Principal Architect - Application Engineering and Enterprise Architecture

Overview

Microsoft Industry Solutions – Global Center Innovation and Delivery Center (GCID) delivers end‑to‑end solutions by enabling accelerated adoption and productive use of Microsoft technologies. An organization of well over 1,000+ exceptional people, GCID presents a compelling opportunity for senior technical leaders to drive enterprise‑scale transformation through consulting, architecture, and delivery leadership.

The Principal Architect is a senior technical and business leader accountable for shaping, influencing, and driving successful outcomes across large, complex, multiyear enterprise engagements. This role operates at the convergence of technology, business strategy, and executive decision making, acting as a trusted advisor to customer CEO, CIO, CTO, and CDO stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Engineering Excellence

• Set and enforce engineering excellence standards across organizations, ensuring architecture integrity, quality, security, resilience, and performance at enterprise scale.
• Champion modern engineering practices including AI‑assisted development, DevSecOps, SRE, observability, and platform engineering.
• Drive creation and reuse of enterprise‑grade reference architectures, accelerators, patterns, and paved‑road platforms.
• Establish and govern architecture review cadences aligned with the Microsoft Well‑Architected Framework, influencing decisions at executive and transformation program levels.

Innovation & Thought Leadership

• Act as a visible thought leader with customers and internal leadership—shaping future‑state architectures, modernization strategies, and AI adoption roadmaps.
• Track and evaluate emerging technologies, AI platforms, and engineering paradigms to inform strategic investments and differentiated offerings.
• Influence innovation across GCID by sharing best practices, defining reusable assets, and mentoring senior architects.

Client Engagement & Solutioning

• Operate as a trusted advisor to CEO / CIO / CTO stakeholders, guiding executive‑level conversations on digital transformation, AI adoption, cloud strategy, platform modernization, and operating model changes.
• Lead executive design sessions, architecture boards, and transformation roadmap reviews, providing clear trade‑off analysis across cost, risk, time‑to‑value, and strategic outcomes.
• Own technical leadership during presales, deal shaping, and complex pursuits, including estimates, risk profiling, executive narratives, and differentiated solution design.
• Build long‑term executive relationships that position GCID as a strategic transformation partner, not just a delivery vendor.

Team Leadership, Mentorship & Organizational Impact

• Provide seniormost technical leadership across multiple architect teams, fostering a strong culture of accountability, rigor, and innovation.
• Mentor and develop senior and principal architects, setting clear expectations for L64/L65 progression and impact.
• Influence talent strategy, capability development, and succession planning across Apps & AI engineering communities.

Quality, Security & Compliance

• Ensure enterprise‑grade security, governance, reliability, and compliance across all engagements.
• Drive adoption of secure‑by‑design, Responsible AI, and privacy‑first engineering practices aligned with customer regulatory and risk postures.
• Partner with customer security, risk, and compliance leadership to design architectures ready for regulated and highly scrutinized environments.

Other

• Embody our culture and values.

Qualifications

• 22+ years of experience in software engineering and enterprise architecture, with significant experience operating at CxO‑level technical leadership roles.
• Proven track record leading large‑scale transformation programs across cloud, data, AI, and modern application platforms.
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder influence, and decision‑making capability.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience; advanced certifications and industry recognition preferred.

Areas of Expertise

(All areas below assume enterprise‑scale ownership and executive‑level influence)

Full Stack Application Engineering

• End‑to‑end architecture leadership for modern, large‑scale application ecosystems
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, scalability, performance, and secure application design

AI‑Driven & AI‑Enabled Application Development

• Define and govern enterprise AI architectures using Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Services, and agentic systems
• Executive oversight of Responsible AI, governance, observability, and cost‑optimization strategies

Cloud‑Native Architecture (Azure)

• Design and influence platform‑centric, PaaS‑first enterprise architectures
• Lead cost, resilience, security, and multi‑region strategies aligned to business continuity goals

DevOps, Platform & Developer Productivity

• Shape enterprise DevOps, platform engineering, and developer productivity strategies
• Drive standardization of CI/CD, IaC, security automation, and paved‑road platforms

Solutioning, Pre‑Sales & Strategic Leadership

• Own technical strategy for large, complex, high‑value deals
• Translate executive business priorities into competitive, differentiated architectures
• Influence both customer and internal leadership on technical investment and risk decisions

Frontier Engineering & Customer Enablement Skills

• Lead early‑stage innovation, pilots, and lighthouse programs with executive sponsorship
• Guide customers from whiteboard concepts to scaled production platforms
• Operate confidently in ambiguous, high‑pressure executive environments, balancing speed with governance

Personal Attributes

• Executive presence with the ability to influence CEO / CIO / CTO stakeholders
• Strong strategic thinking combined with deep technical credibility
• Outcome‑oriented mindset with a focus on measurable business impact
• Passion for technology, leadership, and continuous growth

Experience Level

Senior Level

Application Details

• This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances.

If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.