Principal Integration Architect

Principal Integration Architect

Guild Mortgage Company, closing loans and opening doors since 1960. As a mortgage banking firm we are dedicated to serving the homeowner/buyer. Our goal is to provide affordable home financing for our customers, utilizing the best terms available while providing a level of professionalism and service unsurpassed in the lending industry.

The Principal Integration Architect establishes the enterprise-wide integration strategy and governance model and sets the long-term direction and strategy. This role ensures interoperability across the organization, defining standards for APIs and data exchange, and partners with executives to align integration strategy with long-term business goals. The expectation for this role is to establish and maintain working relationships with key stakeholders across the organization to surface and solution for critical architectural and policy decisions. This role is expected to use a results-based and iterative approach based on the current Guild technology landscape and future growth. The Principal Integration Architect should be thought of as an "advisor" on architectural direction to gain consensus on direction and tools, but not the implementer.

This role is an exempt position with a targeted salary range of $144,001 to $190,000 annually. Compensation at Guild is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to local and federal minimum wage requirements, education, level of experience, and applicant's geographical location.

Core Job Responsibilities

• Enterprise Strategy: Define the organization's enterprise integration strategy and frameworks.
• Governance: Lead integration governance councils, setting policies for interoperability, data security, and platform adoption.
• Ecosystem Building: Shape and manage the enterprise integration ecosystem, including iPaaS, APIs, and messaging systems.
• Innovation: Anticipate integration trends (e.g., event-driven architectures, AI-driven integration) to future-proof the enterprise.
• Executive Influence: Partner with senior executives to align integration strategy with business growth and digital initiatives.
• Mentorship & Culture: Build a culture of integration excellence across technical teams.
• Communication: Produce strategic models, integration roadmaps, and executive-level presentations.

Additional Essential Functions

• Own enterprise-level integration strategies spanning multiple systems and domains.
• Define the enterprise API and data interoperability vision, ensuring alignment with compliance and regulatory frameworks.
• Influence vendor selection and enterprise adoption of integration tools.
• Drive change management and organizational readiness for integration initiatives.
• Represent Guild Mortgage in external integration and technology forums.
• Establish KPIs to measure integration success and business value delivery.
• Create, maintain and manage integration architecture models and other various design components.
• Partner continuously with key IT Leaders to ensure that the overall application architecture is maintained in a coherent manner and that appropriate considerations are made for security and quality.
• Provide architecture thought leadership when discussing potential development tools and setting coding standards.
• Assist in maturing integration architecture management practices.
• Research overall information technology solutions on the market for particular technical requirements and business needs.
• Conduct and/or actively participate in meetings related to designated project(s) with applicable technical stakeholders/leaders.
• Think broadly and strategically about the overall technical landscape solutions needed to propel our business needs.
• Partner with technical leaders on approaches and responsibilities to ensure compliance with application architecture standards.
• Identify and recommend areas appropriate for further study and participate in any Proof-of-Concept projects required to thoroughly investigate architectural possibilities and strengthen arguments for their adoption.
• Contribute to necessary research and analysis to turn complex project requirements into manageable technical plans. Approach this as a partnership with other IT leaders and not an isolated responsibility.
• Contribute feedback and input concerning architecture and operations to Senior Management.
• Contribute recommendations for system changes, including redesign and enhancements to ensure process efficiency, staff productivity, usability, and customer satisfaction to Senior Management.
• Help maintain sound architecture practices for complex and scalable enterprise-level solutions.
• Use expertise to answer technical questions and concepts.
• Work to distribute technical knowledge throughout the team.
• Assist in project planning sessions to determine project scope and architectural approach as applicable on appropriate sized initiative.
• Properly document architectural flow functionality (design docs, in-line, wiki, etc.).
• Participate in training materials, job aids, and any new rollouts or updates.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelors Degree directly related to the position or equivalent, preferred.
• Minimum seven years experience in integration strategy, architecture, and / or development and progressive leadership experience required.
• Highly proficient in defining and driving enterprise-wide integration strategy, frameworks, and governance models.
• Highly proficient in ecosystem-level integration across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, setting enterprise standards for APIs, data exchange, and security.
• Highly proficient in leading resolution of enterprise-scale integration challenges, vendor negotiations, and strategic platform selection.
• Highly proficient in designing and governing enterprise Integration Governance frameworks and compliance strategies.
• Proven experience shaping and executing long-term integration roadmaps, including emerging paradigms such as event-driven architectures and AI-driven integration.
• Proven experience influencing strategy at the executive level and aligning integration initiatives with organizational priorities.
• Experience with diverse programming and integration technologies, ensuring adaptability to new trends.
• Experience managing enterprise-wide interoperability across structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data domains.
• Strong governance and process-oriented mindset, ensuring reliability, security, and reusability at scale.
• Exceptional critical thinking and foresight to evaluate enterprise risks, long-term impacts, and opportunities.
• Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills, with ability to influence executives and mentor senior architects.
• Recognized as a thought leader in integration architecture internally and externally.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills required.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented; ability to work in a fast-paced, metrics-driven environment required.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Word, Excel, Wiki, collaborative cloud-based programs, and third-party software applications required.
• Commitment to company values.
• Customer Service - Proactive attention to each person.
• Integrity - Do and say what's right.
• Respect - Treat others with dignity.
• Collaboration - Listen and work together.
• Learning - Seek knowledge and strive for improvement.
• Excellence – Deliver the unexpected.

Job Scope: Plays a key role in area by generating insights and ideas on policies, processes, procedures, and efficiency; contributes ideas to strategic and operational plans to ensure alignment.

Complexity: Problems encountered involve the entire organization and outside entities and are often complex, broad in scope and implications, and unprecedented with no clear solution; usually works cross-functionally and with other leadership to solve problems and implement changes.

Impact: Decisions and actions have a major impact on the strategic and operational outcomes of the area/unit; Has a direct and significant impact on the business and/or operations of the organization as a whole.

Interaction/Supervision: Works under broad direction with considerable latitude for independent actions; guided by professional standards, desired outcomes and unit/project/program specifications.

Indirect Reports: 5+

Requirements

• Work is primarily sedentary; mobility in an office setting.
• Ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards.
• Regularly required to accurately perceive, distinguish and interpret information received visually and through audio; e.g., words, numbers and other data broadcasted aloud/viewed on a screen, as well as print and other media.
• Ability to accurately interpret sounds and associated meanings at a volume consistent with interpersonal conversation.
• Expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word to impart oral information to clients or the public and to convey detailed spoken instructions to other workers accurately, loudly, or quickly.
• Office environment – moderate noise, no substantial exposure to adverse environmental conditions.
• Travel 5-10%
• Learn new tasks, remember processes, maintain focus, complete tasks independently, and make timely decisions in