Director, Architect Principal
About The Position
This in-office role is based in Southlake, Texas, or Austin, Texas, and is part of Schwab’s Enterprise Architecture community. The Architect Principal leads enterprise-scale modernization, governance, and platform evolution across mainframe, distributed systems, and public cloud architectures. The role influences how teams modernize legacy platforms, adopt cloud-native patterns, and scale applications securely, resiliently, and within enterprise governance. Working across business strategy, technology transformation, and enterprise governance, the Architect Principal guides architecture direction across multiple business domains and technology ecosystems. The role balances modernization, innovation, operational excellence, and regulatory requirements while helping evolve legacy platforms, accelerate cloud adoption, and enable responsible enterprise AI capabilities.
Requirements
- 10 or more years of experience in enterprise application and platform architecture.
- Proven leadership in large-scale modernization initiatives.
- Demonstrated experience in modern distributed, cloud, and AI architectures.
- Strong experience defining architecture standards and ensuring adherence through effective governance.
- Ability to influence senior leaders and translate complex systems into clear architectural direction.
- Good understanding of modern delivery practices, including Agile, DevSecOps, and AI DLC.
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- Expertise in enterprise architecture leadership across application, platform, and integration domains.
- Knowledge of application modernization patterns and migration strategies.
- Expertise in AI strategies and AI solution architectures.
- Knowledge of public cloud application architectures and hybrid integration models.
- Knowledge of architecture governance frameworks and operating models.
- Knowledge of developer tooling and engineering enablement, including CI/CD, SDLC, AI DLC, and modern pipeline automation.
- Knowledge of MCP, API, event-driven, and integration architectures.
- Knowledge of scaling patterns for high-volume, mission-critical applications across heterogeneous environments.
- Familiarity with Business Architecture concepts and practices.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in financial services or another highly regulated industry.
- Industry-recognized architecture certifications, such as TOGAF, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or other certifications.
- Experience mentoring and developing architects and technical leaders.
Responsibilities
- Provide enterprise-wide architecture leadership across business and technology domains, aligning business strategy, architecture standards, and technology investments.
- Partner with business, product, and engineering leaders to define multi-year technology roadmaps and target-state architectures.
- Lead architecture reviews and decision-making processes that balance innovation, risk management, regulatory requirements, and operational resiliency.
- Lead technology transformation initiatives spanning legacy modernization, cloud-native adoption, platform evolution, and emerging AI capabilities.
- Define and promote application modernization patterns and practices.
- Shape enterprise MCP, API, and integration strategies.
- Design scalable architectures for high-volume, mission-critical business capabilities.
- Evaluate, shape, and guide enterprise AI and agentic AI strategies and architectures.
- Establish and govern AI and public cloud application patterns and reference architectures.
- Advance developer productivity through modern tooling, evolution of the AIDLC operating model, and AI enablement, including FDE roles and responsibilities.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
