Software Platform Architect

DTE Energy • Detroit, MI

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Enables the organization to meet its technology needs by providing architectural direction and leadership throughout the technology planning and delivery lifecycle, specifically for the Internal Developer Platform (IDP) and Developer Experience. This role develops technology roadmaps, solution architecture specifications, and technology recommendations that empower application teams through self-service access and automated infrastructure provisioning. The Architect will oversee the design of "golden paths" that reduce manual toil and increase engineering velocity while ensuring compliance with security, scalability, and organizational standards. As an individual contributor, you will bridge the gap between high-level company strategy and the hands-on implementation of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and CI/CD pipelines in a containerized, microservice-driven environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in information systems discipline and 5 years of information technology experience; OR
• High School diploma and 9 years of related information technology experience
• Advanced experience with web‑based technologies and architectural patterns, including cloud PaaS, middleware, event streaming/queuing, relational and NoSQL databases, and system modeling (C4 or UML).
• Strong command of modern software engineering practices, including DevOps, Agile, and CI/CD methodologies.
• Advanced knowledge of emerging technologies and industry standards, including open‑source ecosystems, systems design, and systems integration.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems challenges, including state management, transactional integrity, availability, performance, and data consistency.
• Demonstrated business and leadership skills, including planning, communication, decision‑making, problem-solving, and professional development.

Nice To Haves

• Technical lead or architecture experience designing and guiding complex software systems.
• Distributed systems and cloud experience, including Azure and AWS, cloud PaaS, APIs, microservices, and integrations (5+ years).
• Expert‑level infrastructure automation experience using Terraform (HCL), OPA, and GitHub Actions.
• Strong container and orchestration expertise, including Docker, Kubernetes, and workflow tools such as Helm or ArgoCD.
• Experience building self‑service platform blueprints using TypeScript, YAML, or JSON‑based APIs.
• Experience integrating monitoring and logging solutions (e.g., Dynatrace, Grafana, Splunk) into automated pipelines.
• Industry‑recognized architecture or cloud certification (e.g., TOGAF, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect).

Responsibilities

• Conceptualizes, designs, and enables the construction of software applications and platform hosting environments, including hosting, security, scalability, and functional requirements in compliance with the company's technology strategy.
• Develops technology roadmaps and architecture transition plans that guide technical resources in implementing "paved roads" and "golden paths" for cloud application deployment and infrastructure provisioning.
• Provides direction and leadership to the ITS community across multiple teams to ensure software products are consistent with business environments and that teams follow architectural direction.
• Drives engineering velocity and reduces manual toil by embedding security, compliance, and policies directly into platform workflows using reusable GitHub Actions and SARIF-based reporting.
• Articulates the architectural vision by creating models, diagrams, and component documents, specifically utilizing C4 system context models to document system interactions and example workflows.
• Provides technical advice and risk quantification to business partners, specifically regarding distributed systems issues such as state, transactional integrity, availability, and data consistency.
• Maintains awareness of emerging trends in modern platform engineering and the software development lifecycle (SDLC) to guide the adoption of new guardrails that reduce developer cognitive load while keeping the platform modern.
• Assists project teams in making critical software architecture decisions, validates architecture against requirements, and assists with the resolution of complex technical problems.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level