Senior Architect, Software Engineering

Western Union•Austin, TX

20h•Hybrid

About The Position

Western Union is seeking a Senior Architect, Solution Engineering. This role is designed for a highly experienced technology leader who can help modernize enterprise platforms that support Risk, Compliance, and KYC capabilities. The candidate will lead solution design and contribute to the development of high-performance, secure, and scalable orchestration ecosystems that enable strategic business initiatives and improve operational efficiency. The ideal candidate will partner closely with engineering, product, business, compliance, and external vendor teams to design and deliver enterprise-grade solutions. This role requires strong hands-on engineering expertise, architecture leadership, vendor and third-party API integration experience, and the ability to produce clear enterprise-level documentation and diagrams that support technical delivery, governance, and cross-functional alignment.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field with 10+ years of professional experience, or a master's degree with 8+ years of experience. Equivalent work experience will also be considered.
Extensive software development and solution architecture experience, particularly in enterprise API development, microservices architecture, distributed systems, and cloud-native application design.
Strong hands-on development experience with Java, Spring Boot, Core Java, REST APIs, microservices, and AWS Cloud technologies.
Proven experience designing, building, deploying, monitoring, and supporting high-performance APIs and enterprise-grade backend services.
Demonstrated experience integrating with vendor platforms, third-party services, and external APIs, including secure authentication, error handling, resiliency, scalability, monitoring, and operational support considerations.
Practical knowledge of current AI and Generative AI trends, including ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, cloud-based AI services, AI-assisted development tools, and intelligent automation solutions.
Ability to evaluate and leverage AI tools to improve engineering productivity and operational efficiency.
Strong AWS experience, including cloud architecture best practices, application deployment, monitoring, security, resiliency, and performance optimization.
Solid understanding of relational databases and data platforms such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, or similar technologies.
Strong knowledge of microservices, event-driven architecture, design patterns, data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented programming principles.
Hands-on experience with DevOps practices including source control, CI/CD, infrastructure automation, deployment pipelines, and release governance.
Proficiency with Git and GitHub, including branching strategies, repository management, pull requests, code reviews, and collaborative development workflows.
Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools such as Splunk, Dynatrace, AWS CloudWatch, or similar platforms.
Strong analytical, troubleshooting, diagnostic, and problem-solving skills with the ability to resolve complex technical issues.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively with internal and external partners, vendors, business stakeholders, and global engineering teams.
Knowledge of KYC, AML, Risk, and Compliance domains is highly desirable.
Experience in financial services, banking, fintech, payments, customer verification, fraud prevention, or regulatory compliance environments is a strong advantage.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of Kafka, Docker, Kubernetes, containerization, or orchestration platforms is preferred.
Experience working with compliance, sanctions screening, identity verification, customer due diligence, risk scoring, case management, fraud prevention, or regulatory technology platforms.
Experience with vendor due diligence, vendor API onboarding, third-party integration lifecycle management, SLAs, operational readiness, and production support models.
Ability to drive innovation through AI-powered engineering practices, cloud modernization, process automation, and continuous improvement.
Demonstrated leadership experience mentoring engineers, influencing technical decisions, establishing standards, and driving architectural governance across teams.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture and design of scalable, low-latency, high-throughput enterprise systems that support real-time decision-making and compliance-ready operations.
Design and implement robust, secure, and scalable frameworks for Risk, Compliance, and KYC ecosystems.
Develop solutions that integrate with internal platforms, vendor products, and third-party APIs while applying strong authentication, secure-by-design practices, observability, and industry standards.
Collaborate with engineering, product, business, compliance, and architecture stakeholders to deliver solutions aligned with future-state enterprise architecture.
Assess existing solutions and recommend modernization improvements aligned with business priorities, industry benchmarks, resiliency, and cloud-native architecture principles.
Apply modern architecture patterns including microservices, event-driven design, API-first development, cloud-native deployment, and domain-driven design concepts.
Drive code quality through code reviews, technical standards, design governance, and mentoring engineering teams.
Identify and resolve technical issues, perform root cause analysis, remove delivery blockers, and implement sustainable corrective actions.
Lead modernization initiatives, including evolution of foundational capabilities and strategic replacement or enhancement of legacy Risk and Compliance platforms.
Maintain a strong focus on customer journeys, product quality, performance optimization, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement.
Participate in recruitment and onboarding activities and promote a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and collaboration.
Create and maintain enterprise-level architecture documentation, including solution architecture documents, high-level design documents, low-level design documents, integration specifications, API design documents, and operational runbooks.
Develop clear and accurate flow diagrams, workflow diagrams, sequence diagrams, system interaction diagrams, application architecture diagrams, deployment views, data flow diagrams, and enterprise solution blueprints.
Translate complex business and technical requirements into architecture artifacts that communicate design decisions, system dependencies, integration patterns, data flows, and operational impacts.
Produce documentation suitable for architecture reviews, engineering delivery, compliance review, audit support, stakeholder communication, implementation planning, and production support.
Use industry-standard documentation and diagramming tools such as Microsoft Visio, Lucidchart, Draw.io, Miro, Enterprise Architect, Confluence, SharePoint, or similar platforms.
Present technical designs and documentation clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, including product owners, compliance teams, architects, engineering teams, vendors, and senior leaders.