Vice President, Application Architecture

HarbourVest Partners•Boston, MA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

HarbourVest is seeking a Vice President of Application Architecture to join our Platform Engineering team and provide enterprise-level technical leadership across Enterprise Architecture and Platform Engineering. We are searching for a highly respected, hands-on technology leader. They define a cohesive platform architecture, set long-term technical direction, and lead modernization efforts across the firm. This enables scale, agility, resilience, and growth. As a Vice President of Application Architecture, you will develop the firm’s target-state architecture across applications, integration, cloud environments, and shared engineering capabilities! You will partner closely with engineering leadership, product and delivery teams, data and security stakeholders, vendors, and enterprise technology partners to define architecture strategy, establish reference architectures and standards, and guide complex modernization initiatives from concept through adoption. This role will simplify a fragmented technology landscape and improve interoperability. It will enable reusable platform capabilities. It ensures the company’s technological infrastructure can support future business expansion. You bring deep expertise in modern application build and platform structure and apply that expertise to build scalable, secure, and durable technology patterns across the enterprise. You are fluent in architectural design patterns and modern engineering practices, including microservices, micro-frontends, event-driven systems, cloud-native development, DevOps, and modern web application engineering. You lead through influence and hands-on technical credibility, helping teams make sound architectural decisions while raising engineering quality, consistency, and ongoing structural durability within the organization.

Requirements

A passion for defining durable organizational architecture alongside up-to-date engineering standards that develop long-term business and technology value
Demonstrated success driving enterprise-wide architecture and modernization initiatives across applications, platforms, cloud, and integration domains
Deep hands-on experience with modern architecture patterns such as distributed services, component-based frontends, event-centric architecture, principles driven by a passion for the core business logic, and API-based integration
Strong knowledge of cloud engineering and distributed systems design, with experience building scalable, resilient, and observable solutions in enterprise environments
Practical expertise with modern application development stacks and frameworks, including Angular, React, TypeScript, Node.js, and current web application architecture patterns
Experience with messaging, caching, and data access technologies and patterns, including Kafka, Redis, API integration, persistence strategies, and service-to-service communication
Solid understanding of DevOps and software delivery processes, with a focus on CI/CD, automation, source control strategy, environment management, and release lifecycle considerations
Ability to connect business goals to architecture strategy, translating organizational priorities into actionable technical roadmaps and standards
A track record of influencing senior leaders, engineers, and multi-functional teams to align around a shared architecture vision and complete it optimally
Strong mentoring, collaboration, and communication skills, capable of raising architectural maturity and improving engineering efficiency within the enterprise
Bachelor’s degree in a technology-related field, advanced degree preferred, or equivalent experience
15+ years of experience spanning enterprise architecture, software engineering, cloud platforms, and large-scale technology modernization across sophisticated corporate landscapes

Nice To Haves

Experience with enterprise architecture frameworks and governance practices, such as TOGAF, capability modeling, architecture review processes, or domain architecture methods
Experience with application portfolio modernization, platform rationalization, and defining transition states for legacy-to-modern architecture journeys
Familiarity with container platforms and orchestration technologies, such as Kubernetes or OpenShift, and how they contribute to current application architecture
Experience with data architecture, analytics platforms, or integration ecosystems that support enterprise-wide information flow and decision-making

Responsibilities

Set technical direction for enterprise and platform architecture within the organization.
Define the target-state architectural vision.
Establish standards, patterns, and reference architectures to modernize technology and enable scaling.
Define and evolve a unified platform architecture that spans application development, integration, cloud infrastructure, shared services, and enterprise engineering capabilities
Create enterprise architecture principles, standards, reference architectures, and modernization roadmaps that align technology investments with business growth objectives
Guide architecture decisions across product, platform, and enterprise initiatives, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, interoperable, and aligned to long-term strategy
Guide modernization projects that transition legacy applications and platforms toward modern architectures such as microservices, event-driven systems, and micro-frontend-based user experiences
Establish architecture patterns and guardrails for cloud-native engineering, DevOps practices, integration, observability, resilience, and secure software delivery
Drive standardization and reuse across the engineering organization by defining shared frameworks, common services, and architectural building blocks that reduce redundancy and complexity
Partner with application, platform, data, security, and infrastructure teams to ensure architecture decisions consider operational, regulatory, performance, and supportability requirements
Provide hands-on technical mentorship for modern web system development involving technologies such as Angular, React, TypeScript, Node.js, alongside service layers built on APIs
Define standard methodologies for architecture of distributed systems, including messaging, caching, data access, service communication, and domain decomposition by employing platforms such as Kafka and Redis
Evaluate new technologies, frameworks, and architectural approaches, making pragmatic recommendations that advance the organization’s technology strategy without introducing unnecessary complexity
Influence governance and engineering review processes to improve architectural quality, reduce technical debt, and ensure consistent execution across initiatives
Mentor architects and senior engineers, elevate architectural thinking across teams, and foster a culture of engineering excellence, simplification, and continuous modernization
Support additional critical initiatives as needed