The Macroeconomic Modelling Team (MMT) of the Bank is looking for a Dot Net Visual Basic programmer experienced with the Visual Studio For Office (VSTO) framework, notably Excel addins and Excel customizations. Strong knowledge of MySQL and PHP would be desireable.
The MMT maintains a sophisticated internet-based front-end for its economic models, built with a combination of an Excel VSTO-based front-end, an PHP Symfony-based event handling system running on Apache that connects the front-end to a MYSQL backend for record-keeping of user-actions and simulation results, and a simulation solution engine built using the Eviews econometric package. Knowledge of Eviews is not required. During peak load periods, this system will be accessed by around 300 users based throughout the world, running in the range of 2-3000 simulations per 24 hour period, with each simulation currently prompting a two-way exchange of around 4MB of data.
A Standalone version of this front-end, also written in VB .NET VSTO and using an Excel customization as a front end provides a direct connection between Excel and the Eviews solution engine without passing through SQL or symphony. This system is under active development, and is able to communicate directly with the internet-based system when required – by-passing the symphony event handler.
The successful candidate will work with an existing high-productivity team of programming savvy economists to develop, extend and maintain a suite of dot Net based tools used to automate and provide a user-interface for the Team's economic forecasting tools. Specific tasks will include, extending the capabilities of the existing front-end system; building a new system to run simulations using the GAMS solution engine (knowledge of GAMS not required). And further customizing the standalone front-end system to allow collaborative work (multi-client server model vs current single-client server model).
