Principal Application Enterprise Architect

Position: Principal Application Enterprise Architect
Location: Chicago, IL ( Day 1 onsite )
Duration: 6-12months

Job Description:

A hands-on architectural leader who owns application or platform architecture end-to-end and ensures quality, scalability, and alignment with product needs.

Must-have signals (non-negotiable):

• Has independently owned architecture for at least one large application or platform in production
• Regularly partners with Product Owners / Managers to translate business needs into system design
• Clearly owns non-functional requirements:
  • Reliability
  • Availability
  • Security
  • Performance
• Has led modernization efforts (monolith microservices, cloud migration, major refactors)
• Coaches engineers and guides other architects or senior developers
• Comfortable making architecture tradeoff decisions (cost vs scale, speed vs durability)
• Can explain why certain patterns or technologies were chosen

Nice-to-have:

• Experience defining architecture standards or reference designs
• Involvement in architecture reviews across multiple teams
• Some exposure to roadmap or long-term planning