Senior Architect (Distributed Data Strategy Architect)

Empower; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Empower is seeking a Senior Integration Architect (Data & APIs) to design enterprise integration patterns and drive API-first, event-driven architectures across the organization. You will mentor teams, define data contracts, and lead modernization to reduce point-to-point integrations while ensuring reliability, security, and governance across distributed systems.

Based in the United States, this role partners with enterprise architects and business leaders to deliver scalable, real-time

Qualifications

• Experience designing scalable integration across distributed systems.
• Understanding of API-first and event-driven approaches.
• Ability to define data contracts and interface standards.
• Experience with modern messaging systems and cloud platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design API-first and event-driven architectures for real-time communication.
• Architect REST/gRPC patterns and asynchronous messaging across systems.
• Define data contracts, schemas, and interface standards.
• Lead modernization of legacy integrations and improve resilience.
• Provide architectural leadership through reviews and cross-team collaboration.

Skills

Scalable integration design

API-based system design

Event-driven architectures

Data contract definition

Distributed systems reliability

Mentoring engineering teams

API lifecycle governance

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS

Tools

Apigee

Kong

AWS API Gateway

Azure API Management

Kafka

Kinesis

Pub/Sub

Job description

Our vision for the future is based on the idea that transforming financial lives starts by giving our people the freedom to transform their own. We have a flexible work environment, and fluid career paths. We not only encourage but celebrate internal mobility. We also recognize the importance of purpose, well-being, and work-life balance. Within Empower and our communities, we work hard to create a welcoming and inclusive environment, and our associates dedicate thousands of hours to volunteering for causes that matter most to them.

Chart your own path and grow your career while helping more customers achieve financial freedom. Empower Yourself.

As aSenior Integration Architect (Data & APIs)at Empower, you will be both a strategic leader and hands-on technical expert responsible for designing and evolving enterprise integration architecture. Partnering with enterprise architects, application teams, and business leaders, you will define API-first and event-driven architectures that enable real-time, reliable, and scalable system communication.

You will drive standardized integration patterns such as RESTful/gRPCAPIs, asynchronous messaging, and data contracts to ensure consistency, security, and resilience across the enterprise, while leading modernization efforts to reduce point-to-point integrations and enable looselycoupled systems across legacy and modern platforms. You will influence key architectural decisions, mentor engineering teams, and establish best practices for API lifecycle management, event-driven design, and distributed system reliability.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement API-first and event-driven architectures that enable scalable, real-time systemcommunication
• Architect integration patterns including REST/gRPCAPIs, asynchronous messaging, and event-driven workflows across distributed systems
• Define and enforce data contracts, schemas, and interface standards to ensure consistent, reliable data exchange across domains
• Design for resilience in distributed systems, including preventing duplicate processing, managing retries and replays, and ensuring fault tolerance
• Lead modernization of legacy integrations by reducing point-to-point dependencies and enabling loosely coupled architectures
• Establish best practices for API lifecycle management including versioning, documentation, security, and governance
• Provide architectural leadership through design reviews, mentoring, and cross-team collaboration to ensure consistent adoption of integration patterns

Required Skills

• Experience designing and implementing scalable integration solutions across distributed systems
• Strong understanding of API-based system design and modern integration approaches (e.g.,synchronousand asynchronous patterns)
• Familiarity with event-drivenarchitecturesand messaging concepts in real-world applications
• Experience defining and managing interfaces or data exchange patterns across systems
• Understanding of reliability considerations in distributed systems (e.g., handling failures, retries, or duplicate processing)
• Experience working across a mix of legacy and modern systems in complex enterprise environments
• Proficiencyin backend or service-based development using languages such as Java, Python, or similar

Nice to Have Qualifications

• Experience with API management platforms or gateways (e.g., Apigee, Kong, AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management)
• Hands-on experience with messaging or streaming platforms (e.g., Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub)
• Familiarity with domain-driven design concepts (e.g., bounded contexts, service boundaries)
• Experience designing or working with contract-first APIs or schema-driven development approaches
• Exposure to cloud-native architectures and distributed system patterns in AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Experienceparticipatingin architecture governance processes (e.g., design reviews, reference architectures, ADRs)
• Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate or Professional)

Education

• Bachelor’s and/or master’s degree in computer science or related field (information systems, mathematics, software engineering, etc.)

Physical Requirements/Working Conditions

• Normal Office Working Conditions

We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity. All individuals, regardless of personal characteristics, are encouraged to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, religion, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable state or local law.