Senior Architect

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. ***Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time, including CPT/OPT.*** The Senior Architect will provide technical leadership and thought leadership across Empower, partnering with enterprise architects, business teams, IT teams, and the Empower Innovation Lab to align technology solutions with the organization’s technology vision. This role will help develop technology strategies, reference architectures, solutions, best practices, and guidance across the IT development organization while addressing total cost of ownership, stability, performance, security, and efficiency. The Senior Architect will also evaluate emerging technologies, including Generative AI and advanced analytics, and help development teams quickly prove technical concepts using a variety of tools, methods, and frameworks. What you will do: Define and drive technology strategy for digital experiences across customer and employee touchpoints. Design architectures for web portals, mobile applications, and other digital touchpoints. Integrate financial data sources and APIs to support unified dashboards and digital experiences. Use data analytics, research, personas, journey maps, and design thinking practices to support personalized, intuitive, accessible, and value-driven experiences. Collaborate with diverse stakeholder groups to gather requirements and develop tailored technology solutions. Influence and guide teams responsible for digital experiences to ensure alignment with technology strategy. Conduct proof of concepts to evaluate and recommend technology solutions. Partner with enterprise architects and peers to define and execute business-aligned IT strategy and vision and contribute to Empower’s technology roadmap. Create reference architectures, standards, guidance, and best practices, and provide coaching to technology team members. Apply best practices for microservices, RESTful APIs, application deployment, and workload architectures, including SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. Design and modernize complex systems into cloud-compatible or cloud-native applications and develop strategies for cloud migration. Evaluate new applications and technical options, develop business cases, challenge existing approaches, and influence technology direction. Make leadership recommendations on architectural considerations, including process design, process orchestration, development, and engineering practices. Collaborate with business and technology teams on architecture, design, security, and compliance, including responding to evolving security conditions and recommending security guidelines. Provide thought leadership, advocacy, and ongoing support for the Enterprise Architecture discipline while considering total cost of ownership, stability, performance, and efficiency. What you will bring: Technical bachelor’s degree, such as computer science, information systems, engineering, mathematics, or a related field. Proven experience defining and driving technology strategy for large enterprises. Strong understanding of customer journey mapping, design thinking, and omnichannel experience strategy. Experience working within the Financial Services industry, including Asset Management, Brokerage, Retirement Services, or Banking. Strong skills integrating financial data and APIs. Knowledge of data analytics and machine learning to support personalized experiences. Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to influence at multiple levels. Experience applying design thinking methodologies to develop user-centric solutions. Demonstrated ability to conduct proof of concepts and recommend technology solutions. Understanding of security protocols and compliance standards. What will set you apart: 5+ years of experience developing and delivering software systems and 3+ years creating solution architectures and strategies across business, application, data, integration, infrastructure, and security domains. 3+ years of development experience with technologies such as Java, Spring, Spring Boot, JSON/XML web services, RESTful architectures, AWS API Gateway, Lambda, Node.js, and Python. Experience with SOA and microservices design, AWS or multi-cloud architectures, advanced programming, modern integration methods, messaging, RESTful architectures, or NoSQL. Client-side development experience with web or mobile technologies, including familiarity with React or Angular and their integration with APIs and backend services. Experience with modern deployment and DevOps practices, including Jenkins, CI/CD pipelines, and source control platforms such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. Working knowledge of architectural cross-cutting concerns and trade-offs, including caching, monitoring, operational support, high availability, and security. Experience applying architecture frameworks and development methods, with strong knowledge of data modeling, security patterns, and integration methods. Understanding of business process analysis and business process management. Additional financial industry expertise, including Investments or Asset Management. Knowledge of GenAI capabilities, including designing and implementing