Director, Architect Principal - Capacity Planning

Charles Schwab Corporation; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Charles Schwab Corporation in Austin, TX seeks a director-level Principal Architect with public cloud and AI experience to scale capacity planning across the enterprise. You will guide architecture, ensure resiliency, and collaborate with diverse technology teams to enable secure, scalable platforms supporting client transactions.

The role emphasizes cloud adoption, data-driven decision making, and cross‑functional leadership to drive strategic transformation and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in application architecture and scalable systems in regulated industries.
• 7+ years as a solution/principal architect using diverse tech stacks such as Python data stack or Java.
• 7+ years working with databases (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL).
• 5+ years designing for scalable, high-performance systems.
• 5+ years leading at all organizational levels and driving positive business outcomes.
• 5+ years with data mining, BI, analytics and visualization tools (Power BI).
• 5+ years with monitoring/alerting tools (Grafana, Datadog) and IaC automation.
• 5+ years solving capacity and scalability incidents and performing health assessments.
• 3+ years cloud-native design (GCP/AWS/Azure), microservices, containers, event-driven apps, security/ performance tuning.

Responsibilities

• Apply capacity planning practices to project demand and capacity for critical systems.
• Map business transactions and infrastructure components to assess capacity and report risks.
• Provide guidance for robust, scalable, highly available, and efficient systems.
• Collaborate with KBT Owners, I&O, Cloud, SRE and data teams across Schwab Technology Services.
• Capture metrics for capacity assessment and translate into infrastructure needs.
• Scale capacity practices across the enterprise using AI and cloud capabilities.

Skills

Leadership

Cloud architecture

AI experience

Data analytics

Problem solving

Stakeholder influence

IaC

Capacity planning

Microservices

Security tuning

Education

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

Quantitative degree

Tools

Python data stack

SQL Server

Oracle

Power BI

Grafana

Datadog

Terraform

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.