Principal Technology Architect, GIS Platform

PG&E•Oakland, CA

1d•$155,000 - $265,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Technology Architect – GIS Platform is a senior individual-contributor role providing architecture leadership and technical direction for development teams delivering the Elevate program, PG&E’s multi-year modernization of its enterprise GIS ecosystem. The GIS platform is based on Esri ArcGIS technology hosted on AWS. The architect partners with Enterprise and Solution Architects, Product, Engineering, DevSecOps, Site Reliability Engineering, Security, Cloud, Infrastructure, Data, Operations, and business stakeholders to guide architecture, design, development, deployment, modernization, and operational evolution of enterprise GIS platforms. The role defines reusable architecture patterns, platform standards, deployment models, integration approaches, and technical guardrails for secure, scalable, resilient, high-performing GIS capabilities. It provides hands-on guidance to multidisciplinary teams, leads complex platform issue resolution and design reviews, and ensures decisions align with enterprise standards and Elevate objectives. The architect also translates utility and business requirements into GIS capabilities for field and office users, advances modern GIS solutions, and helps simplify and standardize platforms while reducing technical debt. The position is hybrid, working from a remote office and PG&E’s Oakland, California office approximately 2–3 days per week, or more based on business needs. The stated Bay Area salary range is $155,000–$265,000, with the expected range between the minimum and midpoint, and the role is eligible for discretionary incentive compensation programs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, information technology, geography, GIS, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
At least 10 years of experience developing, architecting, modernizing, or maintaining enterprise GIS technology platforms.
Demonstrated experience establishing strategic vision, architecture direction, and technical roadmaps for GIS platforms supporting large enterprise or utility functions.
Extensive hands-on experience deploying and supporting ArcGIS Enterprise in a large enterprise environment.
Deep expertise in Esri ArcGIS technology, enterprise GIS architecture, spatial data management, and GIS industry principles, theories, and best practices.
Experience architecting GIS platforms in cloud environments, with strong knowledge of AWS architecture and cloud-native engineering practices.
Strong knowledge of DevSecOps, SRE, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, automated testing, monitoring, telemetry, security, and production-readiness practices.
Experience with Python, JavaScript, .NET, ArcGIS APIs, web services, geoprocessing, and GIS automation.
Ability to translate complex business and utility requirements into scalable, secure, resilient, supportable GIS and IT architecture.
Excellent analytical, technical, architecture, documentation, written, verbal, facilitation, and stakeholder-influence skills.
Demonstrated success navigating complex organizational, technical, and cultural challenges while fostering collaboration and shared outcomes.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in computer science, engineering, information technology, GIS, or a related field.
Experience delivering large-scale enterprise modernization or re-platforming initiatives in regulated utility or critical-infrastructure environments.
Deep knowledge of Gas and Electric utility operations, asset management, field workflows, and enterprise integration needs.
Experience with enterprise geodatabases, multiuser editing, versioning, replication, compression, indexing, database performance tuning, and GIS data lifecycle management.
Experience with Esri Utility Network deployment, migration, modeling, editing, integration, and operational support practices.
Strong background in Infrastructure as Code using Terraform or an equivalent technology.
Experience integrating security and DevSecOps practices into CI/CD pipelines for enterprise platforms.
Knowledge of Schneider ArcFM toolsets and ArcFM configuration.
Experience with PostgreSQL for GIS workloads and knowledge of legacy Oracle and ArcSDE implementations.
Familiarity with SAFe or Agile delivery in large enterprise programs.
Strong change-management and technical-influence skills that support adoption of new architecture standards and platform capabilities.

Responsibilities

Lead GIS technology platform planning, architecture, and multi-year roadmapping for Elevate and the broader enterprise GIS ecosystem.
Define current-, transition-, and future-state platform architectures aligned with enterprise cloud, cybersecurity, data, integration, and DevSecOps standards.
Provide technical leadership for ArcGIS Enterprise components, enterprise geodatabases, utility network capabilities, and large-scale spatial datasets.
Architect GIS solutions hosted on AWS and guide cloud-native approaches for availability, scalability, resilience, security, performance, observability, and cost optimization.
Establish architecture decision records, reference architectures, reusable patterns, technical standards, and design-review practices.
Guide GIS data modeling, editing workflows, versioning, replication, compression, indexing, data lifecycle management, and performance tuning.
Consult with engineering and development teams and lead technical design reviews for desktop, web, mobile, data, integration, and platform solutions.
Translate complex platform topics, options, risks, dependencies, and trade-offs into recommendations for technical and business stakeholders.
Evaluate emerging cloud technologies and recommend adoption paths that support program objectives and business value.
Design and oversee enterprise geodatabases, including PostgreSQL and legacy ArcSDE patterns where required during transition.
Develop or guide procedures for geodatabase connectivity, access, versioning, compression, replication, indexing, monitoring, tuning, service packs, and upgrades.
Partner with database administrators to design, configure, secure, monitor, and optimize databases for enterprise GIS workloads.
Define platform approaches for Esri Utility Network, Geometric Network transition, spatial data models, and complex utility editing scenarios.
Guide creation and management of web services and web GIS applications using current Esri APIs and enterprise development standards.
Oversee technical approaches for GIS automation, geoprocessing, Python, JavaScript, .NET, and supported Esri development frameworks.
Provide architectural direction for Schneider ArcFM toolsets, Esri extensions, and modernization or retirement strategies.
Create and maintain architecture, technical design, integration, deployment, operational, and decision documentation.
Define production-readiness and operational architecture requirements for foundational GIS platforms and applications.
Implement secure end-to-end CI/CD patterns, automated testing, environment promotion, release controls, and Infrastructure as Code practices for GIS platforms.
Define standardized Development, Test, and Production environment patterns with appropriate configuration, secrets, access, and change-management controls.
Apply SRE principles, including service-level objectives and indicators, monitoring, alerting, telemetry, observability, capacity planning, and operational runbooks.
Partner with Engineering and Operations to automate manual operational work, improve recoverability, and strengthen platform stability and incident response.
Assess technical and cybersecurity risks, define mitigations, and ensure compliance with security, audit, regulatory, and enterprise operational standards.
Guide performance testing, capacity management, failure-mode analysis, high availability, disaster recovery, backup, restoration, and business continuity design.
Participate in complex incident analysis and post-incident reviews and identify architecture improvements to prevent recurrence and improve resilience.
Provide principal technical architecture input for specific Elevate applications and contribute to PI and sprint planning, release sequencing, estimates, delivery plans, risks, and technical decisions.
Develop, prioritize, coordinate, and communicate technical goals, architecture transitions, and processes needed to implement Elevate solutions and products.
Partner with Enterprise and Solution Architects on future-state GIS strategies, sequencing, dependencies, and multi-year roadmaps.
Drive consistency in architecture patterns, deployment models, environment strategies, platform configurations, identity, security controls, and observability.
Lead technical debt identification and remediation planning through modernization, standardization, automation, and retirement of obsolete components.
Ensure architecture aligns with Elevate goals for cloud adoption, modernization, security, operational resilience, and cost optimization.
Coordinate architecture dependencies across application, data, platform, integration, security, and infrastructure workstreams.
Partner with PG&E functional areas, including Gas Operations and Electric Operations, to translate business and utility requirements into GIS platform capabilities.
Advance delivery of mobile solutions, spatial analytics, GIS data pipelines, web-based mapping, remote-sensing solutions, and enterprise integrations.
Collaborate with GIS leadership across Delivery, Operations, Business Architecture, GIS Data and Analytics, Product, Engineering, and Infrastructure.