Principal Architect - IT

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Job overview and responsibilities

The Principal Architect will lead the architectural design and strategy for applications within the DT Tech Ops & Safety portfolio. In this role, you will collaborate with the United Airlines Enterprise team to ensure compliance with architectural standards. You will apply these standards to the portfolio to provide a cohesive technical design and strategy across applications, platforms, and services, including third‑party IT systems implementations.

The Principal Architect will implement enterprise architecture standards within cloud and on‑premises infrastructures, ensuring adherence to Dev Ops, security, and data management standards. The ideal candidate will possess a deep understanding of translating enterprise architecture standards into actionable designs, ensuring applications are built in a scalable, secure, and compliant manner.

• Collaborate with domain architects, engineers, and leaders to develop technical standards, reference architectures, design patterns, opinion papers, and architecture decision frameworks that guide the design of technology solutions, especially those requiring integration of applications.
• Develop and manage a technical strategy and coordinate adoption. This role will be responsible for architect guidance on best practices and common pitfalls in system design, infrastructure integration, application development, and application runtime principles.
• Manage the architecture review process by creating validation checklists, reviewing architectural artifacts, and providing domain‑specific guidance to drive architectural alignment across the enterprise. Apply architectural and engineering principles to design solutions that meet operational requirements, including scalability, maintainability, security, reliability, extensibility, flexibility, availability, and manageability.
• Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines and observability tools (Harness, Dynatrace, AWS) to ensure efficient software delivery and application reliability.
• Conduct research and develop proofs of concept for emerging technologies and implementation toolkits to support anticipated development efforts and recommend technologies that are functionally robust and cost‑effective. Research, enforce, and drive the adoption of design patterns throughout the enterprise, and evangelize best practices for solution design and development.
• Identify new technologies, industry trends, and best practices to incorporate into the roadmap. Plays a critical role in translating business strategy into technical strategy and defines end‑to‑end technology architectures that support the strategy.

What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):

• Bachelor’s degree
• Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems or other computer related field required
• 7+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, with a strong background in managing complex enterprise applications and infrastructure.
• Enterprise Applications:
• Cloud and On‑Premise Infrastructure:
  Expertise in on‑premise server provisioning, with a focus on hybrid cloud environments
• Dev Ops and CI/CD:
  Strong knowledge of Dev Ops practices, including CI/CD, automation, and observability tools (Harness, Dynatrace).
• Security and Vulnerability Management:
  Solid understanding of security best practices, including vulnerability management and mitigation.
• Data Management:
  Proficient in data architecture, governance, and security, with experience in both relational and non‑relational databases.
• Strategic Thinking and Problem‑Solving:
  Ability to develop long‑term technology roadmaps and solve complex technical challenges.
• Emerging Technologies:
  Keen interest in staying current with the latest trends in architecture, cloud computing, and software development.
• Extensive experience with .NET or Java, and building…