Senior Solutions Architect

At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. As part of Team Amex, you’ll experience this powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career.

Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.

The Chief Technology Officer Organization's vision is to set the standard for technical excellence, talent, strategy, and standards across Technology. It also seeks to cultivate and foster technical innovation, amplify the technical heartbeat of the organization, and deliver great experiences to all American Express Colleagues. 

Joining Amex Tech means discovering and shaping your contribution to something big. Here, you can work alongside talented tech teams and build a unique career with the Powerful Backing of American Express. With a range of opportunities to work with the latest technologies, and commitment to back the broader engineering community through open source, our mission is to power your success. Because Amex Tech is powered by our technology, our culture, and our colleagues. 

About Enterprise Architecture:

Enterprise Architecture is an organization within the Chief Technology Office at American Express and it is a key enabler of the company’s technology strategy. The four pillars of Enterprise Architecture include:

• Architecture as Code: this pillar owns and operates foundational technologies that are leveraged by engineering teams across the enterprise.

• Architecture as Design: this pillar includes the solution and technical design for transformation programs and business critical projects which need architectural guidance and support.

• Governance: this pillar is responsible for defining technical standards and developing innovative tools that automate controls to ensure compliance.

• Colleague Enablement: this pillar is focused on colleague development, recognition, training, and enterprise outreach.

Responsibilities: 

• Ensures Technology Platform solutions are aligned with the corresponding Platform Blueprint and Company Platform roadmaps; may be called on to be the Technology Platform Single Point of Contact (SPOC)

• Focuses on cross-platform integration to use and optimize platform capabilities

• Ensures the engineered environment meets the specification in terms of business requirements, application design and infrastructure requirements, i.e. accountable for the platform integration performance and efficiency

• Performs hands-on solution architecture design work and actively participates in design and code reviews to ensure both delivery of desired business outcomes and alignment to enterprise standards

• Provides input and functional direction to the Technology Platform’s API strategy and implementation roadmap

• Works with Business and Data Architects to align and incorporate their input into platform solutions

• Responsible for coaching and mentoring engineering resources on solution architecture, providing advice, mentorship and assistance to less experienced colleagues as required

• Identifies technical solutions and business process improvements in support of the business and IT strategic direction

• Finds opportunities to embrace innovative technologies

• Interacts with business partners and product engineering teams to share and direct architecture practices that may affect business solution delivery

• Provides architectural governance, reviewing projects to ensure alignment to architectural and technical strategy by driving Technology Platform to Platform Architecture Review (PAR) approval level

• Advises product delivery resources on the best time to engage dependent teams (for example, database engineering teams)

• Ensures accurate asset information is documented and recorded in the appropriate repositories for the assigned portfolio

Qualifications:

• 4-5 years of hands-on programming experience meaningful to the assigned Technology Platform in a professional environment and/or comparable experience such as:

1. Advanced hands-on experience with application solution architecture design and end-toend software development of complex distributed (multi-tiered) systems

2. Prior experience in multiple IT disciplines with a confirmed understanding of architectural concepts (business, data, technical and solution) and track record of implementation

3. Extensive experience using a systems analysis and design methodology that is applicable to an agile product environment

4. Bachelor’s Degree in computer science, engineering, information systems or related field required; advanced degree preferred

• Prior hands-on experience with one or more core technology stack components within the assigned portfolio, such as relevant frameworks and/or programming languages

• Advanced to authoritative level knowledge and understanding of solution architecture, complex application systems design and platform integration via modern approaches (i.e. RESTful APIs)

• Proven understanding of relevant supporting architecture domains required to align and deliver solutions (business, information, application, technical, etc.) 

• Ability to perform system design reviews to ensure selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources, and alignment to strategic platform roadmaps

• Channel-specific solution architecture skills as required by the assigned platform, such as web, mobile, voice or interactive media

• Advanced skills with Open Source components, frameworks and complex systems integration

• Full understanding of Service Oriented Architecture design principles, execution patterns and performance optimization techniques

• Able to participate in the prevention, diagnosis, and resolution of system outages as a leader in the underlying architecture

• Experienced level understanding of relevant SDLC methodologies, practices and compliance policies/procedures

• Deep business capability domain knowledge relative to the assigned portfolio

• Able to acquire results with an emphasis on reducing cycle time and growing the speed to market of new products 

• Excellent interpersonal skills (verbal and written), as well as effective consultative and influential leadership skills

• Well versed in current industry best practices regarding solution delivery disciplines 

• Strong business insight with the ability to identify key issues and their impact in a broad business context 

Salary Range: $120,000.00 to $210,000.00 annually + bonus + benefits

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:

• Competitive base salaries 
• Bonus incentives 
• 6% Company Match on retirement savings plan 
• Free financial coaching and financial well-being support 
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits 
• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need 
• 20+ weeks paid parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, offered for pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy 
• Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location) 
• Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program 
• Career development and training opportunities

For a full list of Team Amex benefits, visit our Colleague Benefits Site.

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including, but not limited to, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.

We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.

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Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the United States is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions