[Hiring] Principal Architect @TEKsystems

Role Description

The Principal Cloud Practice Architect is a senior leadership role within the AWS Practice, accountable for shaping strategy, leading complex consulting and delivery programs, and serving as a top-level technical authority for clients, sellers, partners, and internal delivery teams. This role is responsible for architecting and governing large-scale AWS modernization, migration, platform engineering, data, AI/ML, and cloud-native transformation programs with measurable business outcomes.

This position is differentiated from senior Architect roles by:

• The scale and criticality of engagements
• The breadth of cross-functional leadership
• The expectation to operate as one of the practice's most trusted AWS experts

Principal Architects lead multi-workstream programs, influence executive stakeholders, define technical direction across portfolios, mentor architects and engineers, and materially contribute to practice growth, differentiated offerings, and strategic client relationships. Programs typically span:

• Enterprise transformation initiatives
• Managed services transition
• Application modernization
• Landing zones
• Platform engineering
• Resilience
• Security
• Emerging AI-enabled solutions

The ideal candidate brings deep AWS expertise across:

• Infrastructure
• Application modernization
• Microservices
• Serverless
• Platform engineering
• DevOps
• Security
• Networking
• Governance
• Operations

This role may require up to 25% travel.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical discipline required.
• 12+ years of experience in information technology, cloud transformation, and/or professional services, including significant architecture leadership responsibilities.
• 8+ years of experience as a Cloud Architect, Principal Architect, Lead Architect, or equivalent architecture leadership role.
• 9+ years of deep AWS experience, including hands-on design and delivery across core, advanced, and enterprise AWS services.
• 6+ years of experience leading cloud migration and modernization programs for enterprise clients.
• 6+ years of experience with microservices, serverless architectures, containers, and cloud-native engineering practices.
• Demonstrated success leading large, complex programs and guiding multiple teams through architecture, delivery, and operational transformation.
• Expert-level knowledge of AWS services such as EC2, ECS, EKS, Lambda, API Gateway, EventBridge, S3, DynamoDB, RDS, Aurora, IAM, KMS, CloudWatch, Route 53, ACM, Systems Manager, Step Functions, and related services.
• Strong experience with AWS enterprise services and patterns including Organizations, Control Tower, Landing Zone concepts, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, hybrid connectivity, identity integration, and governance guardrails.
• Strong understanding of AWS AI capabilities such as BedRock, AgentCore, Transform and QuickSuite.
• Deep experience with infrastructure as code and automation, preferably Terraform and/or AWS-native tooling, plus strong experience with CI/CD platforms and engineering workflows.
• Strong understanding of security, networking, reliability, performance, observability, disaster recovery, and cost optimization in AWS enterprise environments.
• Hands-on experience with one or more programming and scripting languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript/Node.js, C#, Bash, or PowerShell.
• Ability to lead architecture review boards, challenge design decisions constructively, and make sound decisions in ambiguous or high-pressure environments.
• Strong executive communication skills with the ability to explain architecture and transformation strategy to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to travel to client locations as needed and work effectively across distributed teams and time zones.
• AWS Professional-level certification required.

Requirements

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical discipline preferred.
• 15+ years of experience in information technology and/or professional services, with a strong record of enterprise transformation leadership.
• Demonstrated experience building or scaling cloud practices, delivery capabilities, technical communities, or strategic offerings.
• Experience with AWS AI/ML services and modern intelligent solution patterns, such as Amazon Bedrock, SageMaker, vector-enabled architectures, MLOps, or other production AI integration patterns.
• Experience leading application modernization strategies that include refactoring, replatforming, event-driven design, domain-aligned architectures, and platform engineering models.
• Strong command of DevOps, SRE, and platform engineering principles, including observability, release engineering, developer experience, and policy-driven automation.
• Prior success in highly consultative, client-facing roles requiring both technical authority and business acumen.
• Track record of mentoring architects and influencing executive stakeholders across complex organizations.

Certifications

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional or equivalent AWS Professional certification is mandatory.
• Additional AWS specialty or associate certifications strongly preferred.
• Relevant certifications in Kubernetes, Terraform, security, data, AI/ML, or architecture frameworks are a plus.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life and AD&D for employee and dependents)
• Short and Long-Term Disability
• Health Spending Account (HSA)
• Transportation Benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

Job Type & Location

This is a Permanent position based out of New York, NY.

The pay range for this position is $190600.00 - $286000.00/yr. We reserve the right to pay above or below the posted wage based on factors unrelated to sex, race, or any other protected classification. Additional earnings may be available through incentive programs like annual bonuses, profit sharing, etc.

Workplace Type

This is a fully remote position.

Application Deadline

This position is anticipated to close on May 7, 2026.