Sr Architect I

Staples Inc.•Framingham, MA

9h•$118,400 - $162,000

About The Position

Staples Digital Solutions partners across the enterprise to shape and deliver scalable technology that strengthens customer, sales, and service capabilities. The team works with business leaders, product teams, engineers, architects, vendors, and external partners to modernize platforms, improve customer experiences, and advance strategic priorities through secure, resilient, and innovative solutions. The Sr. Architect leads architecture and technical evolution within the customer service domain, guiding the contact center’s transition from a traditional, agent-led service model to an AI-first operating model. The role designs solutions combining conversational AI, intelligent business process automation, and human expertise to address customer needs across email, voice, and digital channels. This hands-on architecture role translates business goals into practical designs, validates technology choices, and guides implementation from discovery through production. The architect ensures modernization improves customer experience, equips employees, and delivers measurable business value.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
7+ years of software engineering experience, including solution architecture design and technical leadership throughout solution development and delivery.
Expertise designing and building enterprise applications using Java (Spring Boot, Spring Cloud) and front-end technologies such as Angular, JavaScript, and TypeScript, including reactive UI patterns, state management, and component libraries.
Extensive experience designing, securing, and governing REST, GraphQL, and event-driven APIs using Kafka, Solace, or similar technologies, including API gateway management, OpenAPI/AsyncAPI contracts, OAuth2/OIDC, and API versioning strategies.
Proven ability to define target-state architectures for multi-application suites using microservices, domain-driven design, and cloud-native design patterns.
Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, GCP, AWS), container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines.
Working knowledge of customer data platforms, relational and NoSQL data stores, data streaming, and unified platforms for data, analytics, and AI such as Databricks.
Working knowledge of observability tools such as Splunk, Dynatrace, or similar solutions.
Experience integrating large language models, such as Azure OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, or Google Gemini, into enterprise applications through APIs and SDKs.
Ability to design scalable AI-enabled architectures, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector databases and embeddings, prompt orchestration, model routing, caching, and fallback patterns.
Experience designing AI agents and copilots that safely invoke enterprise APIs and tools through mechanisms such as function calling and Model Context Protocol, incorporating guardrails, human-in-the-loop controls, and auditability.
Experience designing architectures integrating customer service application suites, including omnichannel contact center/CCaaS platforms across chat, voice/IVR, and email, with CRM, case management, knowledge management, and order management systems.
Ability to apply AI knowledge to customer service capabilities including self-service virtual agents, chatbots, and conversational IVR; agent assist, next-best-action recommendations, and case/contact summarization; and interaction intent detection, routing, and sentiment analysis.
Knowledge of evaluation frameworks for model accuracy, groundedness, latency, and quality.
Proficiency using AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot or Claude Code to accelerate development, code review, test generation, documentation, and legacy code modernization while maintaining quality and security standards.
Strong strategic thinking and ability to connect technology decisions to business outcomes.
Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to address complex challenges.
Ability to influence and lead across matrixed organizations without direct authority.
Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills.
Strong collaboration skills and ability to build trusted partnerships across the organization.
A continuous-learning mindset and passion for innovation, technology trends, and improvement.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in a technology- or business-related field.
10+ years of architecture, engineering, or enterprise technology experience.
Cloud or AI certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer, or AWS Certified Machine Learning / Solutions Architect.
Development certifications such as Oracle Certified Professional Java Developer, Spring Professional, or equivalent.
Experience delivering AI- or ML-enabled features into production, ideally within customer service or retail environments.
Experience supporting customer service, customer experience, CRM, contact center, or digital engagement platforms.

Responsibilities

Lead architecture and technical design supporting the contact center modernization journey to an AI-first operating model.
Drive delivery of solutions that advance the AI-first operating model, increase agent productivity, and elevate customer experience.
Develop target-state architectures, reference models, standards, and reusable design patterns.
Define application, integration, API, cloud, and data architecture strategies aligned with business objectives.
Evaluate technology solutions and recommend approaches based on scalability, reliability, security, performance, and cost.
Design and govern enterprise integrations, APIs, event-driven architectures, and service-oriented solutions.
Assess emerging technologies, generative AI capabilities, automation opportunities, and modernization strategies.
Lead architecture reviews, proofs of concept, strategic technology assessments, design workshops, and governance forums.
Mentor architects and engineers while promoting architecture best practices, knowledge sharing, and technical excellence.