Principal Architect

MSIG USA•Warren Township, NJ

1d•$240,000 - $270,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Architect serves as a senior technology leader responsible for defining and advancing the enterprise architecture strategy across applications, data, integration, analytics, and artificial intelligence capabilities. This role ensures that business solutions are scalable, secure, resilient, and aligned with enterprise objectives while enabling innovation, operational efficiency, and business growth. This role is expected to operate at both strategic and hands-on levels, providing architectural leadership across solution design, platform modernization, data ecosystems, AI adoption, cloud transformation, and enterprise integration initiatives. The ideal candidate combines deep technology expertise with strong business acumen, systems thinking, and the ability to translate business strategy into practical architecture and execution plans. The Principal Architect is also expected to champion responsible adoption of emerging technologies, including AI and GenAI capabilities, while ensuring appropriate governance, security, compliance, risk management, and business value realization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field required.
12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, solution architecture, enterprise architecture, data architecture, or related disciplines.
5+ years of experience leading enterprise-scale architecture initiatives.
Experience defining and governing architecture across applications, data platforms, integrations, cloud environments, and AI technologies.
Demonstrated success partnering with executive leadership and business stakeholders to deliver strategic technology outcomes.
Experience leading digital transformation, modernization, cloud adoption, or data platform initiatives.
Deep understanding of enterprise architecture, application architecture, data architecture, integration patterns, and cloud technologies.
Strong systems-thinking mindset with the ability to understand complex interactions across people, process, data, applications, and technology ecosystems.
Expertise in enterprise integration, APIs, event-driven architecture, and distributed systems.
Strong understanding of data management principles, governance, metadata, lineage, analytics, and information architecture.
Familiarity with AI, GenAI, machine learning, agent-based architecture, knowledge retrieval, and intelligent automation platforms.
Ability to balance strategic vision with practical execution and delivery realities.
Strong business acumen and the ability to align technology investments with measurable business outcomes.
Excellent communication, presentation, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
Demonstrated ability to influence without direct authority across large, matrixed organizations.
Experience with cloud platforms, enterprise data platforms, Azure ecosystem technologies, Microsoft Copilot, and AI-enabled productivity tools.
Strong leadership and mentoring skills with a passion for innovation, continuous improvement, and technology excellence.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree preferred.
Experience implementing enterprise data, analytics, machine learning, or GenAI solutions preferred.
Insurance industry experience strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead architecture efforts for enterprise applications, platforms, and digital experiences.
Define target-state application architectures that support business agility, scalability, resilience, and operational excellence.
Drive application modernization strategies include cloud adoption, platform consolidation, API enablement, and service-oriented architecture.
Partner with engineering and product teams to establish scalable application patterns, reusable services, and shared capabilities.
Guide solution architecture decisions for major initiatives while balancing business priorities, technical constraints, risk, and cost considerations.
Promote reuse, simplification, and standardization across applications and platforms.
Ensure architecture decisions support long-term maintainability, performance, security, and operational supportability.
Define and evolve enterprise data architecture strategies, including operational, analytical, reporting, and AI data foundations.
Establish data architecture standards covering data domains, master/reference data, metadata, lineage, governance, and quality management.
Partner with business and data leaders to define enterprise information models and common business data definitions.
Drive adoption of enterprise data platforms and capabilities supporting reporting, analytics, machine learning, and AI initiatives.
Ensure data architectures support traceability, auditability, scalability, regulatory compliance, and business transparency.
Lead architecture decisions involving data integration, data movement, event-driven architectures, APIs, and enterprise information exchange.
Identify opportunities to improve data accessibility, quality, consistency, and business value across the organization.
Define enterprise AI architecture and adoption strategies aligned with organizational goals and responsible AI principles.
Partner with business leaders to identify and prioritize AI use cases that improve productivity, decision-making, customer experiences, and operational outcomes.
Establish architectural patterns, standards, and governance for AI, GenAI, machine learning, intelligent automation, and decision-support capabilities.
Drive integration of AI capabilities into business applications, workflows, analytics platforms, and enterprise processes.
Collaborate with security, legal, compliance, and risk stakeholders to ensure AI solutions are implemented responsibly and securely.
Provide guidance on AI platforms, model lifecycle management, prompt engineering practices, knowledge management, and AI operationalization.
Promote AI literacy and adoption across business and technology teams through education, coaching, and enterprise enablement activities.
Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, business stakeholders, product teams, and delivery organizations.
Facilitate architecture workshops, strategy discussions, solution reviews, and technology planning sessions.
Translate complex business and technical challenges into clear architectural recommendations and execution plans.
Communicate architectural direction, tradeoffs, risks, and opportunities to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Build strong partnerships across business functions, technology teams, vendors, and external partners.
Influence enterprise investment decisions through strategic technology planning and architecture guidance.
Foster collaboration and alignment across multiple initiatives, programs, and organizational teams.
Guide major initiatives from concept through implementation, ensuring architectural integrity throughout delivery.
Support Agile delivery teams by providing architecture guidance, technical leadership, and design oversight.
Review solution designs, implementation approaches, and technology choices for alignment with enterprise strategy.
Identify technical debt, modernization opportunities, operational risks, and improvement initiatives.
Drive continuous improvement in architecture practices, technology adoption, engineering standards, and delivery effectiveness.
Mentor architects, engineers, analysts, and technology leaders to strengthen enterprise architecture capabilities and technical excellence.