Principal Security Architect (Commercial Bank & Payments)

Citizens Bank•Johnston, RI

4d•$160,000 - $205,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Citizens is seeking a strategic and experienced Principal Architect, Enterprise Security to support our Commercial Banking and Payments domains. This role is responsible for driving secure, scalable, and resilient architecture strategies across cloud, infrastructure, applications, data, and security platforms. While aligned to the Security organization, this is not a traditional security engineering position. The successful candidate will leverage enterprise architecture principles and industry frameworks to guide technology decisions, influence architectural direction, and embed security throughout the technology ecosystem. This individual will partner closely with senior architects, engineering leaders, and business stakeholders to enable innovation while managing risk and supporting business objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related discipline.
15+ years of experience in enterprise architecture roles with demonstrated leadership at the enterprise or divisional level.
Strong knowledge and practical application of enterprise architecture frameworks including TOGAF, SABSA, NIST, and related methodologies.
Deep experience with cloud platforms including AWS, Azure, or GCP.
Experience with DevOps practices, infrastructure automation, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software engineering approaches.
Strong understanding of modern application architectures including microservices, APIs, distributed systems, and container technologies.
Broad cybersecurity architecture experience including identity and access management, encryption, secure network design, threat modeling, and security controls.
Proven ability to bridge enterprise architecture, security architecture, application architecture, and business strategy.
Experience embedding security into digital transformation, modernization, customer experience, and operational efficiency initiatives.
Experience implementing shift left security practices and proactively incorporating security requirements into architectural design.
Ability to align security priorities with evolving business objectives and technology strategies.
Experience fostering a security minded culture that positions security as a business enabler while maintaining compliance and managing risk.
Ability to influence stakeholders and drive outcomes in a highly matrixed environment without direct authority.
Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills with the ability to communicate effectively to technical and executive audiences.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related discipline.
Industry certifications such as TOGAF, SABSA, CISSP, CCSP, AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect, or similar credentials.
Experience within financial services, banking, payments, fintech, or other highly regulated industries.

Responsibilities

Define and evolve enterprise architecture strategies aligned to business objectives and cybersecurity goals.
Partner with line of business architects to ensure cohesive integration of business, application, data, technology, and security architecture domains.
Develop architecture standards, reference architectures, design patterns, and reusable frameworks that promote consistency and scalability across the enterprise.
Champion secure by design principles throughout the software development lifecycle.
Serve as a senior advisor, translating regulatory requirements, security standards, and risk considerations into actionable architectural guidance.
Collaborate with Infrastructure, Engineering, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Security leaders to embed architectural controls into platforms, CI/CD pipelines, and operational processes.
Lead architecture discussions supporting cloud transformation, infrastructure modernization, application development, and data initiatives.
Evaluate and guide adoption of emerging technologies, including cloud native platforms, identity frameworks, API security, secure data exchange, containerization, and automation solutions.
Drive alignment between enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and business strategy.
Influence technology decisions across a highly matrixed organization through technical expertise, collaboration, and leadership.
Communicate architectural concepts, recommendations, and risk considerations to both technical and executive audiences.