Principal Architect - Consumer Banking

Citizens Financial Group•Johnston, RI

5h•$132,000 - $198,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As a Principal Architect, you will play a pivotal role in bringing innovative ideas to life. Your work will be central to the successful integration of disruptive technologies across the organization. You will provide architectural mentorship and oversight at the Consumer Banking Platform level, including its supporting Technical Platform. This role requires working cross‑functionally with both technical and non‑technical teams—including business development, product management, software engineering, cybersecurity, and executive leadership—to drive meaningful, measurable outcomes. The Principal Architect must also be capable of presenting designs and architectural recommendations to the Architecture Review Board, as well as to senior technology and business leaders.

Requirements

5+ years of solution architecture experience
5+ years of software engineering experience
Hands-on experience designing and developing complex, multi‑tiered systems
Broad experience across multiple IT disciplines with strong understanding of relevant architectural concepts
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to facilitate technical discussions with non‑technical stakeholders
Experience designing systems within AWS
Experience designing highly available and resilient solutions
Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field

Nice To Haves

Experience in the financial services industry; understanding of consumer and custodial banking; experience working with sensitive financial data
Experience in AI engineering
Experience in machine learning
Experience building or designing systems for contact center and back‑office applications
Strong business analysis, solution design, stakeholder management, and presentation skills
Experience in cybersecurity
Familiarity with multiple programming languages
Master’s degree in computer science or a related field

Responsibilities

Design efficient, resilient, and scalable technology solutions that align with business objectives.
Participate in design reviews with software, network, and cloud engineering teams to ensure architectural alignment with strategic technology direction.
Assess business requirements, constraints, existing capabilities, and industry opportunities to define strategic technology capabilities.
Collaborate frequently with leadership and engineering teams across functional areas to align, drive adoption of solutions, and contribute to overall technology direction.
Develop architectural models, influence implementation approaches, and help achieve measurable business improvements.