[Hiring] Lead Java Practice Architect @TEKsystems

Role Description

The Lead Architect is a hands-on technical leader responsible for defining and delivering end-to-end solution architecture for complex client and internal initiatives. The role drives technical direction across teams, ensures solutions are scalable, secure, and maintainable, and guides delivery teams to build high-quality solutions aligned with enterprise modernization goals. Success is measured by both architectural quality and production outcomes, with the role remaining primarily focused on hands-on solution engineering and minimal delivery support. Occasional travel may be required, such as for engagement kickoffs.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end solution architecture for a domain or major initiative, including integrations, data flows, and non-functional requirements.
• Define and govern architecture for large scale, distributed, cross-platform systems.
• Translate business goals into a pragmatic technical roadmap with product and engineering leadership.
• Lead architecture and design reviews; document key decisions, trade-offs, and guardrails.
• Stay hands-on through prototypes, reference implementations, and technical spikes to mitigate risk.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards across APIs, testing, CI/CD, and secure by default practices.
• Embed operability by design, including observability, resilience, runbooks, and incident readiness.
• Serve as a technical escalation point and drive root cause analysis and systemic remediation.
• Contribute across the SDLC, including estimation, design, and delivery.
• Mentor senior engineers and emerging architects.
• Support pre-sales with solution architecture and effort estimation.
• Continuously evaluate and adopt new technologies and patterns.
• Lead and mentor a team of architects, providing architectural oversight across multiple programs to drive consistency, scalability, and adherence to engineering best practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree / 4-year college degree in Computer Science, or equivalent work experience.
• 15+ years of software development experience.
• 12+ years of strong hands-on experience in Java.
• 5+ years of experience with AWS.
• 5+ years of experience as a Practice Architect, or Lead Architect.

Technical Skills and Experience

• Expert level software engineering with proven experience designing and governing architectures for distributed systems, including clear boundaries, contracts, versioning, and data ownership.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java frameworks such as Spring / Spring Boot, RESTful APIs, and microservices architectures.
• Experience designing and delivering distributed, highly available systems.
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, messaging, and integration patterns.
• Deep expertise in Java including refactoring mature codebases, performance tuning, and pragmatic framework evaluation.
• Ability to define and enforce quality strategies across teams, including test automation, testability standards, and measurable quality outcomes.
• Hands-on contributor through prototyping, reference implementations, deep code reviews, and critical path development.
• Relevant technical certifications (Cloud, Architecture, or Development) are a plus.

Engineering & Tooling

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar tools.
• Advanced DevOps practices including CI/CD strategy, IaC, release safety, environment strategy, and scalable automation.
• Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Strong understanding of security, identity, compliance, and secure by default practices.
• Full stack solution design capability across frontend, backend, integration, and data layers, with depth in at least one area.
• Ability to establish architectural patterns that improve maintainability, reduce coupling, and enable independent team delivery.

Cloud Platform Experience

• Strong experience with AWS, including cloud native design patterns, security/identity, networking, deployment scalability, and cost awareness.
• Hands-on knowledge in various AWS services like ECS, EKS, Lambda, Event Bridge, S3, DynamoDB, System Manager, API Gateway, ACM, Route53, Cloud Watch, etc.
• Ability to define cloud reference architectures and guide trade-offs across reliability, performance, and delivery speed.
• Hands-on experience building, operating, and troubleshooting production cloud workloads using observability tools.
• Nice to have Associate/Professional level AWS certification.

AI Skills & Tool Usage

• Sets expectations for responsible AI tool usage across teams, including validation, security, and IP/privacy considerations.
• Evaluates and enables adoption of AI tools that improve developer productivity and quality (e.g., code generation, testing, documentation).
• When relevant, defines architectural patterns for integrating AI services with appropriate governance and monitoring.

Professional Expectations

• Owns technical direction and outcomes for a program or domain, driving clarity and decisions in ambiguous situations.
• Influences across teams and stakeholders through strong communication and technical credibility.
• Accountable for production outcomes, including reliability, security, and performance.
• Acts as a force multiplier through mentoring, coaching, and reusable reference solutions.
• Maintains hands-on engagement to ensure architectural decisions translate into successful delivery.
• Experience working with an Agile methodology and iterative development.
• Experience with practices such as unit testing, static analysis, and build automation.
• Experience in mentoring and coaching employees, with excellent leadership skills.

Job Type & Location

• This is a Permanent position based out of Atlanta, GA.
• This position is anticipated to close on Oct 28, 2026.
• This is a fully remote position.

Pay and Benefits

• The pay range for this position is $160,000.00 - $225,000.00/yr.
• Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.
• Additional earnings may be available through incentive programs like annual bonuses, profit sharing, etc.
• Our full-time, internal employment benefits include the following:
• 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)