Lead Java Practice Architect

Role Description

The Lead Architect is a hands-on technical leader responsible for defining and delivering end-to-end solution architecture for complex client and internal initiatives. The role drives technical direction across teams, ensures solutions are scalable, secure, and maintainable, and guides delivery teams to build high-quality solutions aligned with enterprise modernization goals. Lead Architects stay close to the code and runtime by validating key architectural decisions, contributing where needed on critical paths, establishing engineering guardrails, and leading design reviews. Success is measured by both architectural quality and production outcomes, with the role remaining primarily focused on hands-on solution engineering and minimal delivery support. Occasional travel may be required, such as for engagement kickoffs.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end solution architecture for a domain or major initiative, including integrations, data flows, and non-functional requirements.
• Define and govern architecture for large scale, distributed, cross-platform systems.
• Translate business goals into a pragmatic technical roadmap with product and engineering leadership.
• Lead architecture and design reviews; document key decisions, trade-offs, and guardrails.
• Stay hands-on through prototypes, reference implementations, and technical spikes to mitigate risk.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards across APIs, testing, CI/CD, and secure by default practices.
• Embed operability by design, including observability, resilience, runbooks, and incident readiness.
• Serve as a technical escalation point and drive root cause analysis and systemic remediation.
• Contribute across the SDLC, including estimation, design, and delivery.
• Mentor senior engineers and emerging architects.
• Support pre-sales with solution architecture and effort estimation.
• Continuously evaluate and adopt new technologies and patterns.
• Leads and mentors a team of architects, providing architectural oversight across multiple programs to drive consistency, scalability, and adherence to engineering best practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree / 4-year college degree in Computer Science, or equivalent work experience.
• 15+ years of software development experience.
• 12+ years of strong hands-on experience in Java.
• 5+ years of experience with AWS.
• 5+ years of experience as a Practice Architect, or Lead Architect.

Technical Skills and Experience

• Expert level software engineering with proven experience designing and governing architectures for distributed systems, including clear boundaries, contracts, versioning, and data ownership.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java frameworks such as Spring / Spring Boot, RESTful APIs, and microservices architectures.
• Experience designing and delivering distributed, highly available systems.
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, messaging, and integration patterns.
• Deep expertise in Java including refactoring mature codebases, performance tuning, and pragmatic framework evaluation.
• Ability to define and enforce quality strategies across teams, including test automation, testability standards, and measurable quality outcomes.
• Hands-on contributor through prototyping, reference implementations, deep code reviews, and critical path development.
• Relevant technical certifications (Cloud, Architecture, or Development) are a plus.

Engineering & Tooling

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar tools.
• Advanced DevOps practices including CI/CD strategy, IaC, release safety, environment strategy, and scalable automation.
• Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Strong understanding of security, identity, compliance, and secure by default practices.
• Full stack solution design capability across frontend, backend, integration, and data layers, with depth in at least one area.
• Ability to establish architectural patterns that improve maintainability, reduce coupling, and enable independent team delivery.

Cloud Platform Experience

• Strong experience with AWS, including cloud native design patterns, security/identity, networking, deployment scalability, and cost awareness.
• Hands-on knowledge in various AWS services like ECS, EKS, Lambda, Event Bridge, S3, DynamoDB, System Manager, API Gateway, ACM, Route53, Cloud Watch, etc.
• Ability to define cloud reference architectures and guide trade-offs across reliability, performance, and delivery speed.
• Hands-on experience building, operating, and troubleshooting production cloud workloads using observability tools.
• Nice to have – Associate/Professional level AWS certification.

AI Skills & Tool Usage

• Sets expectations for responsible AI tool usage across teams, including validation, security, and IP/privacy considerations.
• Evaluates and enables adoption of AI tools that improve developer productivity and quality (e.g., code generation, testing, documentation).
• When relevant, defines architectural patterns for integrating AI services with appropriate governance and monitoring.

Professional Expectations

• Owns technical direction and outcomes for a program or domain, driving clarity and decisions in ambiguous situations.
• Influences across teams and stakeholders through strong communication and technical credibility.
• Accountable for production outcomes, including reliability, security, and performance.
• Acts as a force multiplier through mentoring, coaching, and reusable reference solutions.
• Maintains hands-on engagement to ensure architectural decisions translate into successful delivery.
• Experience working with an Agile methodology and iterative development.
• Experience with practices such as unit testing, static analysis, and build automation.
• Experience in mentoring and coaching employees, with excellent leadership skills.

Job Type & Location

This is a Permanent position based out of Austin, TX.

Pay and Benefits

The pay range for this position is $160,000.00 - $225,000.00/yr. We reserve the right to pay above or below the posted wage based on factors unrelated to sex, race, or any other protected classification. Additional earnings may be available through incentive programs like annual bonuses, profit sharing, etc.

• Medical, Dental, and Vision.
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available.
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life and AD&D for employee and dependents).
• Short and Long-Term Disability.
• Health Spending Account (HSA).
• Transportation Benefits.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave).

Workplace Type

This is a fully remote position.

Application Deadline

This position is anticipated to close on Jul 27, 2026.