Principal Architect, Salesforce Platform & AI

Role Description

The Principal Architect, Salesforce Platform & AI serves as the enterprise architecture leader responsible for the strategic direction, governance, and long-term evolution of the Salesforce platform ecosystem and AI-enabled capabilities. This role establishes the architecture vision that enables Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, Data Cloud, automation platforms, and emerging AI technologies to operate as a secure, scalable, and cohesive enterprise platform.

The Principal Architect defines the technology strategy, architectural standards, and governance framework that drive consistency and reuse across business domains while enabling rapid innovation and delivery.

Working across business leadership, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, data, integration, DevSecOps, and delivery organizations, this individual ensures that platform investments align with enterprise objectives, regulatory requirements, operational excellence, and responsible AI adoption.

This role provides technical leadership to globally distributed architecture and engineering teams and serves as the primary authority for enterprise-level Salesforce architecture decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and continuously evolve the enterprise Salesforce platform strategy, target-state architecture, and multi-year technology roadmap.
• Establish a unified architecture vision spanning Sales, Service, Experience, Integration, Data, Automation, and AI capabilities.
• Maintain comprehensive visibility across Salesforce organizations, shared services, integrations, data domains, platform dependencies, technical debt, and operational risk.
• Define architectural approaches for enterprise AI adoption, including agent-based capabilities, intelligent automation, data readiness, governance, and human oversight frameworks.
• Evaluate emerging Salesforce, AI, and cloud platform capabilities and determine strategic applicability and business value.
• Identify opportunities for platform consolidation, modernization, standardization, and cost optimization.
• Align platform investments with enterprise objectives including scalability, security, reliability, agility, and operational efficiency.
• Guide technology investment decisions and establish strategic architecture priorities across the Salesforce ecosystem.
• Lead architecture governance through the Design Authority, Architecture Review Board, Salesforce Center of Excellence, and enterprise governance forums.
• Define and maintain enterprise architecture standards, reference architectures, reusable patterns, technical guardrails, and decision frameworks.
• Govern architecture across application development, integrations, data architecture, identity management, security, DevSecOps, AI services, automation platforms, and operational tooling.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Data, and Integration teams to ensure alignment with enterprise standards.
• Drive architectural consistency across business domains while balancing innovation, delivery speed, and operational risk.
• Establish and manage architecture exception processes, decision records, and platform standards documentation.
• Resolve complex cross-domain architectural challenges and influence strategic technology decisions across the enterprise.
• Own architecture accountability for platform scalability, performance, resilience, maintainability, security, and operational health.
• Establish measurable platform health indicators covering technical debt, release quality, security posture, adoption, reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Lead architecture strategy for environments, release management, DevSecOps practices, testing frameworks, observability, and operational readiness.
• Ensure alignment between architecture standards and production implementation through design reviews and governance checkpoints.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on platform simplification, automation, reliability, and engineering productivity.
• Sponsor development of reusable assets, accelerators, integration frameworks, and architecture playbooks.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship for architects and senior engineers across global and distributed teams.
• Influence executive stakeholders and technology leaders through clear communication of architecture strategy, risks, investment priorities, and business outcomes.
• Develop architecture capabilities, succession plans, and technical excellence programs across internal teams and strategic partners.
• Foster a culture of engineering discipline, innovation, accountability, and continuous learning.
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex architecture decisions impacting the enterprise Salesforce ecosystem.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, platform architecture, solution architecture, or related technology leadership roles.
• 7+ years of experience designing and governing Salesforce solutions within complex multi-business-unit or multi-org environments.
• Deep expertise in Salesforce architecture, including security, identity, integration, data architecture, automation, platform scalability, and application lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated experience defining enterprise technology strategies, architecture roadmaps, governance models, and platform operating frameworks.
• Experience architecting AI-enabled solutions, including governance, responsible AI, agent-based architectures, data readiness, privacy, security, and human oversight.
• Proven success influencing executive stakeholders and leading cross-functional decision-making across large enterprise environments.
• Experience leading and mentoring globally distributed architecture and engineering teams.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into business-focused recommendations and decisions.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) preferred.
• Salesforce Certified System Architect and Application Architect certifications.
• Experience with enterprise integration platforms.
• Strong background in DevSecOps, CI/CD, release governance, platform observability, and cloud security.
• Experience building or leading a Salesforce Center of Excellence (CoE).
• Experience in highly regulated industries such as healthcare, pharmaceutical distribution, life sciences, financial services, or manufacturing.
• Experience supporting global enterprise platforms with multi-region delivery teams.

Success Measures

• Execution of a clearly defined enterprise Salesforce and AI architecture strategy.
• Improved platform scalability, security posture, reliability, and operational performance.
• Increased reuse of enterprise capabilities and reduction of duplicate solutions across business domains.
• Reduction of technical debt and architecture exceptions through standardized patterns and governance.
• Successful and responsible adoption of AI capabilities aligned with enterprise risk and compliance standards.
• Increased delivery velocity through improved architecture frameworks, standards, and developer enablement.
• Growth and maturity of architecture and engineering capabilities across onshore and offshore teams.

Benefits

• Compensation, benefits, and resources that enable a highly inclusive culture.
• Traditional offerings like medical, dental, and vision care.
• Comprehensive suite of benefits focusing on physical, emotional, financial, and social wellness.
• Support for working families, including backup dependent care, adoption assistance, infertility coverage, and family building support.
• Behavioral health solutions, paid parental leave, and paid caregiver leave.
• Variety of training programs, professional development resources, and mentorship opportunities.
• Participation in employee resource groups, volunteer activities, and more.