Senior IBM WebMethods ESB Architect -Riyadh, KSA

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Design

• Architect end-to-end ESB integration solutions using IBM WebMethods, translating business requirements into scalable designs.
• Design reusable integration assets like services, APIs, and data models to promote standardization and reduce redundancy.
• Define integration patterns, messaging standards, and SLAs in compliance with banking regulations and operations..

System Analysis & Migration

• Analyze existing interfaces and protocols to design migration pathways.
• Create detailed roadmaps ensuring minimal disruption and zero-downtime cutovers.
• Oversee migration execution, providing design authority and support to teams.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Collaborate with Lines of Business (Retail, Corporate, Cards, Operations) to define connectivity requirements and translate them into integration specifications.
• Coordinate with architects, infrastructure, security, and vendors to ensure interoperability and compliance with technology standards.
• Lead design reviews and technical workshops to align teams on integration architecture decisions.

Governance & Quality Assurance

• Establish and enforce ESB design governance, including naming conventions, versioning, error handling, and monitoring standards.
• Conduct design peer reviews to ensure adherence to SOA principles, security policies, and data privacy regulations (PCI-DSS, GDPR, banking laws).
• Maintain design documentation, interface specifications, and operational run-books.

Technical Expertise

Core ESB Platform

Proficient in IBM WebMethods ESB (Integration Server, Broker/Universal Messaging, Designer, Trading Networks, API Gateway) with experience in installation, configuration, and advanced development.
Expertise in WebMethods Flow, Java services, adapter development, and pipeline management in high-availability banking environments.

Banking Systems & Applications

Core Banking: Experience with Equation or similar platforms, understanding data structures, transaction processing, and real-time integrations.

Enterprise Archiving: Knowledge of Laserfiche or equivalent ECM solutions, including document capture, metadata, and archival retrieval.

Card Management: Familiarity with Cortex or similar systems for card issuance, authorization, dispute management, and tokenization services.s.

Integration Technologies

• Advanced knowledge of SOA, microservices, and event-driven architecture.
• Expertise in messaging patterns including publish/subscribe, request/reply, guaranteed delivery, routing, filtering, and dead-letter handling.
• Skilled in data transformation (XSLT, JSON/XML mapping) and protocol interoperability (REST, SOAP, MQ, FTP/SFTP, ISO 8583, SWIFT, FIX).
• Strong understanding of API management, OAuth 2.0/SAML security, and throttling/rate-limiting.

Infrastructure & Operations

• Experience with high-availability clustering, disaster recovery, and performance tuning of WebMethods environments.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines for integration assets, source control (Git), and automated testing frameworks for ESB components.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline. A Master's degree is a distinct advantage.
• IBM WebMethods (Software AG) certified professional (e.g., WebMethods Integration Suite certification), (Preferred).
• 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise application integration, with at least 4 years in a dedicated ESB architecture or design role.
• Proven track record of delivering ESB solutions within the banking or financial services sector, ideally involving core banking migrations or large-scale integration modernization programs.
• Direct hands-on experience leading the transition from point-to-point integrations to a centralized ESB or API-led connectivity model in a regulated environment.
• Prior involvement in projects integrating Equation, Laserfiche, Cortex, or analogous banking-specific platforms is highly desirable.