Senior Principal Platform Architect — Microservices & AI

Blue Shield of CA; Virginia Beach (VA); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Stellarus seeks a Senior Principal, Application Architecture, to shape how we design reusable microservices and cloud-native platforms, integrating strategic vendors and AI-assisted development patterns. You will oversee architecture direction across the platform and influence production tradeoffs that engineers can implement, test, deploy, and operate.

This is the most senior individual-contributor architecture role, with hands-on influence across code, system design, and delivery.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or 4 years of relevant experience in lieu of a degree.
• 12+ years of software engineering or related technical experience.
• Extensive experience setting application architecture direction for enterprise-scale distributed systems.
• Expert knowledge of microservices, API ecosystems, event-driven architecture, and domain-driven design.
• Strong hands-on engineering background; comfortable discussing code structure, service design, and deployment.
• Experience with cloud environments (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP transferable).
• Understanding of API and data architectures (REST, OpenAPI, PostgreSQL).
• Ability to lead complex technical decisions across multiple teams without formal authority.

Responsibilities

• Shape how Stellarus designs reusable services and vendor integrations.
• Define AI-assisted development patterns and platform strategies.
• Serve as technical authority for application architecture across the platform.
• Lead architecture decisions across engineering, product, security, and operations.
• Mentor staff and principal engineers; drive reusable patterns and standards.

Skills

Microservices

API ecosystems

Event-driven design

Domain-driven design

Integration strategy

Platform services

Cloud experience

TypeScript

Node.js

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Automation

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Azure Kubernetes Service

Azure API Management

Azure Service Bus

Terraform

ArgoCD

GitHub Actions

Docker

OpenAPI

Job description

Stellarus seeks a Senior Principal, Application Architecture, to shape how we design reusable microservices and cloud-native platforms, integrating strategic vendors and AI-assisted development patterns. You will oversee architecture direction across the platform and influence production tradeoffs that engineers can implement, test, deploy, and operate.

This is the most senior individual-contributor architecture role, with hands-on influence across code, system design, and delivery.