principal architect- cloud

Starbucks Coffee Company•Seattle, WA

5h•$175,100 - $291,900•Onsite

About The Position

As a Principal Architect within Starbucks Technology, you lead architecture development for global IT solutions spanning Legal Technology, Azure (including Azure Translate), AWS, Atlassian, and ServiceNow. This role is intentionally hands-on — closer to the practice than a strategy-only EA — and is accountable for converting business need into architectures, designs, and working solutions across this full technology ecosystem. As a senior member of the architecture community, you champion best practices and process improvement, but your credibility comes from direct, working-level fluency in the platforms themselves, not solely from frameworks and roadmaps. This person must be equally comfortable evaluating out-of-the-box and SaaS platform capabilities as they are assessing when a custom-built tool or integration is the better path. A core part of this role is bringing sound build-versus-buy judgment to the table — recognizing when existing platforms can be configured or extended to meet a need, and when building a purpose-built tool will deliver more value, flexibility, or cost efficiency. The defining measure of success for this role is the ability to synthesize cross-platform, hands-on technical insight into an optimization strategy — identifying where to cut redundant or underused software, where to consolidate capability, where to augment with new tooling (built or bought), and where custom development is the smarter investment — while simultaneously elevating the organization's security posture by embedding security insight directly into architecture and platform decisions.

Requirements

Overall IT experience – 15 years
Variety of technical environments, systems/application development experience – 10 years
Architecture experience – 7 years
Functional and systems modeling – 10 years
Direct, hands-on experience with at least three of: Azure, AWS, Atlassian (Jira/Confluence), ServiceNow, legal technology platforms
Indirect people development – 10 years
Business process and system design – 10 years
Strategic planning – 4 years
Financial analysis & business planning – 7 years
Running technology proof-of-concepts – 10 years
Demonstrated track record of identifying software rationalization opportunities with measurable cost or complexity impact
Strong security fundamentals – able to identify and articulate risk without relying solely on a dedicated security team

Responsibilities

Evaluate build-versus-buy trade-offs for each capability gap identified — weighing total cost of ownership, flexibility, security, and maintenance burden of custom tooling against configuring or extending existing SaaS/out-of-the-box platforms
Design and prototype custom tools or integrations when a build decision is warranted, rather than defaulting to vendor-provided solutions
Maintain deep, working-level fluency across multiple domains and enterprise programs— able to move from strategy conversation to configuration review in the same meeting
Personally build and maintain architecture diagrams, data flow maps, and integration inventories across all five platform areas rather than delegating artifact creation
Prototype, test, and validate integration patterns directly instead of relying solely on vendor documentation or secondhand reporting from engineering teams
Stay current on platform-specific capabilities, licensing models, and roadmap changes for each of the five ecosystems
Build and continuously maintain a cross-platform capability map identifying overlapping, redundant, or underutilized tools across multiple domains
Deliver regular, data-backed rationalization recommendations: what to cut, what to consolidate, what to augment, and the expected cost/complexity impact of each
Quantify the business case for rationalization decisions, including cost savings, reduced maintenance burden, and reduced integration complexity
Partner with finance and vendor management to validate license utilization and total cost of ownership across the platform portfolio
Present rationalization findings in a way that directly and measurably influences leadership’s technology investment strategy
Proactively surface security risks and gaps discovered through hands-on platform work, including misconfigurations, excessive access, unpatched integrations, and data exposure risks
Bring security-by-design thinking into every architecture decision across the five platforms rather than treating security as a separate downstream review
Partner directly with security and compliance teams to translate architecture-level findings into actionable remediation plans
Establish and enforce security standards for integrations, APIs, identity/access management, and data handling across multiple domains and enterprise programs
Track and report measurable improvement in security posture resulting from architecture-driven changes
Develop capability views, strategies, architectures, and roadmaps for business and technology capabilities
Advise functional and technology leaders in defining priorities, key initiatives, and organizational alignment to support informed business decisions
Evaluate industry and technology trends and translate them into Starbucks-specific strategies, plans, models, principles, and designs across the covered ecosystems
Partner with business capability and technology service owners to develop concepts from ideation through business case, grounded in hands-on technical validation
Assess the value and impact of emerging technologies by leading opportunity assessments and proofs-of-concept across multiple domains and enterprise programs
Assist in development of enterprise strategy proposals based on environmental analysis, opportunity identification, value cases, and risk
Partner with leadership to assess business case for readiness for design across multiple domains and the enterprise
Develop multiple domain and enterprise solution options across business, information, and technology domains
Facilitate architectural design and on-going change request approvals for programs across multiple domains
Manage program and architectural interdependencies between programs across multiple domains and the enterprise
Facilitating the understanding and adoption of the solution architectures with the capability and service teams
Maintain architecture artifacts across the business, information, technology, and security architectural domains
Evaluate technology and business changes across the covered platforms for policy impacts
Govern solution architectures against defined principles, policies, and reference architectures, with particular attention to security standards
Prepare, champion, and educate client groups and teams on changes in policies and practices across multiple domains and enterprise programs
Develop partners indirectly through coaching and mentoring
Assist in development of strategic and operational plans for the work group
Support EA managers in promoting a successful attitude, confidence in leadership, and teamwork
Lead the design and shape of programs across multiple domains and the enterprise to introduce strategic technology transformation and change including assisting on the development of business case
Lead, coordinate, and facilitate cross-functional team members (business and technology) in activities related to architecture as part of the strategic program
Works with IT PMO, business, and IT to ensure work necessary to achieve strategic programs are included in the Information Technology portfolio and prioritized appropriately
Demonstrate functional and business knowledge for multiple domain and enterprise context
Act as a subject matter expert and provide consulting, guidance, and recommendations
Continuous development of domain knowledge in both the industry and the Starbucks enterprise
Demonstrate accountability and make timely, appropriate decisions across the five platform areas
Take calculated risks and challenge the status quo, particularly in identifying rationalization and security opportunities
Develop partnerships and influence others both directly and indirectly
Motivate and collaborate to create a team environment that enables team-based fulfillment of objectives
Provide coaching, direction, and leadership support to team members to achieve partner, business, and customer results
Develop concepts from strategic ideas to detailed logical views, validated through hands-on technical work
Utilize perception, creativity, transformational ideas, systems thinking, and organizing techniques
Develop the business case (“why”), conceptual model and vision (“what”), and logical model (“how”) by considering value, risk, opportunities, conditions, themes, and gaps across the five platforms
Validate that physical models developed by engineering teams translate logical models consistently with desired goals and outcomes
Demonstrate a bias for action and apply iterative thinking
Actively contribute to the maturation of the architecture practice through principles, policies, reference artifacts, and reusable patterns
Build and maintain influential working relationships at all levels and across the enterprise
Contribute to a positive team environment by actively promoting a positive, respectful work environment
Demonstrate effective behaviors to communicate and work with others
Actively engage and create learning experiences
Continuously seek to understand and create value from the customer’s perspective
Demonstrate flexibility and adapt approach and interpersonal style to best meet the needs of the individual customer

Benefits

medical
dental
vision
basic and supplemental life insurance
other voluntary insurance benefits
short-term and long-term disability
paid parental leave
family expansion reimbursement
paid vacation from date of hire
sick time
eight paid holidays
two personal days per year
401(k) retirement plan with employer match
discounted company stock program (S.I.P.)
Starbucks equity program (Bean Stock)
incentivized emergency savings
financial well-being tools
100% upfront tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program via the Starbucks College Achievement Plan
student loan management resources
access to other educational opportunities
backup care
DACA reimbursement