Principal Architect

Contract Infrastructure Buffalo, New York [job_pay_with_icon]

Contract

Infrastructure

Buffalo, New York

[job_pay_with_icon]

Overview
Lead the end?to?end technical architecture for a large?scale Debit Card Platform Modernization at a major financial institution. While remaining hands-on in back-end development, this individual will own the full ecosystem design (environments, infrastructure, integrations, data, and applications), and translate architecture into actionable designs for development and delivery teams.

Key Responsibilities

Own solution architecture across application, integration, data, infrastructure, security, and resiliency domains.
Design all environments (Dev, QA, UAT, Performance, Prod) for an on?prem VM?based platform with a path toward hybrid/cloud and OpenShift containerization.
Establish platform standards, patterns, and reference architectures.

Convert high?level architecture into detailed designs, build standards, and implementation guides.
Provide hands?on technical leadership for Java/Spring Boot microservices, API design, and performance optimization.
Lead architecture and code reviews; provide oversight to dev, infra, DevOps, and security teams.

Architect event streaming (Kafka), database design (MS SQL Server), APIs, middleware, and batch/real?time integrations.
Define data flows, resiliency, fault?tolerance, and recovery strategies.

Partner with infrastructure/DevOps to design CI/CD pipelines, environment provisioning, monitoring, logging, and observability.
Ensure platform meets enterprise standards for availability, scalability, security, compliance, and disaster recovery.
Act as primary technical advisor to program leadership.
Present architectural decisions to senior stakeholders.
Support vendor evaluations and mentor technical team members.

Required Skills

10+ years in enterprise application development/architecture; 5+ years in a senior/principal architecture role.
Strong hands?on experience (yes, this role is hands-on coding) with Java, Spring Boot/Cloud, microservices, REST APIs, event?driven patterns.
Experience with OpenShift/Kubernetes, Kafka, MS SQL Server, and on?prem virtualized environments (VMware).
Background in banking/payments/card processing; understanding of high?availability and regulatory requirements.
Ability to lead architecture across multiple teams and communicate complex concepts to non?technical leaders.

Preferred Qualifications