowledge.  Technologies such as SQL, TCP/IP, Business Rule Engines, and Web Application Servers constitute the infrastructure on which we design, build and deploy solutions.  The Consulting Software Engineer must understand the uses and operation of these technologies.

This position will involve up to 80% travel.

Specific Activities for the Consulting Software Engineer

  • Understand client needs from both a functional and technical perspective
  • Work with clients to define, analyze and engineer their unique business processes and rules
  • Document functional requirements
  • Given the technical environment, document the technical specifications based upon the documented functional requirements
  • Code/Configure and automate business processes and rules using specialized software, such as rules or workflow engines, or by developing custom applications
  • Test software solution
  • Integrate software solution into a production environment
  • Train the client on utilization of the new processes and tools

Skills and experience required

  • Strong OO design background including UML and design patterns
  • Understanding of system lifecycle, both waterfall and RAD
  • 2 years of Java programming and design experience (J2SE, JDBC, JMS)
  • 1 year of J2EE programming and design experience (Servlets, JSPs, EJBs, WAR, EAR)
  • Hands-on experience with traditional web standards such as HTTP, HTTPS, HTML, XHTML, JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets

Skills and experience preferred

  • BS degree in Information Technology or related field
  • Excellent interpersonal and written & oral communication skills
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills
  • Has utilized various design and development tools, such as Rational Rose, Ant, Eclipse, CVS, and similar
  • XML/XSL/XSLT experience
  • Web Services, including hands-on work with SOAP and UDDI
  • Experience with different testing types and able to articulate strengths and weaknesses of each
  • 1-3 years of design and development experience on platforms such as Solaris, Windows, C++, DBMS (i.e. Oracle, Sybase, or MS SQL), MQ Series, and so forth
  • Experience carrying out analysis tasks, such as gathering user requirements, running requirements sessions, and developing process maps and use cases
  • 1 year of experience with Java application servers, including significant debugging of deployment and operational issues
  • Experience with “JAX Pack” (JAX-RPC, JAXB, …) and a good understanding of object serialization, XML marshaling/unmarshaling, and similar interoperability approaches
  • Web Services, including hands-on work with SOAP and UDDI
  • System integration experience, such as using messaging services and middleware
  • Experience with portal products and architectures
  • Experience with SSO environments and operation
  • LDAP implementation experience
  • Versed in complementary technologies, such as SQL, TCP/IP, and Source Code Control Systems
  • Experienced, comfortable, and conversant with the offshore development model, including rewards and challenges
  • MS in Computer Science
  • Sun Java 2 Certified
  • 2-5 years consulting experience, preferably in Healthcare, CRM, or Financial Services
  • Prior experience with business rule-based software packages such as PegaSystems, iLog, or Fair Issac
  • Has participated as an individual contributor on large and small projects
  • Has experienced project failures and learned from them
  • Capable of working independently
  • Ability to work within tight schedules and budgets
Senior Business Consultant

Description

Blue Slate Solutions is looking for experienced enterprise software implementation consultants who are business architects and technologists. The consultants will work hand-in-hand with clients in the engineering of business processes and the formalization of their business rules. Our projects require highly intelligent consultants who strive to leverage their technical competencies in tandem with their business acumen and analytic skills to guide teams through the implementation of specialized enterprise software.

Working as a key member of a small consulting team, you will be charged with guiding the client through the full business rules implementation life-cycle. You will facilitate business process engineering sessions with all levels of the client resources helping the client to define their business rules. You will develop specifications, process mappings and other forms of technical communication deliverables to manage the design, configuration, development, testing and implementation of business rules software. You will configure the software and rules-based engine. You will manage the effective and timely introduction of the final solution and train the client on utilization of the new processes and tools.

To be successful with Blue Slate and our clients, you will need to have a unique mix of business acumen and technical experience. Your formal education should include a degree in a business related field—Accounting, Finance, Strategy, Marketing--Information Technology, or Computer Science, enriched through 2 to 5 years of work experience ideally in a consulting role. As a technologist, you will need to have experience building systems/websites using current technology – Java, Object Oriented Design, JavaScript, HTML, C++, database applications, n-tier and client/server technologies. The best candidates will be able to describe themselves as business technologists.

The role may also require extensive travel. Our consultants are solution and client driven, and therefore may work at the client's site which requires travel Monday through Thursday. For some clients, this is not a requirement.

Specific Activities for the Senior Business Consultant

  • Understand client needs from both a functional and technical perspective
  • Work with clients to define, analyze and engineer their unique business processes and rules
  • Document functional requirements
  • Given the technical environment, document the technical specifications based upon the documented functional requirements
  • Code/Configure and automate business processes and rules using specialized software, such as ProCom or PegaClassic or by developing custom applications
  • Test software solution and integrate software solution into a production environment
  • Train the client on utilization of the new processes and tools

Skills and experience required

  • BS/BA degree in Computer Science/Information Technology/MIS or related field
  • 2-5 years’ work experience in a technical role with significant exposure to business activities including Accounting/Finance/Marketing/Strategy
  • Business process design experience
  • Business rules harvesting, design & implementation experience
  • Experience building systems/websites using current technologies: Java, JavaScript, HTML, C++, database applications, OOD, n-tier and client/server, XML, XSL
  • Project management experience
  • Experience documenting functional requirements and technical specifications
  • Computer proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite
  • Excellent interpersonal and written & oral communication skills
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills
  • Capable of working independently
  • Effective team member and leader
  • Passion for excellence and an entrepreneurial spirit to develop future business
  • Must be willing to travel 80 to 100%

Skills and experience preferred

  • MBA, CPA, or advanced degree
  • Six Sigma trained/certified
  • 2-5 years consulting experience, preferably in Healthcare, Manufacturing or Financial Services
  • Prior experience with business rule-based software packages such as PegaSystems, iLog, Siebel, or Epiphan
Director of Sales

Description

We are in search of a highly skilled, high energy, results oriented Director of Sales to support our continued growth. The Director of Sales will be responsible for developing new revenue opportunities by hunting and nurturing effective relationships with potential clients and influencers.

The candidate will build relationships and engage in activity designed to generate qualified leads, which will then be closed with support from members of the Blue Slate team. Working in collaboration with the team, the Director of Sales is responsible for identifying and closing business opportunities, developing long-term customer relationships, enhancing existing client relationships and developing and building the Blue Slate sales team.

The Director of Sales will work closely with Blue Slate leadership to provide business development strategy, targeting, research, lead generation and sales strategy for specific opportunities.

Specific Activities for the Director of Sales

  • Ensure that the sales team is skilled at positioning and selling consulting solutions to Blue Slate clients.
  • Maintain the highest quality team possible by providing high level mentoring and continually insuring the entire team is trained in all services provided by Blue Slate as well as training on new techniques and sales strategies.
  • Motivate team to constantly improve its performance.
  • Work with Blue Slate leadership to identify target accounts, develop account strategy, build account plans and drive the sales of consulting services to execute the account plan.
  • Identify business needs of existing and prospective clients and demonstrate value that Blue Slate can bring to address those needs.
  • In collaboration with the team, present Blue Slate’s capabilities, services and methodologies to prospective clients.
  • Evaluate clients for revenue opportunities; work with Client Delivery to uncover target accounts’ business issues and identify needs.
  • Coordinate with Client Delivery to initiate engagements and follow through to identify additional add on opportunities.
  • Establish, develop, strengthen and maintain relationships with people at all levels of the target accounts.

Skills and experience required

  • Knowledge in the development, management and execution of sales processes including lead generation, pipeline management, account planning, sales strategy and development.
  • Strong prospecting, closing, organizational, communication and presentation skills.
  • Ability to adapt sales approach to individual client situations, work through conflicts, articulate value propositions, gain trust and persuasively influence prospective client behaviors.
  • Ability to effectively lead a team that supports the sales process for Blue Slate’s services.
  • Ability to participate in all aspects of the sales cycle from account planning, lead generation through proposal generation, negotiations and sales close.
  • Superior verbal, presentation and written communication skills, strong leadership qualities, and team oriented business values are essential.
  • Ability to work in a team based environment.
  • Ability to exercise considerable individual judgment and initiative in conducting necessary operations.
  • Skill in the team building, mentoring, and development of a sales team.
  • Skill in developing executive level client relationships.
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills.
  • Self-motivated.
  • Strong diplomacy, coordination and communication skills.
  • 10+ years of proven experience of successful solutions-oriented consulting services sales
  • Experience leading and motivating large teams
  • Ability to travel up to 80%
  • Consulting delivery or implementation experience will be a plus, with a proven track record of building client relationships.
Senior Solution Architect

Description

Our Senior Solution Architects serve as the senior technical resource and the technical solution expert on Blue Slate’s client engagements teams. This role will work directly with Blue Slate’s customers to understand their highest priority business needs and then architecting creative solutions that meet the needs of the customer.

The candidate will have in-depth knowledge of systems architecture with a proven track record of designing and implementing technology solutions in a large, complex environment. The candidate must have good organizational skills, including the capability to break down complex enterprise needs that span multiple applications into multi-phased, integrated solution plans that can be implemented by the Blue Slate team.

The Senior Solution Architect must possess a deep knowledge in multiple technology areas that allow them to integrate between the various technologies in use in an enterprise environment.

Specific Activities for Solution Architect

  • Coordinates complex technical projects and initiatives across technology and functional lines, providing leadership for technical and non-technical team members.
  • Proficient with a set of programming and scripting languages, understanding the requirements, strengths and weaknesses of each
  • Provides expertise surrounding idioms within procedural, object oriented, aspect oriented, rules-based, workflow-based and service oriented paradigms
  • Leads architecture redesign efforts including reverse engineering, future-state designs, to-be migrations, logical and physical mappings
  • Assures alignment between business and IT in terms of strategies, goals and objectives.
  • Has mastery across common artifacts used in common SDLCs. For example UML, entity Relationship, Flow charts, System diagrams and network diagrams
  • Participates as an active member of project teams, assisting in implementation as needed.
  • Understands and provides leadership around security throughout all SLDC phases and all tiers of the architecture and the systems running within the architecture. This includes identity management solution approaches.
  • Conduct and participate in architecture reviews to capture business objectives and walkthrough architecture solutions.
  • Provide technical leadership to other consultants and lead teams in the completion of complex engagement solutions.
  • Well versed in enterprise IT operational issues such as clustering, cloud-based solutions, multithreading, stateless/stateful services and 24/7 operations.
  • Manage sets of resources crossing multiple projects, including balancing and adjusting to anticipated and unanticipated project needs.
  • Identify and articulate one-time versus reusable solution aspects, documenting and publishing reusable solution components across the company.
  • Support Blue Slate’s BD efforts in architect-driven pre-sales initiatives
  • Perform other duties as indicated

Skills and experience required

  • Ability to translate business needs into solution architecture requirements
  • Ability to define multiple solution options to business problems.
  • Ability to quickly comprehend the functions and capabilities of new technologies.
  • Ability to articulate the effect of technology on business.
  • Knowledge of consultative skills including analysis, influencing, negotiation, account management and relationship building.
  • Ability to form strong and trusting relationships with clients, vendors and team members
  • Deep understanding of database design and technology including tuning, normalization, warehousing, data mining, and reporting.
  • Thoroughly versed in web technologies including web services, AJAX, web page generation and scripting.
  • Knowledgeable with network and application service-based solutions such as proxies, load balancers, caching and service buses
  • Conversant with networking technologies and approaches such as routers, firewalls, load balancers, IPS/IDS, VPNs, sub-nets and DMZs.
  • Experienced with multiple open source and COTS solutions for each architectural tier (e.g. network monitoring, database management, reporting, SDLC documentation, SCCS, application development, content management, middleware, testing, deployment and application monitoring)
  • Excellent interpersonal and written & oral communication skills
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills
  • Capable of working independently
  • Effective team member and leader
  • Passion for excellence and an entrepreneurial spirit to develop future business
  • Must be willing to travel 80 to 100%
Technical Project Coordinator

Description

The Technical Project Coordinator assists the team in planning activities to ensure deliverables and other work are produced in a timely manner and in accordance with established protocols and procedures.

This individual will work across a number of different teams/individuals to determine the tasks, resources and time required to accomplish the implementation of both internal and external technical projects that advance the strategic direction of Blue Slate Solutions.

The Project Coordinator duties may also include: escalating/resolving issues; managing special projects, coordinating project schedules; preparing status reports, communications, and project documentation as well as preparing instructional manuals and workshop materials. Exceptional customer service skills and a drive to partner with the Blue Slate team in achieving excellence for both internal and external customers are required.

This position may require periodic travel.

Specific Activities for Technical Project Coordinator

  • Coordinates complex technical projects and initiatives across team and function lines, working with technical and non-technical users.
  • Actively coordinates and drives projects to completion through the management of a project plan.
  • Receives, reviews, coordinates, and replies to inquiries and requests for information related to program data and conference presentation opportunities.
  • Researches and proposes technical products, systems and solutions; and may assist in the development and implementation of the solution.
  • Takes a proactive approach to resolving issues by gathering and analyzing related information; identifying the root cause of problem and facilitating a resolution.
  • Participate as a member of project teams
  • Initiate and maintain contact with key personnel including staff, project leaders and external parties.
  • Update the CTO or designee on project details and changes in a timely manner.
  • Prepares or assists in preparing multi-media presentations and reports utilizing a variety of software applications including, but not limited to: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Visio for trainings, conference presentations or other events
  • Assists in the coordination and documentation of meetings and conference sessions
  • Perform other duties as indicated

Skills and experience required

  • Knowledge of information gathering techniques, procedures and practices.
  • Knowledge of project planning and management procedures, practices and techniques.
  • Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
  • Ability to collect and analyze complex data.
  • Ability to coordinate project activities with diverse groups and individuals.
  • Ability to work in a team based environment.
  • Ability to multi-task and prioritize support requests in a fast-paced environment.
  • Ability to exercise considerable individual judgment and initiative in conducting necessary operations.
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills.
  • Strong attention to detail and able to meet deadlines.
  • Self-motivated
  • Ability to work within tight schedules and budgets.
  • Strong diplomacy, coordination and communication skills.

Skills and experience preferred

  • Ability to assist in design and programming tasks as needed
  • Ability to develop programmatic solutions to repetitive processes