Principal Architect

Wellmark, Inc.•Des Moines, IA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Architect defines and governs enterprise architecture standards, principles, and best practices; leads architecture reviews and provides technical leadership across engineering teams; and develops technology roadmaps aligned with business objectives and modernization initiatives. The role establishes reusable reference architectures, frameworks, and governance processes, evaluates emerging technologies, and drives adoption strategies. It also identifies opportunities to use AI to improve business processes and engineering productivity, designs and governs enterprise AI solutions with responsible AI practices, and facilitates domain discovery and event-storming workshops to define bounded contexts, aggregates, domain services, and domain events. The role leads and supports highly integrated and complex application, cloud, and system platforms, with responsibility for system performance and availability and for alignment with architecture standards and service-level agreements. It influences the design and implementation of secure technology solutions, develops security patterns and enterprise control frameworks, provides mitigation strategies, and partners with business and technology stakeholders on planning, integrations, security improvements, and delivery. The architect reviews solution designs and vendor evaluations, supports architecture governance and technical standards including SDLC, contributes to architecture roadmaps and artifacts, and mentors architects and engineers. The position is hybrid and requires travel up to 5%.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or direct and applicable work experience.
Minimum 9 years of experience in any combination that may include security application experience, program controls, processes, and security tools such as encryption at rest and in transit.
Minimum 4 years of cloud architecture experience, including system integration, application development, and system analysis.
Expert knowledge of network protocols and enterprise network architecture, with the ability to research, architect, and drive complete technical solutions involving multiple technologies.
Experience securing workloads.
Experience migrating to a public cloud, such as Amazon, Google, or Microsoft.
Experience managing cloud access security brokers (CASB), including single sign-on, authorization, and encryption.
Experience with SQL and NoSQL database systems.
Ability to be a self-starter, lead others, focus on results and desired outcomes, and adapt flexibly to change.
Experience managing stakeholder issues and communicating and counseling stakeholders clearly and concisely.
Ability to influence others, guide individuals or groups, build consensus, and encourage action.
Ability to apply business knowledge, synthesize complex information, develop logical recommendations, and consider stakeholder needs and expectations.
Ability to maintain effectiveness and adapt when work tasks, environment, structures, processes, requirements, or cultures change.
Ability to coach and mentor others by providing guidance and feedback to strengthen knowledge and skills.
Travel required up to 5%.

Nice To Haves

Enterprise architecture leadership across multiple teams and business units.
Deep Azure and AI platform expertise.
Experience establishing architecture governance and engineering standards.
Strong background in modernization initiatives and cloud transformation.
Ability to influence executive stakeholders and drive strategic technology decisions.
Passion for mentoring engineers and fostering engineering excellence.
Balance of strategic thinking and hands-on technical depth.

Responsibilities

Define and govern enterprise architecture standards, principles, and best practices.
Lead architecture reviews and provide technical leadership across multiple engineering teams.
Develop technology roadmaps aligned with business objectives and modernization initiatives.
Establish reusable reference architectures, frameworks, and governance processes.
Evaluate emerging technologies and drive adoption strategies.
Identify opportunities to leverage AI for business process improvement and engineering productivity.
Design and govern enterprise AI solutions, including responsible AI practices.
Facilitate domain discovery and event-storming workshops with business and technical stakeholders; define bounded contexts, aggregates, domain services, and domain events.
Lead and support management of highly integrated and complex application, cloud, and system platforms; oversee system performance, availability, service-level agreements, and alignment with architecture standards and industry best practices.
Influence the design and implementation of secure technology solutions, address security issues, develop secure coding practices, and establish security patterns and enterprise control frameworks.
Work cross-functionally with business, platform engineering, solution architects, cloud service engineers, and other technology stakeholders on technical planning, integrations, security improvements, and solution delivery.
Provide mitigation strategies for applications, cloud environments, and systems, including infrastructure, architecture, and secure coding considerations.
Mentor architects, security engineers, and cloud engineers; advise upper management on security risks and technology policies; develop security architecture standards.
Oversee and review solution design efforts, including vendor evaluations, integrations, design, implementation, and administration.
Support and influence architecture governance and technical standards, including SDLC; provide design specifications for governing board approvals and help resolve security and compliance issues.
Maintain strong business relationships and ensure technical designs align with business needs; provide customer service and solutions.
Assist with architecture roadmap and artifact development.
Perform other duties as assigned.