Pacific Search Consultants  â–ª   Professional Recruiters in Speech Technology

phone: 949.366.9000  â–ª   fax: 949.366.9200  â–ª   www.SpeechTekJobs.com

 

Contract / Consulting & Full Time - IVR Developer / VXML, C#, XSL, Javascript

 

Location: Los Angeles area     Position ID:  AXG-1271   

 

Job Description:

 

This position can be filled with either a full time employee or a contractor/ consultant.  Either way, the individual needs to work on-site at the company's headquarters in the Los Angeles area. Relocation assistance is available.

 

The IVR Developer is responsible for the detailed design, construction, implementation, and support of telephony Speech- and DTMF-based user interface systems that meet established specifications, design criteria, quality standards and business requirements. With global Call Centers in three continents, the IVR is the callers' first point of contact, and therefore, is a mission-critical application to the organization.

•        The developer will have primary responsibility for coding in VXML, C#, Javascript, and XSL as needed to implement various callflows.

 

•        Will work closely with the Business Systems Analyst (who generates and updates business requirements and create all related callflows) to assure the programming conforms to each requirements doc and callflow diagram.

 

•        Will write test procedures and perform unit testing; integrate with other system components; perform debugging, troubleshooting, QA and production support.

 

•        Will design some of the upfront voice user interface details in support of the Business Systems Analyst, especially during initial vetting of requirements with the internal company stakeholders.

 

•        Responsible for coding new projects with new designs as well as maintaining/updating existing applications that do not involve much new design work.

 

•        Reports to the Manager of IVR Development

 

Additional Duties:

 

•        Design, create and implement effective, natural language call flows with a high degree of usability.

•        Analyze and define system requirements for IVR applications to meet business requirements.

•        Prepare and maintain complete programming specifications, functional design, and technical design documents.

•        Analyze, code, test, and debug IVR programs and applications.

•        Design and implement solutions using VoiceXML, XSLT, and C# that integrate the IVR with supporting service and database layers.

•        Support testing, debugging and resolution of issues.

•        Participate in and assist with user focus groups, tuning, usability testing, refactoring, optimizing call flows.

•        Perform troubleshooting and analysis to assess root cause of application issues.

•        Make recommendations to improve operating efficiency and functionality of voice user interface.

•        Provide regular status reports to Manager of IVR Development.

•        Maintain a high degree of business functional knowledge and stay current with automated technologies and tools.

•        Administer duties as defined by the performance review plan within the required deadlines.

 

Qualifications:

 

•        Facility with natural language, and English in particular.

•        Excellent communication and problem-solving skills.

•        Excellent writing skills.

•        Ability to develop cohesive working relationships with internal and external clients.

•        Strong technical, logical, analytical, and problem solving skills. 

•        Minimum of 2 years general computer software programming experience.  VXML, service-oriented architecture, object-oriented design, .NET, XSLT, and C# experience are all a plus, but not absolutely required.

•        Ability to manage multiple deliverables in a highly energized and fast-paced environment

•        Thorough understanding of the full software development life cycle.

 

Preferred Experience:

 

•        IVR application design and development of interactive telephony systems (IVR, call flows, prompts, DTMF, ASR, human factors)

•        Designing and developing IVR applications using VoiceXML (VXML)

•        Designing and developing speech-enabled applications using automatic speech recognition (ASR)

•        Nuance/SpeechWorks OSDM experience

•        Designing human interfaces

•        Working in an IT development environment based on Microsoft .NET framework & Web Services

•        Familiarity with Agile development practices

•        Banking and/or credit card systems (stored value systems) experience

•        Knowledge of the Spanish language

•        Linguistics (grammars, syntax, semantics, phonology) background a plus.

 

Additional information:

This is certainly not a typical IVR for a typical call center. The company has built the largest domestic cash-acceptance network of its kind, offering prepaid card reloading and other cash collection services to America's leading banks and financial services companies. They offer the first ever cash-acceptance network for the reloading of prepaid (debit) cards by any issuer.

 

The company's fully speech-enabled IVR handles an average of 175,000 calls per day, with only about 400 live agents total (and only about 250 agents taking calls at any given time).  So the IVR serves the vast majority of callers without ever needing to speak with an agent.

 

Two positions have been created to further develop the capabilities of the Call Center. In addition to the IVR Developer role, there is a new Business Systems Analyst (BSA) who will work closely with the developer. The main difference between the BSA and the IVR Developer is that the BSA does not do any coding, while the IVR Developer's primary responsibility is to do the required coding for all related development projects.

 

The IVR Developer will get requirements documents and callflow diagrams from the Business Systems Analyst and will write the VXML / C# / Javascript / XSL code needed to implement the callflow. The developer will also perform unit testing and integrate with other system components and debug / troubleshoot as needed, while providing QA and production support.

 

(In a complementary role, the Business Systems Analyst interfaces with stakeholders, gather and document requirements, design and document callflows based on what the stakeholders want, while also being an internal adviser as to the best way to fulfill the requirements using speech or DTMF etc. The BSA will also work on scripting and be a subject matter expert on the requirements and the design going forward. As new features are added to existing callflows or other changes are made (by other internal groups), the BSA updates the docs as needed.)

 

The role of the Development Manager is to make sure this all happens correctly.  So the Dev Mgr ends up doing/consulting on some of the design and much of the coding, in addition to being responsible for timelines and the maintenance needs of all the applications.

 

The Development Group does not deal directly with any external customers. They deal with the internal Customer Care Department to improve the IVR and come up with innovative ways to implement the ideas that come out of the Customer Care and Product Development groups. So the head of Customer Care is one of the primary stakeholders in the company's new product development. All of the stakeholders are internal departments.

 

With the IVR providing the single gateway to the call center, the Customer Care Group runs the call center and shapes the overall customer experience. The two main stakeholders are the Customer Care Group and the Product/ Bus Dev Group. The other stakeholders are the Product Group (which comes up with new projects, etc.), and the internal IT, QA, PMO (aka Business Development) Groups. 

 

Competitive compensation and benefits package including Medical, (HMO & PPO), Dental, and Vision benefits, 401k Plan, Life Insurance, paid vacation, holidays and sick time.

 

Please refer to Position ID:  AXG-1271      Click here for more information

 

Contact:

Arnold Garlick

President, Pacific Search Consultants

arnold@...

office:  949. 366. 9000 extension 2#
www.SpeechTekJobs.com

Y! group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/speechtechnologyjobs/