Hybrid .NET/Web Software Architect — Lead & Architect

Nelnet, Inc.; United States; Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

401K

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Nelnet is seeking an IT Software Architect to provide architectural leadership across a portfolio of applications, guiding teams toward pragmatic, value-driven designs. The role emphasizes collaboration with application architects, SREs, and delivery teams to maintain alignment with IT strategy and ADR-driven decisions.

The position requires 6+ years in software development, 2–3 years of leadership, and deep experience with .NET, REST, SQL databases, and secure development practices.

Qualifications

• BS / MS in Computer Science, Engineering, related discipline or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 6 years of experience in software development with a strong expertise in at least one key competency.
• 2 to 3 years of experience as a technical or development leader with a demonstrated ability to deliver medium to large scale technology solutions.

Responsibilities

• Provides overarching architectural leadership across a portfolio of related applications, partnering with application architects, site reliability engineers, and delivery teams to maintain technical alignment and departmental consistency.
• Establishes and sustains the overall architecture practice, design standards, reference patterns, and a shared design language, and captures decisions as Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) maintained in source control.
• Serves as a consulting architect to delivery teams: reviews designs, facilitates architectural decisions, and guides teams toward pragmatic solutions rather than owning delivery for them.
• Owns and continuously improves the developer experience, identifying and removing technology and process impediments at the team level so engineers can do their best work.
• Builds bridges across organizational boundaries, aligning groups that plan, prioritize, and deliver work differently toward shared technical outcomes.
• Develops durable partnerships with infrastructure and platform teams, understanding their priorities and constraints and aligning delivery and platform roadmaps so teams are unblocked rather than escalated around.
• Leads adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices across development roles, serving as a power user, setting expectations for responsible use, and coaching teams on where AI adds leverage.
• Drivers cost optimization for both application and platform spend, making architectural trade-offs with total cost of ownership in view.
• Identifies, quantifies, and sequences technical debt remediation and post-implementation cleanup as an explicit part of the delivery plan.
• Provides architectural leadership during incident management and post-incident review, ensuring systemic causes are addressed at the design level.

Job description

Nelnet is seeking an IT Software Architect to provide architectural leadership across a portfolio of applications, guiding teams toward pragmatic, value-driven designs. The role emphasizes collaboration with application architects, SREs, and delivery teams to maintain alignment with IT strategy and ADR-driven decisions.

The position requires 6+ years in software development, 2–3 years of leadership, and deep experience with .NET, REST, SQL databases, and secure development practices.