Open Banking Principal Architect

Role: Open Banking Principal Architect

Location: Charlotte, NC or Raleigh, NC or Birmingham, AL or Memphis, TN

Job Description

Role Overview


We are seeking an Open Banking Principal Architect to lead the enterprise architecture strategy, governance, and delivery of next-generation digital capabilities. This role will own the technology roadmap for Open Banking enablement (provider and consumer models), real-time data-sharing frameworks, and secure API ecosystems. The Principal Architect will guide solution teams across mobile, web, integration, security, and cloud, ensuring security-first design, data privacy, and regulatory compliance while balancing platform stability and modernization.


Key Responsibilities

1. Technology Strategy & Foundational Roadmap

• Develop and maintain the enterprise technology roadmap to align business outcomes with IT capabilities.
• Balance evolving needs around security vulnerabilities, risk posture, regulatory compliance, and platform stability.
• Drive modernization of legacy systems and prepare the organization for Open Banking, data-sharing frameworks, and AI adoption.
• Identify market disruptions and enable proactive adaptation in Open Banking.

2. Architecture Principles & Governance

• Establish and champion security-first design, shift-left engineering, and API-led architecture principles.
• Promote feature-based delivery, modular domain-driven architecture, and platform reusability.
• Align business principles and IT principles to ensure shared value delivery across teams.
• Define enterprise-level architecture guardrails, patterns, and reusable components.

3. Open Banking Architecture & Next-Gen Capabilities

• Lead the design of Open Banking architecture, covering:
• FDX-based API framework
• Consent & authorization flows
• Data provider and data recipient use cases
• Customer identity, authentication, and IDP integration
• Data governance, security, and regulatory compliance
• Build the business case and architectural blueprint for Open Banking enablement (both provider and consumer models).
• Enable readiness for financial data sharing ecosystems including aggregation, analytics, and partner integrations.

4. Digital Banking & Customer Experience Modernization

• Evaluate and recommend digital experience platforms.
• Architect modern digital banking experiences across mobile, web, and onboarding journeys.
• Integrate platforms like Thirdstream to accelerate digital onboarding and member acquisition.

5. Integration & Platform Modernization

• Architect the renovation of the legacy integration platform to MuleSoft / Apigee or other modern API-led integration frameworks.
• Define the future-state integration model (synchronous APIs, streaming, event-driven designs, pub/sub).
• Establish patterns for wrapping legacy services to align with FDX/Open Banking/API-first models.

6. Security, Risk & Compliance Leadership

• Partner with cybersecurity, privacy, and risk teams to ensure:
• Compliance with data-sharing standards
• Strong API security (OAuth2, mTLS, OIDC)
• Mandatory data masking & secure logging
• Threat detection & fraud prevention
• Evaluate and integrate fraud platforms such as Featurespace for real-time fraud detection.

7. Delivery Leadership & Cross-functional Enablement

• Partner with business, product, security, and operations teams to translate strategy into actionable solutions.
• Provide architectural oversight across delivery teams (API, mobile, web, integration, cloud, security).
• Mentor engineers, tech leads, and architects; develop competency in Open Banking, API-first design, consent frameworks, and secure engineering practices.
• Support vendor evaluations, RFP processes, and partnerships for digital and Open Banking initiatives.

Required Skills & Experience

• 12-20+ years of experience in technology architecture, with strong experience in banking, Open Banking, or financial services.
• Deep expertise in Open Banking standards: FDX, data-sharing frameworks, consent architecture, customer identity.
• Strong experience building API ecosystems using Java/Spring Boot, API gateways, and API management platforms.
• Ability to architect solutions on modern cloud platforms (Azure AKS, AWS EKS, or similar).
• Experience with Apigee or similar integration modernization platforms.
• Broad knowledge of identity, fraud, cybersecurity, compliance, and risk controls.
• Experience with Kafka streaming, event-driven architecture, and real-time data processing.
• Proven track record architecting major technology transformation programs.
• Strong executive communication and business-case development skills.

Tools & Platforms Familiarity

• Ninth Wave Open Banking platform; exposure to Plaid, Tink, MX, Finicity (as applicable).
• Azure AKS, Docker, Kubernetes; NGINX ingress controller; Azure API Management.
• IDPs such as Okta, Ping, Azure AD, ForgeRock; protocols and security mechanisms including OAuth2.0, OpenID Connect, and mTLS.
• Kafka for event-driven processing (producer/consumer, schema registry).
• Quality and security tooling: SonarQube, Veracode.
• CI/CD with Jenkins, Bitbucket Pipelines, Azure DevOps.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with digital banking platforms.
• Experience integrating with fraud detection platforms.
• Understanding of core banking modernization strategies.
• Exposure to AI/agentic tools, intelligent automation, and predictive analytics in financial contexts.
• Certification in architecture frameworks (TOGAF, SAFe Architect, BIAN) preferred.