Senior Principal, AI-Driven Application Architecture

Blue Shield of CA; San Diego (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Stellarus seeks a Senior Principal Application Architect to define enterprise-scale architecture for payer, provider, pharma, and partner platforms. You will shape reusable services, drive AI-assisted development patterns, and steer vendor integrations so teams can build, test, deploy, and operate solutions with confidence.

This is the most senior IC architecture role; you set architecture direction without a team, mentor staff, and collaborate with security, product, and operations to balance

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or High School Diploma/GED with 4 years of relevant experience in lieu of a degree.
• 12+ years of software engineering, application architecture, platform engineering, or related technical experience.
• Extensive experience setting application architecture direction for enterprise-scale distributed systems, cloud-native platforms, internal platforms, marketplace platforms, or large-scale modernization.
• Expert knowledge of microservices, API ecosystems, event-driven architecture, domain-driven design, integration strategy, and platform services.
• Strong hands-on engineering background; discuss code structure, service design, API contracts, data modeling, testing, deployment, and production failure modes.
• Experience designing and operating microservices and event-driven systems in a cloud environment (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP transferable).
• Strong understanding of TypeScript, Node.js, APIs, React-based platforms, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and infrastructure automation.
• Experience with domain-driven design, service decomposition, integration architecture, and tradeoffs between shared vs product vs customer-specific extensions.
• Practical experience with build-versus-buy decisions, vendor integration, platform consolidation, marketplace capabilities, or turning repeated integration patterns into reusable platform services.
• Strong API and data architecture judgment including REST, OpenAPI, PostgreSQL, analytics handoffs, authorization, tenant isolation, and auditability.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical decision-making across engineering, product, security, infrastructure, operations, and executives without reliance on architecture theater.
• Demonstrated ability to create architecture standards, decision frameworks, and reusable patterns that influence engineering execution.
• Experience mentoring staff and principal-level engineers and architects.
• Healthcare, payer, pharma, SOC 2, HIPAA, or security-sensitive platform experience is strongly preferred.
• Enterprise architecture experience is a plus when paired with hands-on architecture and delivery.
• Excellent written communication to clarify decisions for teams.

Responsibilities

• Shape how Stellarus designs reusable services and integrates strategic vendors.
• Define and drive enterprise-scale architecture direction for cloud-native platforms and marketplace capabilities.
• Turn platform strategy into systems that engineering teams can build, test, deploy, and operate.
• Own the call on what we build, where we integrate with vendors, and how these integrations become reusable capabilities.
• Lead complex technical decision-making across engineering, product, security, infrastructure, operations, and executives.
• Mentor staff and principal engineers toward architecture excellence.
• Collaborate across disciplines to balance delivery with architectural standards and security requirements.

Skills

TypeScript

Node.js

APIs

React

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Cloud platforms

OpenAPI

PostgreSQL

Domain-driven design

Event-driven architecture

Microservices

Vendor integration

AI development patterns

Code reviews

Education

Bachelor's degree

High School Diploma/GED with 4 years relevant experience

Tools

Azure Kubernetes Service

Azure API Management

Azure Service Bus

Terraform

ArgoCD

GitHub Actions

Docker

Dapr

OpenAI tooling

Job description

Stellarus seeks a Senior Principal Application Architect to define enterprise-scale architecture for payer, provider, pharma, and partner platforms. You will shape reusable services, drive AI-assisted development patterns, and steer vendor integrations so teams can build, test, deploy, and operate solutions with confidence.

This is the most senior IC architecture role; you set architecture direction without a team, mentor staff, and collaborate with security, product, and operations to balance