Director of Architecture

Director of Architecture & Engineering

Phoenix, AZ (Onsite) | Private Cloud and Managed Services | Financial Services Technology

CornerStone Technology Talent Services is partnering with a leading organization to identify a Director of Architecture and Engineering to lead a high-impact team responsible for designing, building, and evolving a privately managed cloud and enterprise technology stack.

This role is ideal for a technically credible leader who can guide senior architects and engineers, influence architectural direction, and drive execution across complex, regulated environments.

This organization owns and operates its full infrastructure stack, including on-prem infrastructure, compute, hosting, and platform layers. This requires a leader who understands how systems are built, integrated, and scaled from the ground up.

Role Overview

This leader will own both strategy and execution across architecture and engineering, managing a team of 10 consisting of 3 engineers and 7 architects. The role is highly engaged in strategic planning, major releases, and platform upgrades, while also overseeing project intake and delivery execution.

A key focus of this position is helping define and execute a three-year technology vision while ensuring strong alignment between architecture, engineering, and operations.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture Strategy and Technical Leadership

• Define and drive enterprise architecture across on-prem infrastructure, compute, hosting, cloud, applications, and integration layers
• Lead architectural decisions for major initiatives, upgrades, and platform evolution
• Partner with executive leadership to build and execute a three-year strategic roadmap
• Facilitate constructive technical debate and influence outcomes toward scalable and maintainable solutions

Plan and Build Ownership

• Own the end-to-end Plan and Build lifecycle, including project intake, prioritization, and execution
• Ensure solutions are engineered, tested, and production-ready prior to transition to operations
• Oversee both project-based work and ongoing intake-driven initiatives
• Drive successful transition of solutions into operational support models

Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, mentor, and align a team of senior architects and engineers
• Establish clear priorities, accountability, and execution discipline
• Help the team align around goals and deliver effectively
• Foster a culture of collaboration, ownership, and long-term retention

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

• Ensure alignment with regulatory frameworks such as NIST and PCI
• Drive standards for security, resiliency, and disaster recovery
• Maintain architectural governance while enabling delivery agility

Cross-Functional and Executive Partnership

• Partner with Infrastructure, Operations, Security, and Product teams
• Act as a trusted advisor to the CTO and executive leadership
• Support internal and client-facing architectural discussions as needed

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive experience in enterprise technology architecture across infrastructure, cloud, application, and integration domains
• 5+ years of leadership experience guiding senior technical professionals or architecture teams
• Proven experience leading architecture and engineering teams at the Director level or higher
• Strong background in on-prem infrastructure, compute, hosting, and private cloud environments
• Ability to balance technical depth with strong leadership capability
• Experience owning delivery, including project intake and Plan and Build lifecycle
• Demonstrated ability to influence architectural direction and lead through technical discussions
• Experience working within regulated environments, including NIST and PCI
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills
• Stable career progression with demonstrated tenure and long-term impact

Preferred Experience

• Managed services or MSP environment experience
• Experience supporting multi-client or shared services environments
• Financial services or other regulated industry background

Work Environment and Interview Process

• Onsite role in Phoenix, AZ, including data center exposure
• Interview process includes CTO interview, panel interview, and final interview with COO

Additional Context

This is a critical leadership hire where leadership capability and culture fit are prioritized over purely hands-on technical depth. The organization has strong retention and is seeking someone who will build long-term impact.

They are specifically looking for a leader who can step in, align the team, take ownership of goals, and help drive execution of a three-year vision while guiding architectural decisions in a collaborative but decisive manner.