Senior Technical Architect

The service provider will play a crucial role in developing and managing innovative digital identity solutions, ensuring compliance with the latest standards and technologies. With superb expertise in digital identity frameworks, including but not limited to W3C, ISO, IETF, OIDF, and related identity subjects like OpenID Connect, OAuth2, decentralized and self-sovereign identity systems, as well as governmental identity regulations such as eIDAS and KYC/AML, the service provider is well-equipped to lead and advise on complex identity management projects.

Bringing excellent knowledge of privacy rules, GDPR, and security measures including applied cryptography and blockchain technology to the table, the service provider will provide leadership in safeguarding sensitive data while facilitating secure and seamless identity verification processes. In addition, the service provider excels in designing software and system architectures for digital identity services, including issuance, verification, and digital wallets.
Their experience in contributing to and leading international boards, projects, and teams is evident in their capacity to deliver agile, innovative solutions across global platforms.

Proficient in the design of Web Services and APIs, and with a working knowledge of programming languages such as Java, C++, and JavaScript/TypeScript/Node.JS, the provider ensures a seamless integration of services.
The service provider will show experience in continuous integration and deployment techniques to enhance system reliability and performance.
The service provider must possess excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, to effectively present architectural approaches and articulate complex technical concepts clearly to stakeholders with varying levels of technical expertise.
Their promotion skills, pertinent to “selling” architectural solutions, are crucial for stakeholder engagement and buy-in. A proven team player, the service provider must demonstrate rapid self-starting capability and adaptability to fast-changing technologies, fostering a collaborative and innovative working environment.

Technical Scope
Methodology Specific design tasks are defined by project managers and assigned to the appropriate service provider. Regular interactions with the business and the stakeholders are necessary to deliver the required services. Maintenance tasks are proactively identified, scheduled and carried out by the service provider, following the applicable change management procedures. Other operational tasks are typically assigned through the European Commission’s corporate incident, request, problem, change and configuration management systems.

Tasks
The service provider is expected to engage in the architecture, design, and implementation of the EU Digital Identity Wallet. They will provide expert advice on essential security principles including confidentiality, integrity, authorization, authentication, nonrepudiation, and availability, playing a key role in safeguarding communications and data. Proactive involvement in testing and conducting periodic vulnerability and security risk assessments of the messaging and data transfer system will be crucial.

The service provider will offer comprehensive guidance and consulting services to optimise the integration layer, ensuring robust and secure data exchanges.

Specific tasks that will be expected to be performed include any or all of the following:
• Participate in maintaining technical specifications related to digital identity protocols, ensuring their effective implementation in software solutions.
• Create detailed user stories and acceptance tests from overarching themes and features, breaking them down into manageable tasks suitable for a single sprint.
• Engage in decision-making regarding the scheduling of user stories into designated sprints, ensuring priorities align with project goals.
• Actively participate in project planning activities as well as daily stand-up meetings as part of the Scrum framework, maintaining agile best practices.
• Contribute to sprint retrospectives, release planning, demos, and various other Scrum-related meetings to continuously improve team processes and deliverables.
• Review deliverables and demonstrable product versions or software functionalities after the completion of each sprint, ensuring they meet quality standards and project objectives. In addition, the service provider will assist with internal and external communication efforts to improve transparency and dissemination of information across stakeholders. They will also aid in prioritizing and resolving defects or bugs, working closely with business analysts, customers, users, project leaders, and developers to ensure that issues are addressed promptly and effectively. Through these efforts, the service provider will play a pivotal role in driving the project towards success while maintaining high standards of quality and security.

Skills
The services must be provided by a consultant having a university degree corresponding to Level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework (which typically corresponds to a master level or 5 years of higher education).

The services must be provided by a consultant having at least:
• 6 years of specific expertise in digital identity standards and technologies (W3C, ISO, IETF, OIDF, …),
• 2 years of proven experience in edition of IETF Verifiable Credentials specifications (Selective Disclosure JSON Web Tokens – SD-JWTs),
• 2 years of proven experience in contribution to ISO/IEC Personal Identification standards (ISO 18013-5, ISO 18013-7, and the ISO 23220 series),
• 5 years of proven experience in edition of W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model (VCDM) 2.0,
• 6 years of proven experience in Agile management (Scrum, Kanban, Lean project management), and
• 6 years of specific expertise in Technical Architecture of Digital Identity Technologies (Blockchain, OAuth2…etc). The services must be provided by a consultant having a Scrum Master certification.