Principal Architect

Wellmark•Des Moines, IA

About The Position

The Principal Architect defines and governs enterprise architecture standards, principles, and best practices while providing technical leadership across multiple engineering teams. The role develops technology roadmaps aligned with business objectives and modernization initiatives, establishes reusable reference architectures and governance processes, evaluates emerging technologies, and identifies opportunities to use AI for business process improvement and engineering productivity. It also designs and governs enterprise AI solutions, including responsible AI practices, and facilitates domain discovery and event storming with business and technical stakeholders. The position leads and supports complex, highly integrated application, cloud, and system platforms. It helps ensure system performance and availability, alignment with architecture standards, and adherence to service-level agreements and industry best practices. The Principal Architect influences the design and implementation of secure technology solutions, develops security patterns and enterprise control frameworks, and provides mitigation strategies for applications, cloud environments, and systems. The role works with business and Technology stakeholders, provides guidance on architecture and security policies, supports vendor evaluation and integration, contributes to architecture roadmaps and artifacts, and mentors architects and engineers.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or direct and applicable work experience.
At least 9 years of experience, which may include a combination of security application experience involving program controls, processes, and security tools such as encryption at rest and in transit.
At least 4 years of cloud architecture experience, including system integration, application development, and system analysis.
Expert knowledge of network protocols and enterprise network architecture, and ability to research, architect, and drive complete technical solutions across multiple technologies.
Experience securing workloads.
Experience migrating to public cloud platforms, including 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 lead others, work independently, and focus on results and desired outcomes.
Flexibility and adaptability to change.
Experience managing stakeholder issues and communicating and counseling stakeholders clearly and concisely.
Ability to influence individuals or groups, guide work, build consensus, and drive action.
Strong business knowledge and perspective, with ability to synthesize complex information and develop logical recommendations.
Ability to view situations from stakeholders' perspectives and address their needs and expectations.
Ability to remain effective through changes in tasks, work environments, structures, processes, requirements, or cultures.
Ability to coach and mentor others to strengthen their knowledge and skills and improve job performance.
Ability to travel 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 use AI to improve business processes 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 and availability, ensure solutions align with architecture standards, and proactively oversee fulfillment of service-level agreements.
Keep solutions current with industry best practices, technologies, and Wellmark standards.
Influence the design and implementation of technology solutions to address security issues and develop secure coding practices.
Develop security patterns and Enterprise Control Frameworks; assist with complex integrations and cross-functional technical planning and security system delivery.
Manage partnerships with Technology stakeholders and provide direction regarding security process improvements.
Provide mitigation strategies for applications, cloud, and systems covering infrastructure, architecture, and secure coding.
Mentor architects and engineers on projects, engineering tasks, design, security requirements, and technical issues; consult upper management on security risks and Technology policies.
Oversee, review, and provide technical leadership on solution design, vendor evaluation and selection, integration, implementation, and administration.
Support and influence architecture governance and technical standards, including SDLC; provide design specifications for governing board approvals.
Provide expert guidance on Technology policies, security, and infrastructure, and work with team members to address security and compliance issues.
Maintain relationships and business acumen with business stakeholders to align technical designs with business needs and provide customer service and solutions.
Assist with architecture roadmap and artifact development.
Perform other duties as assigned.