Principal Architect - Digital Platform

FERGUSON

1d•$10,595 - $18,536•Remote

About The Position

The Principal Architect - Digital Platform is the technical leader responsible for defining and driving Ferguson's long-term strategy for digital platform build and modernization. This role will lead the transformation from fragmented channel-specific applications toward a unified, composable platform built on microservices passionate about core business areas. It incorporates headless architecture, API-first development, and event-driven integration. This individual will serve as the senior-most technical leader for Digital within the organization. They define architecture principles, engineering standards, and reference implementations. These enable reusable capabilities across all digital channels. In this role, the ideal candidate will partner closely with Product, Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, and Business leaders to ensure technology investments accelerate innovation while maintaining operational stability. This position will also lead adoption of AI-assisted software engineering and Agentic AI capabilities, helping transform both the customer experience and engineering efficiency.

Requirements

15+ years of software engineering, architecture, and technology leadership experience.
Consistent track record leading enterprise-scale digital platform modernization initiatives.
Experience designing large-scale commerce platforms supporting millions of products and high transaction volumes.
Experience leading architecture for modern digital platforms across web, APIs, and partner ecosystems.
Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
Microservices Architecture
Headless Commerce
API-first Design
Event-Driven Architecture
Cloud-native Platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP)
Distributed Systems
BFF (Backend for Frontend)
GraphQL & REST APIs
Identity & Access Management
Observability & Site Reliability Engineering
Performance Engineering
Security by Design
Executive presence with the ability to influence senior technology leaders.
Proven ability to lead without direct authority across multiple engineering organizations.
Strong mentoring and coaching skills for Principal and lead engineers

Responsibilities

Define and own the target architecture for Ferguson's Digital Platform, establishing the technical roadmap for headless commerce, API-first services, domain-driven microservices, and event-driven architecture.
Lead the architecture and execution strategy for modernizing the digital technology landscape, driving the evolution from fragmented legacy applications to a modernized unified platform.
Lead architecture and solution design for strategic business initiatives, ensuring solutions maximize reuse, minimize redundancy, and align with enterprise architecture principles while supporting long-term platform evolution.
Establish architecture principles, engineering standards and technology guardrails covering APIs, cloud-native development, security, observability, resiliency, CI/CD, and engineering best practices.
Partner with engineering teams to identify domain boundaries, define reusable business capabilities, and establish shared services that can be consumed across multiple brands, customer channels, and connected platforms.
Lead the organization's technical strategy for AI-assisted software development, Generative AI, and Agentic AI systems.
Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend investments that improve scalability, developer productivity, customer experience, operational efficiency, and speed-to-market.
Lead architecture reviews across critical initiatives and mentor architects, principal engineers, and engineering leaders to ensure consistent technical direction and engineering excellence.
Partner with Product Management, Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, Data, and Business collaborators to align technology strategy with business priorities and modernization goals.
Act as the organization's trusted technical advisor, influencing executive leadership on architecture decisions, platform investments, technology risks, and long-term modernization strategy.