Director, Architect Principal - Capacity Planning

Charles Schwab; Ann Arbor (MI); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Employee stock purchase plan

Vacation time and volunteering

Sabbatical after 5 years

Parental leave

Tuition reimbursement

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Job summary

Charles Schwab is seeking a Director-level Principal Architect to scale capacity planning across the enterprise, including public cloud adoption and AI-enabled modernization. You will partner with leaders across TOD, I&O, Cloud, SRE, Data, and BOET to ensure availability and resiliency of critical applications.

The role requires extensive experience in architecture, cloud-native design, and cross-functional leadership within a regulated financial technology environment.

Qualifications

• BS/BA in CS, Engineering, or data science.
• 10+ years in architect roles for scalable systems.
• 7+ years as solution or principal architect.
• 7+ years with databases (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL).
• 5+ years scaling architecture for performance.
• 5+ years leading org-wide initiatives.
• 5+ years BI and analytics tools (Power BI).
• 5+ years monitoring tools (Grafana, Datadog) and IaC.
• 3+ years cloud-native design (GCP, AWS, Azure).
• 3+ years governing architecture based on principles.
• 2+ years AI tools and AI-assisted development.
• 2+ years leading architecture center of excellence.

Responsibilities

• Define capacity planning strategy across cloud and on-prem.
• Map KBTs and infrastructure components to capacity models.
• Ensure robust, scalable, highly available systems.
• Collaborate with I&O, Cloud, SRE, Data, and BOET teams.
• Expand practices using AI and cloud capabilities.
• Mentor architects and lead communities of practice.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Problem solving

Influence decisions

AI awareness

Cloud architecture

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

B.S./B.A. in CS/Engineering

Tools

Python data stack

Java stack

SQL Server

Oracle

PostgreSQL

Power BI

Grafana

Datadog

IaC (Terraform/CloudFormation)

GCP/AWS/Azure

Job description

Your opportunity

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.

We believe in the importance of in-office collaboration and fully intend for the selected candidate for this role to work on site in the specified location(s).

Schwab Technology Services enables the future of how clients manage their money by providing innovative and reliable technology products and services as part of our ongoing commitment to democratize access to investing and financial planning.

Schwab’s Capacity Planning Team, within the Application Architecture team, is in search of a director-level Principal Architect with Public Cloud and AI experience to scale capacity planning practices across the enterprise and support resiliency. Under the direction of the CTO, the Capacity Planning team is tasked with ensuring the capacity, availability, and resiliency of critical applications and infrastructure to ensure that clients can transact anytime through the channels of their choice. This role will drive application and infrastructure capacity planning strategy for a variety of activities such as public cloud adoption, acquisitions and integrations, application modernization, and digital enablement. The role requires close collaboration with leaders, architects, and engineers across many organizations within the Technology, Operations, and Data (TOD) organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Apply substantial capacity planning practices, technical experience, and expert-level architectural thinking to project demand and capacity to manage current critical systems and complex multi-year transformation initiatives, strategic programs, projects, and platform decisions.
• Map key business transactions (KBTs) and critical infrastructure components, assess the current capacity baseline, and overlay current versus proposed demand and capacity to meet business needs. Translate the impact of capacity issues into business performance measures and assist in the reporting of risks and insights.
• Provide guidance and standards in the design and implementation of robust, scalable, reliable, and highly available, resilient systems while balancing infrastructure efficiency.
• Partner with KBT Owners, Infrastructure & Operations (I&O), Cloud, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) within Schwab Technology Services (STS), Schwab Data, and Business Operations and Enterprise Transformation (BOET) organizations to capture business, application, and infrastructure metrics for capacity assessment and translate those into infrastructure needs.
• Scale capacity planning practices beyond KBTs and critical infrastructure components and strengthen the community of practice for application and infrastructure architecture at Schwab through AI and cloud capabilities, reusable patterns, and frameworks.

What you have

Required Qualifications

• B.S./B.A. in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a statistical or other quantitative field.
• 10+ years of experience in application architecture, design, development, hosting, and maintenance of complex and highly scalable systems in highly regulated industries (e.g., finance, insurance, healthcare, government).
• 7+ years of experience as a solution architect or principal architect in solution architecture and maintenance architecture using a wide range of technical stacks, such as the Python data science stack (Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, Scikit-Learn, Jupyter, etc.) or the full Java development stack.
• 7+ years of experience working with databases (e.g., SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, etc.).
• 5+ years of experience architecting and designing systems for optimized scaling and performance.
• 5+ years of experience working effectively at all levels of an organization, with the ability to influence and inspire others and lead decisions that deliver clear, positive results for the company.
• 5+ years of experience with data mining, business intelligence, analytics, and visualization tools (e.g., Power BI) and data frameworks.
• 5+ years of experience with monitoring and alerting tools (Grafana, Datadog) and with automating tools and scripts to streamline processes and reduce manual intervention, including infrastructure as code (IaC).
• 5+ years of experience with problem-solving, root cause analysis, and business impact analysis for incidents related to capacity and scalability, as well as application health assessments for application areas considered at risk for capacity and scalability.
• 3+ years of experience in cloud-native design (GCP, AWS, Azure), including microservices, containers, event-driven applications, configuration and deployment strategies, and security and performance tuning of large data streams and APIs.
• 3+ years of experience curating architectural principles, guidance, and governing architecture based on established principles.
• 2+ years of experience with AI tools and technologies including AI-assisted software development.
• 2+ years of experience leading a center of excellence for architecture.

Preferred Qualifications

• Anticipates and responds to evolving business needs while managing organizational priorities
• Leverages analytical insights to shape policy, drive outcomes, and guide strategy
• Communicates key information with stakeholders across multiple channels to ensure successful outcomes
• Utilizes knowledge of the industry, market, and competition to influence strategy in the business area
• Utilizes holistic, abstract, or theoretical perspectives to guide strategic direction and anticipate industry trends
• Transforms data into actionable insights and mentors others in diagnostic techniques
• Influences innovative solutions and contingency plans in the broader business area
• Promotes creativity, experimentation, and strategic thinking to differentiate Schwab from its competitors
• Exerts executive influence to drive enterprise-wide direction and optimize partnerships
• Fosters strong cross-group connections, approaching sensitive issues with empathy
• Takes responsibility for empowering people toward greater results
• Sets the benchmark for organizational credibility, ethical conduct, and confidentiality
• Crafts persuasive messages that shape and influence behaviors to drive outcomes

In addition to the salary range, this role is also eligible for bonus or incentive opportunities.

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