Director, Solutions Architect

NRG•VIRTUAL, WA

2d•$210,000 - $250,000

About The Position

Welcome to the intersection of energy and home services. At NRG, we’re all about propelling the next generation of leaders forward. We are driven by our passion to create a smarter, cleaner and more connected future. We deliver innovative solutions that make our customers’ lives easier—helping them power, protect, and intelligently manage their homes and businesses. To do this, we need creative and talented people to join our company. We offer a dynamic work environment and a unified and inclusive culture. NRG fosters a strong sense of belonging that leads to better collaboration and business performance. Our company programs are designed to help employees develop the skills they need for success now and in the future. In everything we do, we aim to champion our employees and bring value to our customers, investors and society. More information is available at www.nrg.com. Connect with NRG on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X. Position Summary: Director of Solutions Architecture – Partner Ecosystem & Integrations The Director of Solutions Architecture for Partner Ecosystem & Integrations is the single-threaded technical architecture owner responsible for the end-to-end system design, interface contracts, and technical integration blueprints that bridge Vivint’s smart home platform with strategic external partner brands. Operating as a high-impact, independent strategic technical leader, you will design the architectural foundation that enables external hardware—such as smart lighting, advanced climate controls, multi-vendor sensors, and entertainment platforms—to interoperate seamlessly alongside Vivint’s proprietary hardware suite. This is an individual contributor role requiring an elite systems architect who can operate autonomously without a team of direct reports. You will specialize in developing deep technical relationships with principal architects and engineering leads at world-class technology companies, leveraging their domain expertise while ensuring Vivint's security, latency, and reliability standards are strictly maintained. You will bridge external APIs, local edge protocols, and cloud environments with Vivint’s core infrastructure to deliver low-latency, deeply integrated consumer experiences at scale.

Requirements

Proven track record of operating with complete technical independence, driving complex architecture across multi-company initiatives without direct administrative reporting lines.
Deep expertise in cloud-to-cloud integration patterns, local wireless topologies (Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, Wi-Fi), embedded driver layers, state-synchronization engines, and platform-level SDK development.
Exceptional ability to conceptualize end-to-end data pipelines, identity management, authentication (OAuth/mTLS), and edge-to-cloud state management across disparate corporate ecosystems.
Superb written and verbal communication skills. Proven ability to negotiate complex technical contracts with partner executives and translate intricate system trade-offs for executive internal stakeholders.
8+ years of software/systems architecture or principal engineering experience, with at least 4+ years explicitly focused on designing developer platforms, partner API ecosystems, IoT architectures, or connected smart home environments.
Demonstrated experience architecting complex, high-scale technical integrations with tier-1 consumer electronics, silicon vendors, or software enterprise partners.
Proven success leading architectural design for large-scale, multi-phase hardware/software integration projects across distributed engineering organizations.
B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline (or equivalent practical engineering experience).

Responsibilities

Own the multi-year technical architecture, system interface designs, and integration blueprints for all third-party (3P) brand integrations across the Vivint Home ecosystem.
Serve as the organization’s primary technical architect for evaluating prospective partner technologies, performing deep-dive technical feasibility assessments, and defining integration patterns before development begins.
Establish strict architectural baselines, payload schemas, and security guardrails to ensure external hardware meets native performance, low latency, and high availability targets within the Vivint platform.
Partner closely with internal Platform Engineering, Embedded Firmware, Cloud Infrastructure, and Information Security teams to architect scalable, secure SDKs, APIs, and edge/cloud communication pathways.
Drive Vivint’s architectural evolution with emerging smart home protocols (such as Matter, Thread, and specialized cloud-to-cloud/local mesh APIs) to streamline partner onboarding and future-proof the platform.
Independently author comprehensive System Architecture Documents (SADs), API specifications, data flow diagrams, and technical RFCs to gain executive and engineering alignment on strategic partner initiatives.
Act as the principal architectural liaison to partner product and engineering teams, establishing integration contracts and steering external technical roadmaps to align with Vivint’s infrastructure.
Operate with high autonomy to guide, unblock, and align internal engineering squads, security reviewers, QA automation teams, and product management partners.
Establish architectural review mechanisms, post-launch telemetry specs, and failover/degradation strategies to continuously maintain the stability, security, and performance of partner integrations.