Application Architect

Ascensus is the leading independent technology and service platform powering savings plans across America, providing products and expertise that help nearly 16 million people save for a better today and tomorrow.

Section 1: Position Summary

Provides architectural leadership for customer engagement and contact center technologies, including Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), IVR, IVA, conversational AI, agent desktop, workforce optimization, digital channels, and CRM integrations. Partners with business and technology stakeholders to design scalable customer experience solutions that balance customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, security, reliability, and regulatory requirements.

Section 2: Job Functions, Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Defines architecture and technical standards for customer engagement platforms, including CCaaS, IVR, IVA, omnichannel routing, workforce engagement, and conversational AI solutions.

Leads architecture and solution design efforts for contact center modernization initiatives, including integration with CRM platforms, identity and authentication services, telephony providers, knowledge systems, and enterprise applications.

Evaluates and implements AI-powered customer engagement capabilities such as virtual agents, voicebots, chatbots, intelligent call routing, authentication solutions, call summarization, and agent-assist technologies.

Establishes integration patterns and governance standards for CCaaS and customer experience platforms to ensure scalability, resiliency, observability, security, and maintainability.

Relies on extensive experience and sound judgment to prioritize workload and engagement with teams.

Establishes strong alignment with Product Owners to understand, influence, and deliver on roadmaps.

Sets technical direction and provides proactive oversight to scrum teams so solutions are secure, scalable, efficient, and stable.

Leads, coaches, and mentors technical staff.

Establishes standards, proofs of concept, and templates that enable teams to deliver high-quality software efficiently.

Designs, prototypes, and guides implementation of agent-based solutions (e.g., tool-using workflows, orchestration, retrieval, and guardrails) within approved platforms and enterprise standards, partnering with security, compliance, and enterprise architecture as needed.

Defines and promotes standards for responsible use of AI and automation across the software lifecycle-including approved tools, data-handling expectations, human review for high-risk decisions, and patterns for integrating AI, model-based, or agent-based capabilities-in partnership with security, compliance, and enterprise architecture as applicable.

Evaluates AI-enabled tools and practices (e.g., code generation, review support, refactoring, testing, documentation, operations, and agent-based workflows where appropriate) for fit, risk, cost, and maintainability; drives adoption through reference implementations, guardrails, and templates

Participates in project discussions to remove technical impediments and assists in establishing estimates.

Performs design and development for complex work as an active contributor to the project pipeline.

Collaborates with other Application Architects and Platform Architects to identify, socialize, and confirm the best possible solutions.

Holds a high degree of responsibility for application architecture and technical execution within a program.

Takes ownership and provides technical leadership when production issues require software engineering expertise.

Assists with other tasks and projects as assigned.

Responsible for protecting, securing, and proper handling of all confidential data held by Ascensus to ensure against unauthorized access, improper transmission, and/or unapproved disclosure of information that could result in harm to Ascensus or our clients.

At Ascensus we are guided by our Core Values of People Matter, Quality First and Integrity Always®. They inspire us every day to prioritize an environment of respect for those we serve and one another and should be visible in your actions on a day-to-day.

Supervision


Leadership, mentoring, and coaching

No HR responsibilities


Section 3: Experience, Skills, Knowledge Requirements


Minimum 8 years of Software Engineering experience with a minimum of 2 years in a lead role

Passion for leadership, mentoring, and coaching to help others succeed

Experience architecting and delivering solutions using Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platforms such as NICE CXone, Genesys Cloud, Five9, Amazon Connect, or equivalent customer engagement platforms.

Experience designing and implementing IVR, IVA, conversational AI, chatbot, voicebot, and omnichannel customer engagement solutions.

Experience integrating CCaaS and customer engagement platforms with CRM solutions, identity providers, enterprise APIs, workflow engines, knowledge management systems, and backend business applications.

Experience with NICE CXone, Genesys Cloud, Five9, Amazon Connect, Cisco Webex Contact Center, or similar CCaaS platforms.

Experience with IVA and conversational AI platforms such as ASAPP, Cognigy, Kore.ai, Google CCAI, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Amazon Lex, or similar technologies

Knowledge of customer experience architecture patterns including intelligent routing, skills-based routing, workforce engagement, call recording, quality management, customer authentication, fraud prevention, and analytics.

Experience evaluating and implementing AI-powered customer service technologies, including agent-assist, conversational AI, speech analytics, knowledge retrieval, call summarization, and automation capabilities.

Understanding of telephony, SIP, call flows, routing strategies, IVR design patterns, and cloud-based contact center architectures.

Excellent communication and teamwork skills with ability to explain and influence architectural direction

Excellent technical skills with deep knowledge of development technologies and tools

Excels in a results focused organization

Experience with IVA and conversational AI platforms such as ASAPP, Cognigy, Kore.ai, Google CCAI, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Amazon Lex, or similar technologies.

Experience with Agile/Scrum, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and related DevOps tooling and practices.

Experience with multiple database platforms (e.g., MS SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, or similar).

Expert-level proficiency in the .NET ecosystem.

Demonstrated proficiency with AI-assisted engineering tools for implementation, code review support, refactoring, and technical research, including clear human review habits and compliance with data/security policies.

Practical experience designing, prototyping, or delivering agent-based or model-assisted application capabilities (e.g., orchestration, tool/API integration, guardrails, observability, and production support considerations).

Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills in complex production and delivery environments.

Nice to Have Skills

Experience with customer authentication and fraud prevention solutions such as Pindrop or equivalent technologies.

Experience designing omnichannel customer journeys across voice, chat, SMS, email, and digital channels.

Experience with Salesforce Service Cloud, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, or other CRM platforms supporting contact center operations.

For all virtual remote positions, in order to ensure associates can effectively perform their job duties with no distractions, we require an uninterrupted virtual workspace and there is also an expectation of family care being in place during business hours. Additionally, there is an internet work speed requirement of 25 Mbps or better for individual use. If more than one person is utilizing the same internet connection in the same household or building, then a stronger connection is required. If you are unsure of your internet speed, please check with your service provider. Note: For call center roles specifically, it is a requirement to either hardwire your equipment directly to the internet router or ensure your workstation is in close proximity to the router. Please ensure that you are able to meet these expectations before applying.

The national average salary range for this role is $150-200k in base pay, exclusive of any bonuses and benefits.This base salary range represents the low and high end of the salary range for this position. Actual salary offered will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to location, experience, performance, and internal pay alignment. We do not anticipate that candidates hired will begin at the top of the range

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer

Be aware of employment fraud. All email communications from Ascensus or its hiring managers originate from @ascensus.com or @futureplan.com email addresses. We will never ask you for payment or require you to purchase any equipment. If you are suspicious or unsure about validity of a job posting, we strongly encourage you to apply directly through our website.


For all virtual remote positions, in order to ensure associates can effectively perform their job duties with no distractions, we require an uninterrupted virtual work space and there is also an expectation of family care being in place during business hours. Additionally, there is an internet work speed requirement of 25 MBps or better for individual use. If more than one person is utilizing the same internet connection in the same household or building, then a stronger connection is required. If you are unsure of your internet speed, please check with your service provider. Note: For call center roles specifically, it is a requirement to either hardwire your equipment directly to the internet router or ensure your workstation is in close proximity to the router. Please ensure that you are able to meet these expectations before applying.

Ascensus provides equal employment opportunities to all associates and applicants for employment without regard to ancestry, race, color, religion, sex, (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and/or related medical conditions), gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition (including cancer and genetic characteristics), marital status, military or veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, criminal conviction record or any other protected category in accordance with applicable federal, state, or local laws ("Protected Status").