Senior Architect, COTS Applications

AbbVie•North Chicago, IL

4d•$141,500 - $268,500

About The Position

The Senior Architect, COTS Applications serves as the architecture leader for the group’s commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) application portfolio. The role applies deep expertise across enterprise application platforms, integrations, and vendor ecosystems to define and operationalize application strategy and technology roadmaps. It is intended for an experienced architect who has designed and delivered complex COTS solutions and can turn implementation, integration, and modernization experience into durable roadmaps, standards, and reference architectures while leading a team of architects. The position combines hands-on COTS and integration platform expertise with strategic technical authority. It shapes application direction across the portfolio while ensuring alignment with Enterprise Architecture, security, compliance, and business outcomes. The Senior Architect operates at both solution and enterprise levels, guiding the team, peers, and business stakeholders toward coherent, scalable, and modern application platforms.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 9 years of relevant experience, or a master’s degree and 8 years of experience, or a PhD and 4 years of experience in COTS application, integration, or enterprise application architecture roles.
Prior experience leading or managing a team of architects or senior technologists, including coaching, performance management, and capacity/demand planning across a portfolio.
Demonstrated leadership designing and executing COTS application and integration strategies across large, heterogeneous portfolios, including SaaS, on-premise COTS, and hybrid integration landscapes.
Deep expertise in modern COTS and integration architecture practices, including configuration-first delivery, API/event-driven integration, iPaaS, identity and access, master data considerations, and security-by-design.
Track record guiding organizations through complex COTS implementation, upgrade, consolidation, or modernization programs involving legacy systems, technical debt, and organizational change.
Strong enterprise influence skills, including comfort with governance forums, architectural review boards, vendor negotiations, and ambiguous problem spaces.
Ability to explain complex architectural concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, including business partners, and drive alignment and informed decisions.
Recognized as a trusted architectural leader and mentor, with a commitment to elevating architectural rigor, platform thinking, and modern practices across teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience in regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals.

Responsibilities

Lead, develop, coach, and manage a team of architects responsible for COTS application architecture, integrations, and the group’s technology roadmap, including performance, growth, and staffing.
Define and advance COTS application and integration strategies, translating long-term business and technology goals into actionable multi-year architectural roadmaps.
Provide architectural leadership and oversight across vendor selection, COTS implementation, configuration, extension, integration, and lifecycle management, ensuring solutions are cohesive, future-ready, and aligned with enterprise standards.
Establish reference architectures, design patterns, and decision frameworks for COTS architecture, integration patterns, and configuration-versus-customization decisions.
Partner with BRMs, BSCs, BSAs, and Software Engineering teams on current projects, future planning, demand intake, and solutioning, ensuring COTS solutions integrate effectively with custom-built capabilities.
Serve as a senior architectural authority in governance and design forums, framing trade-offs, risks, and recommendations on vendor capabilities, integration approaches, build-versus-buy-versus-configure decisions, and roadmap sequencing.
Guide evolution of the COTS and integration landscape while balancing modernization, resilience, security, compliance, total cost of ownership, and vendor roadmap alignment.
Coordinate with infrastructure, data, security, DevOps, and enterprise architecture teams to integrate COTS strategy with broader platform and delivery ecosystems.
Mentor architects and senior technologists, raising architectural maturity, integration and platform thinking, and modern application practices.
Ensure adherence to corporate and divisional policies, including GxP, data security, and application lifecycle management, embedding compliance into architectural decisions.