Principal Integration Architect (Azure / Retail Platforms)

Columbia Sportswear Company • Portland, OR

1d

About The Position

OUTGROWN YOUR OWN BACKYARD? COME PLAY IN OURS. At Columbia, we’re as passionate about the outdoors as you are. And while our gear is available worldwide, we’re proud to be based in the Pacific Northwest, where natural wonders are our playground. Every product we make and every task we undertake is inspired by the famous words of our founder Gert Boyle: “It’s perfect. Now make it better.” As pioneers of relentless improvement, we are constantly evolving. We believe the outdoors is ours to protect and strive to keep our planet healthy. We believe in empowering people to experience the outdoors to the fullest. And we believe in you. POSITION SUMMARY We are seeking a Principal Integration Architect to define and evolve how our retail systems integrate at scale. This role is responsible for designing reusable integration software patterns across a complex retail ecosystem—not for delivering individual point‑to‑point integrations. This is a senior, hands‑on architecture role for someone who has lived inside retail technology environments and understands how real retail systems behave under operational pressure. You will act as the architectural authority for integration design, enabling multiple engineering teams to build consistently, predictably, and sustainably over time. This role is not focused on data engineering, analytics platforms, or middleware configuration. The emphasis is integration architecture as a software discipline, grounded in retail domain realities.

Requirements

• Direct integration architecture experience within retail organizations, such as: Direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) or omnichannel commerce platforms Order Management Systems (OMS) Warehouse, fulfillment, or 3PL integrations (WMS) Inventory, pricing, promotions, or merchandise planning systems POS, store systems, or store‑to‑digital transaction flows
• Designed and governed integration patterns including: API‑first and contract‑driven interfaces Event‑driven messaging and asynchronous processing Canonical data or event modeling Error handling, retries, idempotency, and dead‑letter strategies
• Experience owning integration architecture across multiple teams or domains
• A practical understanding of retail system lifecycles, including order progression, fulfillment exceptions, returns, and inventory reconciliation
• The ability to clearly explain why one integration pattern is preferable to another in a given retail scenario
• Experience producing architectural artifacts such as: Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) Interaction and sequence diagrams Integration standards and design guidelines
• A background in modern, cloud‑based integration approaches commonly used in large retail enterprises
• Experience designing and governing integration architectures in a Microsoft Azure–based environment, aligning retail integration patterns with Azure‑native cloud operating models

Responsibilities

• Define and govern enterprise integration software patterns used across retail platforms and domains
• Design integration approaches spanning: API‑first and contract‑driven integrations Event‑driven and asynchronous workflows Hybrid interaction models across distributed retail systems
• Own key architectural decisions such as: Synchronous vs. asynchronous tradeoffs Orchestration vs. choreography Canonical models vs. domain-aligned contracts Versioning and backward‑compatibility strategies
• Shape integration designs to accommodate retail‑specific constraints, including: Peak traffic and promotional events Partial fulfillment and order state transitions Inventory accuracy, reconciliation, and latency tolerance Returns, cancellations, and exception handling
• Create and maintain reference architectures, exemplars, and standards that guide engineering teams
• Review and influence integration designs across teams, ensuring alignment to defined patterns
• Partner closely with engineering, platform, product, and security teams to ensure architectural consistency
• Mentor senior engineers and influence technical direction without being delivery‑ or ticket‑driven

Benefits

• At Columbia Sportswear Company, we’re proud to offer regular full-time employees a benefits package that includes a variety of services and products to help make your life and work more rewarding.
• Our benefit programs contribute to overall employee well-being by aligning those programs with the fundamental elements of well-being: physical, social/emotional, financial, career and community.
• Benefits that can protect your family’s financial future and help you save money through our 401k plan plus a generous company match.
• Columbia offers medical, dental, vision, life Insurance, disability, flexible spending accounts, health savings account, and an assortment of voluntary benefit offerings (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and legal services).
• In addition, Columbia offers EAP + which is free and confidential 24/7/365 counseling services.
• We have extensive wellness benefits, employee discounts and a generous time off program available.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed