Principal Software Architect

What You'll Do:

The Principal Software Architect is a strategic technical leader responsible for driving architectural excellence across multiple domains and teams. This role blends deep technical expertise with leadership in modern technologies including AI/ML, cloud-native platforms, observability, and cloud security.

Job Functions & Responsibilities:

• Acts as a Domain Architect for a major functional area, owning the architectural vision and roadmap.
• Defines and evolves cloud-native architectures using microservices, containers (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Leads the integration of AI/ML capabilities into products, including generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot, and LangChain; model deployment using ONNX, Hugging Face, or custom APIs; and vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate) for semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
• Designs secure, scalable systems on AWS, Azure, or GCP, leveraging IAM, VPC, KMS, and Secrets Management; Zero Trust Architecture; cloud-native security tools; and DevSecOps practices with automated security scanning and compliance checks.
• Implements observability best practices using Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and ELK/EFK stacks.
• Ensures systems are resilient, observable, and self-healing.
• Champions modern tech stacks across backend (Go, Node.js, Java, .NET Core), frontend (React, Angular, WebAssembly), data (Kafka, Spark, Snowflake, MongoDB), and AI/ML (TensorFlow, PyTorch, OpenAI APIs).
• Drives DevOps and GitOps practices with CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, ArgoCD).
• Mentors architects and senior engineers across teams.
• Collaborates with product, security, and infrastructure teams to align architecture with business and compliance needs.
• Participates in pre-sales and customer technical presentations.
• Leads technical engagements with strategic partners like Microsoft, AWS, and OpenAI.
• Evaluates and integrates third-party platforms and APIs to accelerate innovation.
• Designs, codes, and configures solutions for high-impact stories.
• Performs architectural reviews, threat modeling, and performance tuning.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities & Behaviors:

• Expert knowledge of object-oriented design and enterprise application architecture patterns.
• Expert in C# and associated frameworks.
• Deep understanding of distributed software patterns and full-stack technologies.
• Proficient in relational data storage, database design, query optimization, and operational considerations.
• Strong expertise in cloud platforms and software security best practices.
• Skilled in XML technologies including schema design, XPath, and XSLT.
• Familiarity with insurance domain and at least one Duck Creek product.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication skills for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to work independently and manage others to deadlines.
• Experienced in unit testing, source code management, estimation, and root cause analysis.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Bachelor's degree, or higher education level, or its foreign equivalent, in Computer Science, Computer Information Sciences, and/or related field.
• Total Work Experience: 20+ years typical (software development), 15 years minimum.
• Product Experience: 12 years minimum, 15+ years preferred.
• Domain Experience: 12 years minimum, 15+ years preferred.

Other Requirements:

• Travel: 0 – 25%.
• Work Authorization: Legally authorized to work in the country of the job location.