Director, Architect Principal

Charles Schwab; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with company match

Employee stock purchase plan

Sabbatical after 5 years

Parental leave

Tuition reimbursement

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Charles Schwab seeks an Architect Principal to lead enterprise-scale modernization and governance across mainframe, distributed systems, and cloud architectures. You will influence architecture direction across multiple business domains and guide legacy platform evolution toward modern, secure, scalable solutions.

This role blends business strategy with technology transformation, requiring senior leadership, governance discipline, and hands-on collaboration with product and engineering teams to

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in enterprise application and platform architecture.
• Proven leadership in large-scale modernization initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience in modern distributed, cloud, and AI architectures.
• Strong experience defining architecture standards and ensuring adherence through governance.

Responsibilities

• Provide enterprise-wide architecture leadership across domains and define multi-year roadmaps.
• Lead modernization initiatives spanning legacy systems, cloud adoption, and API strategies.
• Evaluate and guide AI strategies and reference architectures for enterprise use.
• Advance developer productivity through modern tooling, CI/CD, and AI-enabled practices.

Skills

Enterprise Architecture leadership

Application modernization patterns

AI strategies

Public cloud architectures

Architecture governance

CI/CD & DevSecOps for AI

MCP, API, event-driven architectures

Scalability of high-volume apps

Business Architecture familiarity

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

TOGAF

AWS

Azure

Google Cloud

Job description

Your opportunity

This role is designed for in-office collaboration and is based on site in Southlake, TX or Austin, TX.

At Schwab, you’re empowered to make an impact on your career. Here, innovative thought meets creative problem solving, helping us challenge the status quo and transform the finance industry together.

As part of Schwab’s Enterprise Architecture community, you will join an elite group representing the pinnacle of technical expertise and architectural leadership.

This role focuses on enterprise-scale modernization, governance, and platform evolution—spanning mainframe, distributed systems, and public cloud architectures. You will influence how teams modernize legacy platforms, adopt cloud-native patterns, and scale applications in a secure, resilient, and governed manner.

As an Architect Principal, you will operate at the intersection of business strategy, technology transformation, and enterprise governance. This role requires a leader who can influence architecture direction across multiple business domains and technology ecosystems, balancing modernization, innovation, operational excellence, and regulatory requirements. You will help shape Schwab's technology future by guiding the evolution of legacy platforms, accelerating cloud adoption, and enabling responsible enterprise AI capabilities.

In this role, you will

Enterprise Architecture & Strategy

• Provide enterprise-wide architecture leadership across business and technology domains, ensuring alignment between business strategy, architecture standards, and technology investments.
• Partner with business, product, and engineering leaders to define multi-year technology roadmaps and target-state architectures.
• Lead architecture reviews and decision-making processes that balance innovation, risk management, regulatory requirements, and operational resiliency.

Modernization & Public Cloud Architectures

• Lead enterprise technology transformation initiatives spanning legacy modernization, cloud-native adoption, platform evolution, and emerging AI capabilities.
• Define and evangelize application modernization patterns and practices.
• Shape enterprise MCP, API, and integration strategies.
• Design scalable architectures supporting high-volume, mission-critical business capabilities

AI & Emerging Technologies

• Evaluate, shape, and guide enterprise AI and agentic AI strategies and architectures.
• Establish and govern AI and public cloud application patterns and reference architectures.

Modern Engineering Practices

• Advance developer productivity through modern tooling, the evolution of the AIDLC operating model, and AI enablement, including roles and responsibilities such as FDE.

Core Skill Set and Expertise

• Enterprise Architecture leadership across applications, platform, and integration domains.
• Application modernization patterns and migration strategies.
• AI Strategies and AI Solution Architectures
• Public cloud application architectures and hybrid integration models.
• Architecture governance frameworks and operating models.
• Developer tooling and engineering enablement, including CI/CD, SDLC, AI DLC, and modern pipeline automation
• MCP, API, event-driven, and integration architectures
• Scaling patterns for high-volume, mission-critical applications across heterogeneous environments.
• Familiarity with Business Architecture concepts and practices

What you have

Required:

• 10+ years of experience in enterprise application and platform architecture.
• Proven leadership in large-scale modernization initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience in modern distributed, cloud, and AI architectures.
• Strong experience defining architecture standards and ensuring adherence through effective governance.
• Ability to influence senior leaders and translate complex systems into clear architectural direction.
• Good understanding of modern delivery practices including Agile,DevSecOps, and AI DLC.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.

Preferred:

• Experience in financial services or other highly regulated industry.
• Industry-recognized architecture certifications (TOGAF, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or other).
• Experience mentoring and developing architects and technical leaders

What’s in it for you

At Schwab, you’re empowered to shape your future. We champion your growth through meaningful work, continuous learning, and a culture of trust and collaboration—so you can build the skills to make a lasting impact. Our Hybrid Work and Flexibility approach balances our ongoing commitment to workplace flexibility, serving our clients, and our strong belief in the value of being together in person on a regular basis.

We offer a competitive benefits package that takes care of the whole you – both today and in the future:

• 401(k) with company match and Employee stock purchase plan
• Paid time for vacation, volunteering, and 28-day sabbatical after every 5 years of service for eligible positions
• Paid parental leave and family building benefits
• Tuition reimbursement
• Health, dental, and vision insurance