Principal Architect

The Principal Architect is a strategic technical leader responsible for defining, evolving, and overseeing the architectural vision of software products to ensure scalability, efficiency, security, and alignment with business goals. This role drives innovation and quality across products by setting standards, mentoring teams, and guiding technical decisions, all within Agile development frameworks.

Role & responsibilities

Technical Vision & Architectural Leadership

• Define, evolve, and communicate the architectural roadmap aligned with Agile methodologies.
• Design and document scalable, secure, and efficient technical architectures for products and features.
• Own the overall codebase and system architecture, including the review and approval of major code contributions.
• Ensure architectural changes are documented, version-controlled, and approved by Technical Leadership.
• Maintain and evolve cloud infrastructure architecture in collaboration with Cloud and Security Architects.

Process & Governance

• Establish and enforce high-quality coding standards and best practices.
• Ensure robust solution design that meets security, scalability, and reliability requirements.
• Oversee architectural governance: set guidelines and enable Agile teams to adapt solutions as needed.
• Manage technical debt proactively through incremental improvements within sprints and learning initiatives.
• Enforce code review processes, ensuring all significant code changes meet established standards before merging.

Collaboration & Communication

• Actively collaborate with cross-functional teams including Product Owners, Business Analysts, Cloud/Security Architects, and development teams.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing, mentorship, and regular feedback sessions to reinforce best practices.
• Participate in and contribute to Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, retrospectives, and backlog refinement.
• Represent architectural considerations in project planning to ensure alignment with business and technical goals.

Quality Assurance & Delivery

• Ensure technical architecture meets standards for quality, security, and system performance.
• Deliver key artifacts at the end of each sprint, feature, or product upgrade, including:
• Updated architecture documents with version control.
• Pull request summaries with comments/approvals.
• Code quality audit checklists and code optimization reports.
• Proof-of-concept (PoC) summaries as required.
• Own release management for product/feature/hotfixes, ensuring stakeholder approvals and smooth deployment.

Accountability

• Design and validate functional technology solutions that meet business and technical requirements.
• Oversee the proper implementation and execution of architectural designs.
• Set and uphold technical standards for product development and operations.
• Plan for, assess, and implement security and compliance requirements.
• Maintain comprehensive architectural documentation for future reference.
• Obtain necessary approvals for Cloud, Data, and Security Architecture from the Technical Leadership Team.
• Monitor and optimize cloud infrastructure and costs, providing regular reports to stakeholders.
• Coordinate deliverables, approvals, and release plans with QA, cloud, and project management teams.

Architecture Principles & Methodologies:

• Deep knowledge of core architectural principles: scalability, reliability, performance, fault tolerance, modifiability, reusability, and security.
• Proficiency with major architectural patterns (Clean Architecture, Event-Driven, Layered, CQRS, etc.).
• Familiar with test-driven development (TDD) concepts.
• Experience applying and enforcing architectural governance in Agile environments.
• Expertise with API Gateway, message queues, caching, and observability best practices.

Preferred candidate profile

12+ years or experience overall, 3+ years in Architecture

Technical Proficiency:

• .NET Core

  : Deep expertise in architecting solutions using .NET Core for scalable, secure, maintainable applications.

• Azure / Azure DevOps

  : In-depth experience designing and deploying cloud-based solutions in Microsoft Azure, including IaC (ARM/Bicep/Terraform), CI/CD pipelines, release management, and monitoring using Azure DevOps.

• REST APIs & Microservices

  : Hands-on experience designing REST APIs, Modular, SOA, and distributed systems.

• Relational & NoSQL Databases

  : Strong expertise in SQL Server, Cosmos DB, or similar technologies for scalable data architecture.

• Security by Design

  : Proficient in secure software design, data privacy, and regulatory compliance.

• DevSecOps Integration

  : Integrating security controls within DevOps pipelines and automating quality/security gates in CI/CD.

Architectural Tools (Mandatory):

• UML Tools

  (e.g., Microsoft Visio, Lucidchart, Enterprise Architect, or similar) for modeling and documenting system architectures.

• Static Code Analysis & Quality Tools

  (e.g., SonarQube, Resharper, CodeQL).

• CI/CD Tools:

  Azure DevOps Pipelines (must have), Git Actions .

• Cloud Cost Analysis & Monitoring:

  Azure Cost Management, Application Insights, Azure Monitor.

• Documentation & Collaboration:

  Confluence, SharePoint, Jira, Miro, or similar.