Platform Architect

Job Description

Job Description

Program Description: This program requires enterprise architecture, technology modernization, project management, and systems integration support for a complex enterprise information technology environment. The program focuses on assessing, designing, implementing, governing, and continuously improving enterprise technology capabilities to ensure they align with organizational objectives, operational requirements, security standards, and evolving business needs.

The effort includes enterprise architecture development, technology assessments, modernization planning, project delivery oversight, governance support, requirements management, and strategic technology planning. Services encompass the development of current-state and future-state architectures, technology roadmaps, architecture governance processes, system lifecycle management, requirements traceability, risk management, performance monitoring, and solution delivery oversight. The program supports the successful planning, implementation, operation, and continuous improvement of mission-critical enterprise systems while promoting scalability, interoperability, security, resilience, and long-term operational sustainability. 

Position Description:  The Platform Architect provides technical leadership for the design, engineering, modernization, integration, and lifecycle evolution of enterprise platforms and shared technology services. The role translates business, technical, operational, security, and performance requirements into platform architectures, engineering standards, reusable patterns, service boundaries, and implementation roadmaps that enable secure, scalable, supportable, and resilient enterprise capabilities. 

The Platform Architect evaluates business needs, engineering proposals, and technology investments to ensure platform decisions are technically sound and operationally sustainable. The role balances innovation with practicality and is expected to assess not only what a platform can do, but also the long-term implications of implementing, operating, securing, supporting, governing, and maintaining it. 

The Platform Architect establishes standards, reusable patterns, and architectural guardrails that promote consistency, reduce unnecessary customization, minimize technical debt, and improve the delivery of shared services across multiple technology platforms. The role works closely with engineering, operations, cybersecurity, service management, business stakeholders, and platform subject matter experts to ensure individual technology decisions contribute to a cohesive and sustainable enterprise platform ecosystem. 

Success is measured not by the deployment of new technologies, but by the delivery of platform capabilities that are scalable, reliable, supportable, economically sustainable, and capable of evolving with the needs of the organization.

Responsibilities: 

The Platform Architect is responsible for promoting scalable enterprise services and reusable platform capabilities while minimizing unnecessary customization, technology sprawl, operational complexity, and unsustainable support models. 

· Enterprise Platform Strategy

• Evaluate emerging technologies, platform investments, and modernization opportunities through the lens of business value, operational sustainability, supportability, risk, and total cost of ownership.

• Establish platform strategies that promote reuse, standardization, service orientation, and long-term maintainability across the enterprise.

• Define platform roadmaps that balance modernization objectives with operational realities and organizational capacity.

· Service Architecture and Standardization

• Develop reusable platform patterns, enterprise standards, reference architectures, and service blueprints that reduce redundant solutions and accelerate delivery.

• Promote common services and enterprise capabilities in lieu of one-off implementations and unnecessary customization.

• Establish architectural guardrails that enable consistency while supporting business requirements.

· Technology Governance

• Lead technical reviews, alternatives analyses, and architecture assessments.

• Challenge assumptions and provide objective recommendations regarding technology investments, platform selection, customization requests, and engineering approaches.

• Clearly communicate tradeoffs among cost, complexity, risk, supportability, scalability, and implementation timelines.

• Evaluate technology proposals, platform capabilities, and architectural alternatives based on business value, technical merit, operational complexity, supportability, organizational readiness, lifecycle costs, scalability, and long-term sustainability.

• Clearly articulate the consequences, risks, dependencies, operational impacts, and support requirements associated with proposed technology decisions, including the implications of maintaining existing approaches.

· Operational Sustainability

• Evaluate the operational impacts of technology decisions, including staffing requirements, support models, licensing costs, training needs, security obligations, and lifecycle management considerations.

• Partner with operations and service management teams to ensure platform solutions can be effectively supported and maintained after implementation.

• Promote designs that improve reliability, observability, resilience, and service ownership.

• Identify platform designs that introduce unnecessary operational burden, excessive customization, specialized support dependencies, or unsustainable lifecycle costs and recommend practical alternatives.

• Ensure platform capabilities include viable operating models, ownership structures, support processes, monitoring requirements, documentation, and transition plans prior to production deployment.

· Organizational Enablement

• Facilitate collaboration among business, engineering, cybersecurity, operations, and leadership stakeholders.

• Drive consensus and alignment around platform strategies, standards, and investment priorities.

• Mentor engineering teams on architecture principles, service-oriented thinking, and platform governance practices. 

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.

• At least 12 years of experience designing, implementing, integrating, operating, supporting, or modernizing enterprise platforms in complex cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments.

• Demonstrated experience with one or more major enterprise platform domains, including public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), private cloud and virtualization (VMware Cloud Foundation), enterprise SaaS platforms, identity services, infrastructure platforms, or shared technology services.

• Experience designing and supporting platform architectures across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments, including compute, storage, networking, identity, security, monitoring, and operational services.

• Experience leading platform modernization, migration, consolidation, integration, or transformation initiatives involving multiple technologies, teams, and stakeholders.

• Experience establishing platform standards, reusable architecture patterns, service offerings, operational models, and lifecycle management processes.

• Demonstrated experience balancing technical requirements with operational supportability, maintainability, scalability, resilience, lifecycle cost, and long-term sustainability.

• Experience evaluating technology alternatives, platform investments, and architectural approaches and providing recommendations supported by technical, operational, financial, and business considerations.

• Experience working closely with engineering, operations, cybersecurity, service management, and business stakeholders to deliver platform capabilities that can be successfully implemented, supported, and sustained.

• Experience producing architecture artifacts, standards, roadmaps, technical assessments, decision records, and executive-level recommendations.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complex technical concepts, trade-offs, risks, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences

Preferred Skills

• Professional certification in enterprise architecture, cloud architecture, cybersecurity, systems engineering, networking, IT service management, or a relevant technology platform. 

• Experience with Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or another enterprise cloud platform, including landing zones, hybrid connectivity, security, monitoring, and multi-environment architecture. 

• Experience with enterprise platform technologies such as ServiceNow, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender, container platforms, integration platforms, or comparable solutions. 

• Experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, or comparable automation and configuration-management tools. 

• Familiarity with platform engineering, DevSecOps, CI/CD, containers, Kubernetes, service catalogs, golden paths, and reusable self-service capabilities. 

• Experience supporting architecture review boards, technical design reviews, engineering reviews, security reviews, or comparable governance forums. 
• Experience supporting large-scale, geographically distributed, mission-critical, high-availability, or regulated environments. 
• Experience with platform consolidation, application rationalization, technology lifecycle planning, licensing optimization, FinOps, or cost-performance analysis. 

Soft Skills

• Technical judgment: Makes architecture decisions based on requirements, evidence, engineering principles, operational realities, and measurable business outcomes rather than technology trends or personal preferences.

• Operational foresight: Anticipates how technology decisions affect implementation, integration, support, staffing, security, cost, reliability, upgradeability, and long-term sustainability.

• Pragmatism: Balances technical capability with supportability, maintainability, scalability, organizational capacity, and delivery objectives.

• Constructive challenge: Questions assumptions, identifies unintended consequences, and advocates for simpler, more sustainable solutions when complexity does not provide sufficient value.

• Enterprise mindset: Promotes reusable services, common capabilities, and standardized platforms while minimizing unnecessary customization and technology proliferation.

• Decision-making discipline: Distinguishes true business requirements from preferences that increase complexity, cost, risk, or operational burden.

• Influence and consensus building: Builds alignment among engineering, operations, cybersecurity, platform teams, service owners, and leadership stakeholders.

• Systems thinking: Understands how platform decisions impact architecture, operations, security, service management, staffing, budgeting, governance, and customer outcomes.

• Accountability: Takes ownership of recommendations and remains focused on successful delivery, adoption, support, and long-term outcomes.

• Clear communication: Explains complex technical concepts, trade-offs, risks, recommendations, and consequences in a manner understood by both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Documentation discipline: Produces accurate, reusable, decision-ready architecture documentation that supports implementation, operations, governance, and future modernization efforts.

Benefits

SES provides a competitive salary and the following benefits:

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• AD&D
• STD
• LTD
• Company paid Life Insurance
• 401k with employer contribution
• Paid Time Off
• Pet Insurance