Enterprise Systems Architect

Schellman is a Top 50 CPA firm and a leading provider of attestation and compliance services. Our professional services focus on security and privacy audits, assessments, and certifications. Schellman has become one of the largest cybersecurity assessment firms in the United States without providing any traditional accounting services. We are an accredited multi‑framework ISO Certification Body for security, privacy, business continuity, and quality; a globally licensed PCI Qualified Security Assessor and a top provider to clients serving the federal DoD space as a leading FedRAMP 3PAO and the first assessment firm authorized as a CMMC C3PAO. Our specialty and expertise remain in providing best in class Cybersecurity and IT Audits and Attestations. Our culture, approach with clients, and dedication to our values has led us to consistently be a Great Places to Work certified company and rated as a Best Firms to Work For by Accounting Today and a Glassdoor Best Places to Work. We deeply appreciate our employees, as shown by our first core value – People Come First. This is demonstrated in our culture, benefits, and how we handle business. Come see what makes Schellman special!

The Enterprise Architect is a strategic, high-impact individual contributor. This role owns the overall technology architecture for Schellman, spanning platform integrations, backend systems, APIs, and digital experiences (Client and Assessor Portals). This person serves as the principal architect across the technology organization, providing essential connective tissue.

This is a hands‑on, strategic role that requires both deep technical thinking and the ability to communicate across departments and up to leadership. The architect works collaboratively with the CTO and peers across Engineering, Product, Infrastructure & Security, Data & Analytics, and the AI Engineering team to shape Schellman’s technology strategy. This role reports directly to the Chief Technology Officer.

Key Responsibilities

• Overall Technology Architecture
• Own Schellman’s entire technology architecture—integrations, backend systems, APIs, and digital experiences (Client and Assessor Portals).
• Evaluate our current integration approach (API Hub + Workato) and create a comprehensive build vs. buy vs. integrate strategy for platform integrations. Assess whether our current approach is the right long‑term direction or if adjustments are needed as we scale.
• Design digital experience architecture—define backend and frontend technology choices (React, Angular, Node.js, etc.), frameworks, patterns, and AWS infrastructure that enable rapid development and excellent user experience.
• Create a cohesive vision that connects all pieces: how platform integrations feed data to portals, how user interactions flow back to core systems, how AI/automation (including Claude‑powered features) enhances both internal and external experiences.
• Platform Integration & APIs
• Optimize and evolve our integration platform strategy, leveraging Workato, custom APIs, and cloud‑native services thoughtfully based on use case.
• Define integration patterns and standards that enable teams to move fast while maintaining consistency, security, and scalability across Workato and custom integration layers.
• Lead the roadmap for expanding integrations to new systems and optimizing existing ones as the business evolves.
• Cross‑Functional Architectural Leadership
• Partner with Engineering to ensure platform and experience designs align with overall strategy and support rapid delivery.
• Collaborate with Product Managers to understand business requirements and translate them into architectural decisions.
• Work with IT Infrastructure & Security to design secure, resilient, cloud‑first systems (AWS) and ensure compliance.
• Partner with Data & Analytics to ensure data flows are architected for analytics, governance, and quality.
• Engage with the AI Engineering team to understand AI/ML requirements and design platforms that enable intelligent automation.
• Architectural Governance & Standards
• Establish architectural decision frameworks that balance innovation, speed, and technical debt.
• Create and maintain architecture documentation at multiple levels (conceptual, logical, physical, operational).
• Define and evolve technology standards for APIs, backends, frontends, data, and infrastructure.
• Drive alignment across departments on architectural priorities and trade‑offs.
• Technical Vision & Communication
• Develop the 3‑year technology roadmap in partnership with the CTO, translating business strategy into technical direction.
• Communicate complex architectures clearly to diverse audiences—from individual contributors to the Board. Strong visualization and diagramming skills are essential.
• Champion architectural thinking across the organization, elevating the maturity of how we approach technical decision‑making.
• Mentor and develop engineering and architecture talent as the team grows.
• Team Building & Capability
• Identify architectural gaps in the current organization and help define hiring/development plans to close them.
• Establish architectural practices and rituals (design reviews, architecture forums, decision documentation) that build team capability.
• Work closely with an incoming Data Architect to integrate data architecture with platform and digital experiences.
• Quick learning curve: Hit the ground running, rapidly assess current state, identify fragmentation, and begin connecting the dots.

What We’re Looking For

Required Experience & Expertise

• 12+ years designing and building comprehensive technology architectures spanning integrations, backend systems, and digital experiences.
• Full‑stack architecture expertise: hands‑on knowledge of both backend (APIs, services, data infrastructure) and frontend technologies (React, Angular, JavaScript, TypeScript, etc.). You’ve architected systems that span multiple technology layers.
• Platform integration: proven experience with both custom APIs and managed integration platforms. We currently use Workato and evaluate build vs. buy decisions thoughtfully.
• Deep cloud expertise architecting on AWS with a proven track record of designing for scale, security, and resilience.
• Enterprise architecture knowledge—comfortable with TOGAF or equivalent frameworks and designing across multiple abstraction levels (conceptual to operational).
• Data architecture fundamentals—working knowledge of data pipelines, integration, and governance. You’ll partner closely with our Data Architect, but must understand the domain.
• AI/ML awareness—familiar with AI infrastructure requirements and how to architect platforms that enable intelligent automation. Not your primary focus, but critical for collaboration with our AI Engineering team.
• Strategic judgment in evaluating build vs. buy vs. integrate trade‑offs and making pragmatic decisions that balance vision with execution.

Required Certifications

• AWS Solutions Architect Professional (or higher—AWS Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Well‑Architected Reviewer)
• Enterprise Architecture: TOGAF 9 (Certified) or equivalent (ArchiMate, Gartner ITACA, or other recognized framework)

Optional Certifications

• AWS Security Architect Professional or AWS Security – Specialty—critical for designing secure, compliant systems
• AWS Well‑Architected Framework Practitioner—demonstrates expertise in AWS best practices (reliability, performance, security, cost optimization, operational excellence)
• API Gateway/Integration Architecture—Workato Certified, MuleSoft Certified, or equivalent
• Data Architecture—AWS Data Analytics Specialty or equivalent (since you work closely with the Data Architect)
• Kubernetes (CKA) or Docker—if the organization uses containerization heavily
• CISSP or comparable security certification—valuable for understanding security architecture across all layers

Essential Skills & Attributes

Visual & Conceptual Communication

• Exceptional ability to diagram and visualize complex architectures at multiple levels.
• Proficiency with C4 model, architecture diagramming tools, and conceptual communication.
• Ability to create and present architecture diagrams for different audiences (architects, engineers, executives, board).
• Experience with BPMN or business process visualization.

Strategic Thinking & Pragmatism

• Ability to balance long‑term architectural vision with near‑term business needs.
• Comfort with ambiguity and rapidly learning fragmented systems.
• Strong judgment in navigating build vs. buy vs. integrate decisions.
• Experience operating in scaling organizations where architecture practices need to be established from the ground up.

Collaboration & Communication

• Collaborative consensus‑builder who brings people along on tough decisions.
• Once consensus is reached, drive execution with decisiveness and accountability.
• Ability to communicate across technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Experience working as a trusted advisor to CTO/executive leadership.

Technical Leadership Without Direct Authority

• Ability to influence and align engineering teams without direct management authority (initially).
• Experience building architectural standards and practices that teams adopt willingly.
• Strong mentoring and knowledge‑sharing orientation.

Optional Skills And Attributes

• Experience in professional services, consulting, or similar knowledge‑work organizations.
• Familiarity with specific platforms we use: HubSpot, Workday, Kantata, Ironclad, Fieldguide, Workato.
• Experience with Claude, OpenAI, or other LLMs and how to architect for AI/generative AI integration.
• Experience with event streaming (Kafka, AWS Kinesis) and async integration patterns.
• Knowledge of modern API gateway solutions and API management platforms.
• Experience with containers (Docker/Kubernetes), orchestration, and infrastructure‑as‑code (Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Track record of establishing architecture governance in rapidly growing organizations.
• Security architecture experience (compliance frameworks like SOC 2, HIPAA, etc.).

Schellman is an equal opportunity employer (EOE) and strongly supports diversity in the workplace; therefore, providing equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other legally protected basis, including arrest and conviction records, in accordance with applicable law. Schellman uses E‑Verify in our hiring process.

At Schellman, we strive to provide a flexible and balanced environment and therefore offer the opportunity to work remotely, unless otherwise stated in the job requirements. Connecting, collaborating and continuous education are also highly valued and therefore we require some travel annually for our Internal Service Delivery roles, which can include in‑person training, team meet‑ups, and strategy meetings. Service Delivery team members will also be required to travel based on business and client needs.