Principal Architect - DEX & AI

DDN; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Highly Competitive Vacation Plans

Paid Holidays

Bonus Programs

Tuition Reimbursement

Employee Referral Program

Excellent Medical, Dental and Vision

Paid Leave Programs

Anniversary and Recognition Awards

Job summary

DataDirect Networks in Santa Clara, CA is seeking a hands-on principal architect to set technical direction and build solutions across digital workplace, AI governance, and enterprise automation. This senior IC will write code, develop proofs of concept, and deliver AI-enabled workflows into production.

The role demands 10+ years of enterprise architecture and a strong ability to turn complex needs into practical, scalable solutions while partnering with security and platform teams.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in enterprise infrastructure, digital workplace, software/platform engineering or architecture.
• Experience building AI-enabled applications, agentic workflows, or advanced automation; knowledge of LLM APIs and safety.
• Broad understanding of identity, SaaS collaboration, endpoint management, and enterprise service management.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain reference architecture for Digital Employee Experience (DEX).
• Architect and implement integrations across Google Workspace, Slack, Atlassian, ESM and endpoints.
• Establish reusable patterns for identity, APIs, access, observability, and automation; set technical standards.
• Lead design/code reviews and mentor engineers; collaborate with security and platform teams.
• Design and test agentic AI solutions and governance; ensure production readiness and safeguards.

Skills

Architecture leadership

Hands-on engineering

AI-enabled apps

Identity & security

Integration patterns

LLM APIs

Tools

Gemini Enterprise

Google Workspace

Slack

Atlassian

CI/CD

Job description

We are on our way to being the first company to power 1 MILLION GPUs and want world-class talent to join our amazing team!

The world is moving faster than ever, and yet, it will never move this slowly again. We are at the forefront of an incredible technological revolution but, at its core, it is fueled by incredible people. People like you.

1,000 Global Employees

11k Happy Customers

16 International Offices

We’re Looking for the Best and Brightest

We are the world’s leading data intelligence platform that reliably accelerates massive datasets for actionable real-time insights. Join our team to help the best and brightest minds tackle the world’s biggest challenges in business, science, medicine, academia and government.

Do What Can’t be Done

For the past 20 years, our team has kept us at the forefront of storage technology and has provided the foundation for enabling researchers to push the limits of “what can be done.”
These innovations take research and discovery to the next level, enabling them to discover cures to disease, observe global warming patterns, model innovative automotive and aerospace designs, discover new sources of energy, make communities safer, and accelerate business results across a wide variety of industries.

DDN Helps Build Your Future, Too

At DDN, we understand our customers’ diverse needs. Whether you’re a data scientist, IT professional, executive, or researcher, our solutions empower you with cutting-edge technology and unparalleled support.

Highly Competitive Vacation Plans

Paid Holidays

Bonus Programs

Tuition Reimbursement

Employee Referral Program

Excellent Medical, Dental and Vision Benefits

Paid Leave Programs

Anniversary and Recognition Awards

Location

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

Department G&A Business Technology Global Information Technology

The role

DDN is looking for a hands‑on principal architect who can set technical direction and build solutions across digital workplace, end‑user computing, enterprise service management, and AI. This is a senior individual‑contributor role, and the architect will write code, develop proofs of concept, build integrations, and help deliver agentic AI and other automation solutions into production. The role combines broad architecture ownership with practical engineering, sound security judgment, and close collaboration with platform teams.

What you’ll do

Architecture and hands‑on engineering

Develop and maintain reference architecture for Digital Employee Experience (DEX), spanning collaboration, endpoint services, identity dependencies, enterprise service management (ESM), automation and AI.

Architect and help implement integrations across Google Workspace, Slack, Atlassian, ESM and endpoint platforms; resolve cross‑platform design challenges with the engineering and security teams.

Establish reusable patterns for identity, APIs, access, observability, integration and automation; maintain clear technical standards and architecture decisions.

Contribute to endpoint and workplace technology standards and practical IT policies in partnership with the support, security, and procurement teams.

Agentic AI development and governance

Personally design, build, and test agentic AI solutions, including enterprise knowledge retrieval, tool/API integrations, workflow orchestration, and approved actions; work with delivery teams to move useful solutions into production.

Develop and troubleshoot agents, connectors, scripts and automation that work with Google Workspace, Slack, Atlassian, ESM and other approved business systems; deliver tested, documented and supportable code.

Define and implement safeguards for agent permissions, data access, sensitive information, approval points, audit logging, and solution evaluation in partnership with Security, Legal, and service owners.

Help select and implement Gemini Enterprise and other approved AI capabilities; assess technical feasibility, reliability, operating costs, and measurable employee benefit.

Delivery and technical leadership

Stay directly involved in solution development beyond AI when needed, including proof‑of-
concept builds, APIs, custom integrations, workflow automation, and complex production troubleshooting.

Review high‑risk changes, major incidents, and recurring employee experience issues; diagnose root causes and help engineers implement durable fixes.

Lead design and code reviews, mentor engineers, and explain technical trade‑offs to IT leadership, while enabling platform teams to operate solutions long term.

What we’re looking for

10+ years in enterprise infrastructure, digital workplace, software/platform engineering or architecture, with evidence of both technical leadership and hands‑on delivery.

Practical experience building AI‑enabled applications, agentic workflows, or advanced automation; understanding of LLM APIs, knowledge retrieval, tool use, evaluation, and operational safeguards.

Broad technical understanding of identity, SaaS collaboration, endpoint management, and ESM, including Google Workspace, Slack, Atlassian, and the integration patterns between them.

Sound judgment about access controls, data protection, auditability, observability, software quality and service support in an enterprise environment.

Ability to turn ambiguous needs into working solutions, lead cross‑team design decisions and communicate trade‑offs without relying on formal authority.

Helpful experience

Delivery experience with Gemini Enterprise, Google Cloud AI services, enterprise search, or comparable agent development platforms.

Familiarity with SOC 2/ISO 27001 controls and secure engineering practices such as source control, code review, CI/CD, and secrets management.

Experience building scalable, reusable integrations and working with engineering and business teams in a growing global organization.

Initial priorities: Establish shared standards across workplace platforms and deliver practical agentic AI and automation solutions, with clear security controls, testing, and operational ownership.

Compensation Range: $180K - $230K

We pride ourselves on our commitment to delivering tangible and consistent results.

Regional Director of Sales, Middle East and Africa

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