Principal Architect

Cubic Corporation•San Diego, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Architect provides senior technical and architectural leadership across multiple programs, ensuring that solutions are strategically aligned with Cubic’s business objectives, customer needs, and long‑term technology vision. This role is responsible for defining, governing, and guiding end‑to‑end system architecture across the full lifecycle. The Principal Architect partners closely with executive leadership, product, engineering, and program teams to translate business and operational requirements into scalable, secure, and sustainable technical solutions. Operating with significant autonomy, this role exercises substantial judgment and decision‑making authority, influencing enterprise‑level architecture standards, technology direction, and investment decisions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline; or equivalent experience.
Minimum of 12 years of progressive experience in system architecture, software engineering, or technical leadership roles within complex, large‑scale environments.
Demonstrated experience defining and governing architecture across multi‑program or enterprise‑level initiatives.
Strong ability to balance technical depth with business awareness, translating strategy into executable architectural outcomes.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with executives, engineers, program teams, customers, vendors, and partners.
Proven ability to operate independently, manage ambiguity, and drive high‑impact architectural decisions.
Highly organized, detail‑oriented, and capable of working flexibly across concurrent priorities.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office and standard architecture documentation tools.
Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 40%.

Responsibilities

Owns the end‑to‑end architectural vision for assigned programs, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards, technology strategy, and business objectives.
Defines and governs solution, system, and integration architectures, ensuring resiliency, scalability, security, and maintainability across global deployments.
Leads architectural decision‑making, including trade‑off analysis, technical risk assessment, and long‑term sustainability considerations.
Serves as the technical authority and escalation point for complex architectural issues across supported programs.
Develops and maintains architecture and technology roadmaps aligned with product, program, and enterprise strategies.
Partners with strategy, product, and program leadership to ensure architectural plans support near‑term delivery needs while enabling future capabilities.
Evaluates emerging technologies, industry trends, and architectural patterns, recommending adoption where they deliver clear business or operational value.
Works closely with engineering, product, program management, and business development teams to translate requirements into clear architectural designs and standards.
Provides architectural guidance throughout ideation, design, development, deployment, and end‑of‑life transitions.
Ensures architectural intent, constraints, and decisions are clearly communicated and understood across engineering and delivery teams.
Participates in program planning, design reviews, sprint reviews, and retrospectives as the architectural representative.
Represents architecture in governance and executive forums, supporting decisions related to funding, scope, technical direction, and prioritization.
Supports build vs. buy assessments, vendor evaluations, and technology selection decisions.
Participates in due diligence activities related to partnerships, acquisitions, or strategic technology investments.
Identifies architectural risks and proactively drives mitigation strategies, including escalation when required.
Acts as a technical and architectural subject matter expert with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders.
Ensures architectural solutions address customer use cases, operational realities, and regulatory or environmental constraints.
Supports marketing and sales efforts through technical input, solution overviews, and thought leadership as appropriate.
Provides guidance and mentorship to architects, senior engineers, and technical leads across programs.
May provide indirect or direct leadership to other architecture or engineering roles, shaping best practices and raising technical maturity across the organization.