Director, Platform Architect Principal - Investment Operations, Sales & Distribution

Charles Schwab Corporation; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Charles Schwab Corporation's Schwab Technology Services is seeking a Senior Investment Management Operations & Distribution Platform Architect to lead target-state architecture and platform modernization across Middle Office, Back Office, and Sales & Distribution ecosystems.

This role drives transformation, governance, and scalable, secure solutions in investment operations, distribution, data, and enterprise tech.

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 a part of our ongoing commitment to democratize access to investing and financial planning.

We are seeking a Senior Investment Management Operations & Distribution Platform Architect to lead architecture strategy and platform modernization across the Middle Office, Back Office, and Sales & Distribution ecosystem supporting ETFs, Mutual Funds, Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs), and Alternative Investments.

This senior leadership role will define the target-state architecture, drive platform transformation, and enable seamless integration across operations, distribution, CRM, data, and investment platforms. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in investment management operations, enterprise architecture, cloud technologies, and large-scale transformation programs.

The role requires close partnership with business leaders, operations teams, product managers, architects, and engineering teams to deliver scalable, secure, and resilient solutions that advance Schwab Asset Management's strategic objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture Strategy & Leadership

• Define and evolve the target-state architecture, technology strategy, and multi-year roadmap for Investment Operations and Distribution platforms, aligned to business priorities, operating models, regulatory requirements, and enterprise standards.
• Lead architecture governance, design reviews, technology assessments, and platform modernization initiatives across the application portfolio.
• Drive platform operating model transformation through capability-based architecture, platform ownership, shared services adoption, and rationalization of redundant technology capabilities.
• Establish architecture principles, integration patterns, reference architectures, and reusable platform capabilities to promote consistency, scalability, and reuse.
• Lead major architecture and platform decisions for strategic business initiatives, ensuring alignment across investment operations, distribution, data, and enterprise technology ecosystems.
• Simplify legacy technology landscapes and accelerate adoption of scalable, resilient, cloud-native architectures.

Investment Operations and Distribution Domain Architecture

• Strong experience supporting Investment operations and distribution domains.
• Investment Operations & Fund Administration: Trade lifecycle management, settlement, reconciliations, corporate actions, exception management, fund accounting, valuations, and custody operations.
• Middle Office & Investment Accounting: IBOR, ABOR, investment accounting, operational data flows, and middle-office transformation initiatives.
• Performance, Analytics & Regulatory Reporting: Performance measurement, attribution, operational analytics, regulatory reporting, and compliance capabilities.
• Alternative Investments Operations: Alternative investment servicing, fund operations, custody, trading, and associated operational workflows.
• Distribution, Sales & Marketing Platforms: Product onboarding, lifecycle management, CRM, sales enablement, distribution operations, marketing platforms, and client engagement capabilities.
• Industry Platforms & Ecosystems: Experience with leading investment management platforms and service providers such as Aladdin, VestmarkOne, State Street, Rimes, SS&C, iCapital, and similar industry solutions.

Engineering Excellence & Hands-On Technical Leadership

• Partner with engineering teams and solution architects to design, modernize, and deliver scalable, resilient, and secure platform solutions.
• Provide technical leadership across APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, integration patterns, cloud-native platforms, and distributed systems.
• Lead architecture validation activities, including technology assessments, proof-of-concepts, design reviews, and resolution of complex performance, scalability, resiliency, and integration challenges.
• Champion modern engineering practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, security-by-design, observability, reliability engineering, and operational excellence.
• Collaborate with platform engineering, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and SRE teams to improve platform scalability, resilience, and operational effectiveness.
• Assess existing platforms and architectures to identify modernization opportunities, capability gaps, technical debt, and operational risks.

Cloud, Data & AI Architecture

• Lead the design and deployment of applications on GCP and PCF platforms.
• Define cloud-native patterns leveraging containers, automation, observability, and resilient infrastructure.
• Partner with data engineering teams to establish scalable data architectures, pipelines, metadata, and analytics-ready platforms.
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI and GenAI capabilities to enhance investment workflows, research productivity, knowledge discovery, and operational efficiency.
• Ensure AI solutions comply with enterprise governance, security, and risk management standards.

Collaboration & Influence

• Partner with business, product, engineering, architecture, and data leaders to align technology strategy with business objectives.
• Communicate architecture decisions effectively to executive and technical audiences.
• Mentor engineers and architects and help elevate technical capabilities across the organization.
• Influence strategic technology direction through thought leadership and practical delivery experience.

What you have

Required Qualifications:

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, solution architecture, or enterprise architecture roles.
• Significant experience within Asset Management Operations, Sales & Marketing technology
• Experience leading architecture of vendor-based platforms, SaaS ecosystems, package implementations, and build-versus-buy technology decisions.
• Proven track record leading large-scale platform architecture and modernization initiatives.
• Strong understanding of software delivery within Agile and product-centric organizations.
• Ability to balance strategic architecture thinking with hands-on implementation leadership.
• Strong proficiency in Java (Spring Boot/Spring Cloud), .NET/C#, or Python.
• Deep expertise in microservices, event-driven architectures, API design, and distributed systems.
• Strong cloud architecture experience on GCP (preferred) or AWS.
• Experience with cloud-native technologies including Docker and Kubernetes.
• Strong understanding of data architecture, data engineering patterns, and analytics platforms.
• Experience with Snowflake, SQL Server, and modern cloud data platforms.
• Experience with SalesForce and related data integrations.
• Familiarity with DevOps toolchains including Git, Bitbucket, Bamboo, Jenkins, or equivalent platforms.
• Knowledge of AI/ML architecture patterns, model deployment, and governance frameworks.

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