Principal Architect

Lumen is the trusted network for the AI‑powered world, connecting people, data, and applications through our expansive fiber network and connected ecosystem. We enable secure, high‑performance connectivity across cloud, edge, and AI workloads for enterprises, governments, and communities.

At Lumen, you’ll work on infrastructure customers rely on today and build for what’s next, where performance, security, and resilience matter.

This is a high accountability environment where bold ideas drive real innovation for our customers, partners, and industry. The work is challenging, expectations are clear, and trust is built into how we operate. If you’re ready to take ownership, deliver meaningful impact, and help shape the future of AI‑ready connectivity, join us today.

The Role

We are looking for a strategic and technical Principal Architect to design the new architecture evolution for Lumen Connect. With a clear goal to improve the quality and availability of our digital platform. This role blends deep technical expertise with strong program management and communication skills, driving scalable, secure, and high-performing solutions on AWS.

This Engineer also understands the software development lifecycle (from coding to support) and understands various automation tools for developing CI/CD pipelines. This role will shape how Lumen combines the latest technologies and services to automate all aspects of software deployment and application lifecycle management. Passionate about software automation and quality is always a priority.

This role will also collaborate with key stakeholders across the engineering organization product owners, developers, and testers to design, develop, and implement solutions to deliver amazing user experiences and optimize and automate business and technical processes.

Location

This role is designated as a fully remote position within the United States.

The Main Responsibilities

Architecture & AI

• Design the new architecture evolution for Lumen Connect especially focused on its legacy systems with a focus on scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Work with multiple teams to architect, design and implement a data driven backend architecture to improve response times and reliability. This will be architected to make development faster, more agile and more effective. We will also focus on making it easier for the AI to increase its effectiveness in the codebase.
• Architect large projects regarding new cutting-edge network products and provide a cloud native digital experience that matches customer expectations.
• Use AI extensively to analyse large codebases and provide improvements.
• Help refine and improve the global ecosystem documentation to help AI agents develop larger features faster with the oversight and guidance of the different teams.
• Support the team in writing technical specifications for the high-level portal architecture.

Project & Program Management

• Lead cross-functional initiatives from concept to delivery, ensuring alignment with business goals.
• Develop and manage detailed project plans, timelines, and resource allocations.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a technical liaison between engineering, product, business, and external partners.
• Facilitate regular updates, demos, and reviews to ensure transparency and alignment.

Cloud Strategy & Governance

• Drive cloud adoption and modernization strategies using AWS services (e.g., WAF, EC2, EKS, S3, CloudFront).
• Ensure compliance with security, cost, and operational governance policies.
• Collaborate with DevOps and SRE teams to embed reliability and observability into architectural decisions.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities for performance optimization, cost reduction, and technical debt remediation.
• Promote a culture of innovation, automation, and continuous learning.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to knowledge-sharing initiatives.

What We Look For in a Candidate

Required Qualifications:

• 12+ years of experience with a bachelor’s degree or 8+ years of experience with a master’s degree
• Strong knowledge of AWS services and cloud-native design experience in AWS/Azure/GCP
• Proven experience in software architecture, cloud engineering, and technical program management of complex projects with multiple stakeholders and dependencies
• Experience of application development using Java Microservices and Spring Boot framework
• Experience in developing REST APIs using microservice architecture.
• Experience in using RDBMS like Oracle, MySQL, SQL, and NOSQL.
• Experience in implementing CI/CD, preferably using GitHub/Jenkins
• Experience in deploying apps to Kubernetes/Docker
• Knowledge of web design and mark-up language HTML, CSS
• Experience in frontend development (Javascript/Typescript, and frameworks such as VueJS)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in developing apps that operate using Confluent Kafka
• Knowledge of GraphQL
• Development experience in Python.
• Experience with Agile/SCRUM Methodologies and development practices
• Certifications in AWS Architecture or Project Management (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect, PMP).

Compensation

This information reflects the anticipated base salary range for this position based on current national data. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. Individual pay is based on skills, experience and other relevant factors.

Location Based Pay Ranges

$152,066 - $202,755 in these states: AL AR AZ FL GA IA ID IN KS KY LA ME MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA SC SD TN UT VT WI WV WY $159,670 - $212,893 in these states: CO HI MI MN NC NH NV OR RI $167,273 - $223,031 in these states: AK CA CT DC DE IL MA MD NJ NY TX VA WA

Lumen offers a comprehensive package featuring a broad range of Health, Life, Voluntary Lifestyle benefits and other perks that enhance your physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing. We're able to answer any additional questions you may have about our bonus structure (short-term incentives, long-term incentives and/or sales compensation) as you move through the selection process.

Learn more about Lumen's: Benefits Bonus Structure

LI-Remote

LI-VK1

Requisition #: 342712

Life at Lumen

Life at Lumen is human and connected, even in a fast moving, AI‑focused organization. We set clear expectations and trust people to meet them. With real support and shared accountability, teams collaborate better, move faster, and deliver meaningful outcomes.

Our Lumen 8 behaviors guide how we interact, make decisions, and work together, shaping a culture built to perform and win.

To learn more about Life at Lumen and how we live the Lumen 8, please visit:

Background Screening

If you are selected for a position, there will be a background screen, which may include checks for criminal records and/or motor vehicle reports and/or drug screening, depending on the position requirements. For more information on these checks, please refer to the Post Offer section of our FAQ page . Job-related concerns identified during the background screening may disqualify you from the new position or your current role. Background results will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Equal Employment Opportunities

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all persons regardless of race, color, ancestry, citizenship, national origin, religion, veteran status, disability, genetic characteristic or information, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, pregnancy, or other legally protected status (collectively, “protected statuses”). We do not tolerate unlawful discrimination in any employment decisions, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, promotion, benefits, discipline, termination, job assignments or training.

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To review Lumen’s Global Employment Applicant and Talent Community Privacy Notice, please visit:

Disclaimer

The job responsibilities described above indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not intended to include a comprehensive inventory of all duties and responsibilities for this job. Job duties and responsibilities are subject to change based on evolving business needs and conditions.

In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Please be advised that Lumen does not require any form of payment from job applicants during the recruitment process. All legitimate job openings will be posted on our official website or communicated through official company email addresses. If you encounter any job offers that request payment in exchange for employment at Lumen, they are not for employment with us, but may relate to another company with a similar name.