Principal Architect, Customer Solutions Architect

Softchoice • San Diego, CA

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About The Position

The Principal Architect serves as the senior architectural authority within Customer Solution Architecture HPT Client Team, shaping enterprise-scale transformation across AI, data, hybrid infrastructure, and security domains. This role unifies strategic advisory, platform design, and architectural governance to guide clients from vision through execution while ensuring long-term scalability, performance, and risk mitigation.

As a Principal Architect, you will hold a pivotal role in defining and governing enterprise-scale architectural direction across complex, multi-domain environments, ensuring alignment with client strategy, industry standards, and Softchoice platform best practices. Business travel will be required approximately 30% of the time.

As a Principal Architect within the Customer Solution Architecture organization, you will possess a understanding of client industries (such as Retail, Oil & Gas, FSI, Manufacturing) and businesses, coupled with the ability to accelerate their digital transformation journeys through innovative solutions. This role demands strong financial and business acumen, coupled with extensive knowledge in technology and change management, and a principled approach to addressing digital transformation challenges and opportunities.

Requirements

• Analytical, Interpersonal, and Creative Skills: You excel at analyzing complex situations, fostering interpersonal relationships, and leveraging creative solutions at the intersection of business and technology.
• Ambitious and Enterprising: With a strong presence in the C-Suite, you demonstrate ambition and entrepreneurship, thriving in environments that demand leadership and strategic thinking.
• Active Learner and Pattern Recognizer: You continuously seek out patterns in business, technology, and organizational cultures, providing valuable insights to clients. With a growth mindset, you enjoy exploring both familiar and unfamiliar technologies to craft innovative solutions.
• Educational and Certification Background: An undergraduate degree is required, with preference given to business or technology majors. An MA, MBA, or MSc is beneficial. Certifications in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or related IT or management consulting disciplines are considered valuable.
• Practical Experience: With 10 years of experience in business advisory and/or consulting within IT, you bring a wealth of practical knowledge to the table. Demonstrated advisory experience in Data & Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence is essential.
• Solution Landscape Navigation: You possess a deep understanding of the solution landscape in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI, enabling you to guide clients effectively.
• Presentation and Facilitation Skills: Your experience in presenting and facilitating client-facing engagements is evident, reflecting your ability to convey complex ideas with clarity and confidence.
• Flexibility and Adaptability: You have demonstrated the ability to handle flexibility in mission and clarify ambiguous client intents, ensuring alignment and successful outcomes.
• Trusted Advisor Status: Your history of gaining and maintaining trusted advisor status with management, along with strong working relationships with C-suite executives, is highly beneficial to this role.
• Supplemental Technology Capabilities: You possess knowledge and experience in supplemental technology capabilities, including Data Security, data governance, common data protection and privacy frameworks, as well as Application Development and DevOps experience participating in or leading Architecture Review Boards, establishing standards, and governing enterprise technology patterns.
• Deep expertise in AI technologies, cloud, and high‑performance compute.
• Strategic advisory and business acumen.
• Leadership, communication, and facilitation skills.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.

Nice To Haves

• An MA, MBA, or MSc is beneficial.
• Certifications in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or related IT or management consulting disciplines are considered valuable.

Responsibilities

• Lead Client Engagements & Advisory: Engage CIO, CTO, CISO, and executive stakeholders on multi-year platform strategy, investment prioritization, and architectural trade-offs across cost, resiliency, compliance, and innovation
• High‑Performance Architecture Design: Design and govern enterprise AI Factory architectures, integrating GPU compute, data platforms, orchestration, governance, security, and operating models to enable scalable, responsible AI adoption
• Business Development, Relationship Management, and Technical Sales & Demonstrations: Develop and nurture relationships with key client stakeholders. Demonstrate proficiency in originating deals with C-level individuals. Lead pursuit teams, contribute to proposal development, and shape pricing strategies. Deliver demos showcasing AI and infrastructure value. Create and present technical architecture(s) and proposals.
• Solution Delivery Guidance & Integration: Identify architectural risk early and provide executive-level guidance on trade-offs between innovation, performance, regulatory compliance, and cost optimization
• Practice & Team Development: Contribute to practice development and serve as architectural authority across CSA, mentoring senior architects, defining reusable patterns and reference architectures, and influencing capability investment and solution packaging.
• Continuous Learning & Industry Expertise: Maintain deep understanding of emerging AI, Data, and Hybrid IT platforms. Cultivate a growth mindset, continually seeking new and improved technologies and methods with which to drive impact

Benefits

• Health and Wellbeing: Medical, Dental, and Vision Care, Flexible Spending Account, Employee Assistance Program
• Financial Benefits: 401k Plan with Company Matching, Life and Disability Insurance
• Paid Time Off: PTO and Sick Leave (starting at 20 days per year), Holidays, Parental Leave, Volunteer Days, Bereavement Leave
• Additional Perks: Employee Discount Program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level