Senior Platform Architect (Cloud-Native & Microservices)

Blue Shield of CA; Springfield Meadows (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

The Principal, Application Architecture at Blue Shield of CA will lead architecture decisions for major platform capabilities and cross-domain initiatives, translating strategy into systems that engineering teams can build, test, deploy, and operate.

This senior IC role emphasizes hands-on design, domain-driven patterns, and strong collaboration with stakeholders to balance build vs. buy, vendor integration, and modernization across payer, provider, and partner workflows.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent professional experience.
• 10+ years of software engineering, application architecture, or platform engineering experience.
• Experience leading architecture for distributed, cloud-native platforms and microservices.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture decisions for major platform capabilities and cross-domain initiatives.
• Drive build-vs-buy, integration consolidation, and modernization for platform capabilities.
• Translate platform strategy into architecture direction and execution standards for engineers.
• Influence senior stakeholders and ensure clear, actionable API contracts, data models, and deployment decisions.

Skills

Distributed systems

Cloud-native platforms

Microservices

Domain-driven design

Service decomposition

REST API

OpenAPI

PostgreSQL

Data modeling

Authorization

Tenant isolation

Auditability

Mentoring

Azure

AWS/GCP

Open communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

High School Diploma/GED

Job description

The Principal, Application Architecture at Blue Shield of CA will lead architecture decisions for major platform capabilities and cross-domain initiatives, translating strategy into systems that engineering teams can build, test, deploy, and operate.

This senior IC role emphasizes hands-on design, domain-driven patterns, and strong collaboration with stakeholders to balance build vs. buy, vendor integration, and modernization across payer, provider, and partner workflows.