Senior Principal Architect, NextGen Instrument Platforms

Overview

Keysight's Software and AI Labs (SAL) is leading the evolution of software-centric instruments, modernizing how instruments are architected, composed, and scaled across hardware, software, and distributed systems. This transformation strengthens long-term competitive differentiation and increases architectural reuse across businesses.

SAL is seeking a Senior Principal Architect, NextGen Instrument Platforms to provide enterprise-wide architectural leadership focused on software-centric instrument platforms. This role shapes the upper layers of the instrument stack—including orchestration, distributed control, connectivity, automation, user interaction, and lifecycle architecture—ensuring coherent, scalable, and reusable software foundations across product lines.

This position operates at company-impact scope, guiding architectural direction across multiple businesses and serving as a senior technical advisor to executive leadership. The role partners with peer hardware and firmware architecture leaders to provide end-to-end architectural stewardship across the instrument platform stack.

Responsibilities

• Define and institutionalize the architectural direction for software-centric instrument platforms across Keysight, establishing standards and reusable frameworks adopted across multiple businesses and product families.
• Establish reference architectures and technical guardrails for:
  • Distributed orchestration and control
  • Instrument connectivity and secure command layers
  • High-performance data movement and streaming
  • Automation, synchronization, and multi-instrument coordination
  • Application and user interface integration
• Set long-range technical direction for distributed software platforms, guiding major cross-business decisions involving orchestration, connectivity, lifecycle management, and platform evolution.
• Ensure architectural scalability across the installed base and future platform generations.
• Drive platform reuse across product families to reduce duplication and improve portfolio-level time-to-market.
• Partner with peer architecture leaders to maintain alignment from silicon through application layers.
• Design and validate reference implementations or prototypes to reduce risk in major architectural transitions.
• Identify structural technical risks and scalability constraints that could impact long-term competitiveness.
• Lead high-impact initiatives advancing modularity, componentization, and distributed system design across the portfolio.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on architectural trade-offs, investment priorities, and long-range platform strategy.
• Monitor advances in distributed systems and software platform design, translating relevant developments into competitive advantage.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field (PhD preferred).
• 12+ years in senior technical architecture roles with increasing scope and business impact.
• Demonstrated success shaping cross-organization platform or architectural transformations.
• Recognized technical authority in large-scale software systems and distributed architectures.
• Experience establishing architectural standards adopted across multiple product lines.
• Strong executive communication skills and ability to influence without formal authority.
• Understanding of hardware-software system integration and performance optimization.
• Experience integrating emerging technologies into scalable software platforms is advantageous.

Santa Rosa, CA Salary Range: $180,360.00 - $300,590.00

Colorado Springs, CO Salary Range: $166,990.00 - $278,320.00

Keysight is an Equal Opportunity Employer.