Lead Director Software Development (Architecture, Client Experience)

CVS Health•Richardson, TX

About The Position

We’re building a world of health around every individual — shaping a more connected, convenient and compassionate health experience. At CVS Health®, you’ll be surrounded by passionate colleagues who care deeply, innovate with purpose, hold ourselves accountable and prioritize safety and quality in everything we do. Join us and be part of something bigger – helping to simplify health care one person, one family and one community at a time. Position Summary The Lead Director – Architecture, Client Experience owns the end‑to‑end architecture vision and execution for highly complex, enterprise‑scale initiatives across Adjudication and Client Experience platforms, partnering closely with business leaders, product management, engineering, security, and enterprise architecture teams. AI is an integral and mandatory component of all solution designs. The Lead Director will ensure that AI‑assisted, data‑driven, and intelligent capabilities are intentionally evaluated and embedded by default—not added later—across platforms, workflows, and developer experiences. The Lead Director will establish and scale a technology incubation and innovation function, driving the identification, validation, and adoption of advanced architectures—including AI/ML, Generative AI, agentic workflows, cloud‑native platforms, event‑driven integration frameworks, and intelligent automation. This is a hands‑on architecture leadership role requiring deep technical credibility, strong people leadership, and the ability to influence strategy while staying close to design and implementation.

Requirements

10+ years of overall design and development experience, including enterprise‑scale solution architecture
7+ years of hands‑on cloud architecture experience, primarily in Azure, with solid experience in GCP
Deep expertise in software architecture patterns, including Domain‑Driven Design, microservices, event‑driven, and AI‑enabled architectures
Strong experience with enterprise integration platforms, including streaming technologies such as Kafka or Pulsar
Proven ability to lead and influence architecture decisions across large, matrixed organizations
Experience mentoring architects and driving AI and platform adoption at scale
Strong ability to translate complex technical and AI concepts into business‑relevant outcomes
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field or equivalent experience

Nice To Haves

PBM or healthcare domain experience
Hands‑on experience with AI/ML platforms and Generative AI architectures
Knowledge of healthcare data standards and regulatory considerations
Expertise in SQL/NoSQL data stores, caching, and high‑performance cloud‑native systems
Experience with design thinking and innovation frameworks
Participation in open‑source communities or industry forums
Master’s degree preferred

Responsibilities

Lead, manage, and mentor a team Architects, setting clear expectations for architecture quality, consistency, and outcomes
Own architecture standards, guiding principles, and review processes, ensuring AI‑first and automation‑first thinking is applied consistently across all solution designs
Provide hands‑on architecture oversight, design reviews, and technical guidance for Tier‑1 and strategic initiatives, explicitly validating AI, data, and intelligence opportunities
Drive reuse of platforms, patterns, shared services, and AI capabilities to reduce complexity and accelerate delivery
Lead the development of end‑to‑end, AI‑enabled solution architectures for highly complex, cross‑domain PBM initiatives
Ensure all solution designs evaluate AI assisted decisioning, Automation and intelligent workflows & Data driven insights and observability
Perform and guide Buy vs Build vs Partner analyses, including AI platforms, models, and services, using qualitative and quantitative inputs to make defensible recommendations
Develop and maintain reference architectures for cloud‑native, event‑driven, API‑first, microservices‑based, and AI‑enabled solutions
Partner with application, platform, and SRE teams to resolve architectural bottlenecks, including scalability, performance, resilience, integration, and operational intelligence
Drive AI‑first, automation‑first architecture, reducing manual processes across development, operations, and business workflows
Guide architects and teams in designing intelligent automation solutions, including: Agentic workflows, Event‑driven orchestration
Lead modernization initiatives focused on technical debt reduction, legacy optimization, and cloud migration, embedding intelligence into modernized platforms
Ensure architectures incorporate security, observability, Responsible AI, and operational readiness by design
Partner closely with business leaders, product management, engineering, data science, security, and EA teams to translate AI capabilities into business outcomes
Present architecture strategies, AI prototypes, and emerging technology capabilities to executive leadership through compelling narratives and demos
Coach and develop architects to be AI‑literate, cloud‑native, and business‑aware technology leaders