Principal Architect, Power Generation & Power/Gas Trading

Vistra Corporate Services Company; United States; Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Vistra Corporate Services Company seeks a Principal Application Architect to lead enterprise architecture, cloud strategy, and automation initiatives across the IT landscape, driving cost efficiency and business value.

You will oversee application and information architectures, guide engineering teams, and establish governance, standards, and reference architectures aligned with TOGAF, ITIL, and DevOps practices in a fast-paced energy trading setting.

Qualifications

• 8+ years minimum; 12+ years preferred.
• 5+ years experience managing/supervising teams.
• Working knowledge of technology best practices, methodologies and processes (e.g., ISO 9000, ITIL, Cloud, Agile, Scrum, DevOps, TOGAF).
• Working knowledge of project/program management concepts and techniques.
• Experience gained through college degree programs and/or certifications is applicable to above skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise architecture and technology governance across applications.
• Define guiding principles, standards and roadmaps for enterprise IT.
• Design cloud architecture to meet business needs while adhering to standards.
• Mentor Digital Labor Center of Excellence and Automation Engineers.
• Communicate enterprise architecture strategy and governance models.

Skills

Leadership

Architecture governance

Cloud architecture

TOGAF

ITIL

Agile/Scrum/DevOps

Project/Program management

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher

Tools

MuleSoft

ActiveMQ

RabbitMQ

AWS

Kinesis

Glue

Redshift

SageMaker

Job description

Job Summary

The Principal Application Architect will be responsible for managing Application and Solution Architecture Services, the Cloud Strategy, planning and execution. Also responsible for gaining cost efficiencies across the IT landscape and then take those lessons and apply to Business. Drive adoption of Automation processes and tools Enterprise wide.

Key Accountabilities

• Experience supporting North American Power & Gas Trading environments.
• Oversee the architecture and platforms for all applications and information architecture.
• Background with both custom solutions and COTS trading tools (e.g., market connectivity, ETRM platforms, analytics).
• Engage business unit leaders to define technology solutions and roadmaps in their domain.
• Define the Guiding Principles, Standards and Roadmap for all applications.
• Design and solution infrastructure, and cloud architecture to meet business requirements while complying to technology standards.
• Define and communicate the Enterprise Architecture and Tech Governance Practice including: Principles, Models, Standards, Best Practices, and the roles and responsibilities of the architecture community.
• Knowledge of ISO/RTO markets, trade lifecycle processes, and real ‑ time market operations.
• Drive a culture of accountability, communication, clarity, and collaboration with specific focus on business value, return on investment, and cost management.
• Recommend, implement, manage, and maintain the technology platforms that enable Digital Labor.
• Create and maintain a reference architecture that enforces standards, guidelines, and leading practices.
• Lead, support, and guide counselees within the Digital Labor Center of Excellence and increase competency of Automation Engineers.

Education, Experience, & Skill Requirements

• 8+ years minimum; 12+ years preferred
• 5+ years experience managing/supervising teams
• Working knowledge of technology best practices, methodologies and processes (e.g., ISO 9000, ITIL, Cloud, Agile, Scrum, DevOps, TOGAF).
• Working knowledge of relevant project and program management concepts and techniques.
• Experience gained through college degree programs and/or certifications is applicable to above skills.

Key Metrics

• Project/program benefits realization and business customer satisfaction with delivered change.
• Team member engagement across technology department Tools adoption and usage, where appropriate.
• Ensuring that the IT organization is effectively meeting the goals and objectives of the corporation.
• Providing a consistent and efficient operating model adhering to the established fiscal controls and meeting or exceeding the defined key performance indicators.
• Identifying areas for improvement that will result in reduced operating or capital expense.
• Identifying areas for automation that will result in increased operational efficiency and decreased operational cost.

Energy & Utilities Domain — US Power Trading/Commercial experience (ERCOT/PJM/MISO/SPP)

Day-ahead/real-time bidding, forward curves, CRRs, ETRM, commercial optimization.

Plant-side systems (PI, GADS, CEMS, Maximo)

Cloud-Native Data Lake & Market Data Architecture — Delivered unified data lakes ingesting commodity feeds (ICE/CME), ISO pricing/LMPs, forward curves (ZEMA/Morningstar/Platts), historians, and ETRM. ISO data extraction across major RTOs. Enterprise integration (MuleSoft, Active MQ, Rabbit MQ) with event-driven/batch/CDC patterns. AWS pipelines (Glue, Step Functions, Lambda, MWAA, Kinesis) and consumption layers (Athena, Redshift, Lake Formation). Sound build-vs-buy judgment.

AWS Architecture & Strategy

Enterprise architecture for event-driven pipelines (Lambda, Step Functions, Event Bridge, Kinesis, MSK), AI/ML (Bedrock, SageMaker), multi-database (RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, Redshift, Fabric). Delivers reference implementations, ADRs, and governance — not just diagrams.

Polyglot Technical Leadership & Execution

Leads by building: Java/Spring Boot, Python, Groovy, complex multi-engine SQL, modern web frameworks.

Technical decision-maker across concurrent workstreams — unblocks teams tactically (code reviews, design sessions) while driving strategy (roadmaps, platform evolution).

Working architect who mentors, stays code-current, and owns decisions and consequences.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-ND1 Job Family Information Technology Company Vistra Corporate Services Company Locations Irving, Texas Texas

We are a company of people committed to: Exceeding Customer Expectations, Great People, Teamwork, Competitive Spirit and Effective Communication.

It is the policy of the Company to comply with all employment laws and to afford equal employment opportunity to individuals in all aspects of employment, including in selection for job opportunities, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, military service, protected veteran status, or any other consideration protected by federal, state or local laws.

If you are an individual with a disability and need assistance submitting an application or would like to request an accommodation, please email us at [e-mail] to make a request.