ABOUT THE ROLE
The Principal Platform Infrastructure Architect serves as the technical authority for Accela 's cloud platform architecture, responsible for defining and evolving the foundational technology strategy that supports the company's SaaS offerings. This role partners across Engineering, Product, Security, SRE, and Platform teams to establish scalable, secure, and compliant architecture patterns while driving modernization initiatives across a complex multi-tenant environment. The Principal Architect influences technical direction across multiple teams without direct authority and ensures architectural decisions align with long-term business and product objectives.
SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES
- Own the end-to-end architecture for Accela 's cloud platform, including Azure infrastructure, networking, Kubernetes, identity, security, and platform services.
- Define and maintain platform architecture standards, reference patterns, and technical guardrails to support scalability, reliability, and operational excellence.
- Lead architecture reviews and drive technical decision-making through the Architecture Decision Record (ADR) process.
- Develop long-term technical strategy for modernization initiatives, including cloud-native transformation, platform consolidation, and infrastructure evolution.
- Establish architectural approaches for multi-tenant SaaS environments, including tenant isolation, observability, resiliency, and data residency requirements.
- Partner with Engineering, Product, Security, Compliance, and Operations teams to align architecture with business objectives and regulatory requirements.
- Translate compliance requirements, including FedRAMP, GovRAMP, PCI-DSS, and SOC2, into scalable technical capabilities and platform controls.
- Define target-state architecture for shared services and cross-product capabilities spanning multiple acquired technology platforms.
- Govern architecture exceptions and provide guidance on complex technical trade-offs impacting multiple engineering organizations.
- Mentor and coach senior engineers, staff engineers, and architects, fostering architectural best practices and technical excellence.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends to inform platform strategy and future investments.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 10+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems.
- 5+ years of experience in a Principal Architect, Staff Architect, or equivalent technical leadership role within a SaaS environment.
- Deep expertise in Microsoft Azure, including AKS, APIM, networking, identity, security, and infrastructure services.
- Strong Kubernetes architectu