Platform Infrastructure Principal Architect

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Principal Platform Infrastructure Architect serves as the technical authority for Accela's cloud platform architecture, responsible for defining and evolving the foundational technology strategy that supports the company's SaaS offerings. This role partners across Engineering, Product, Security, SRE, and Platform teams to establish scalable, secure, and compliant architecture patterns while driving modernization initiatives across a complex multi-tenant environment. The Principal Architect influences technical direction across multiple teams without direct authority and ensures architectural decisions align with long-term business and product objectives.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own the end-to-end architecture for Accela's cloud platform, including Azure infrastructure, networking, Kubernetes, identity, security, and platform services.
• Define and maintain platform architecture standards, reference patterns, and technical guardrails to support scalability, reliability, and operational excellence.
• Lead architecture reviews and drive technical decision-making through the Architecture Decision Record (ADR) process.
• Develop long-term technical strategy for modernization initiatives, including cloud-native transformation, platform consolidation, and infrastructure evolution.
• Establish architectural approaches for multi-tenant SaaS environments, including tenant isolation, observability, resiliency, and data residency requirements.
• Partner with Engineering, Product, Security, Compliance, and Operations teams to align architecture with business objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Translate compliance requirements, including FedRAMP, GovRAMP, PCI-DSS, and SOC2, into scalable technical capabilities and platform controls.
• Define target-state architecture for shared services and cross-product capabilities spanning multiple acquired technology platforms.
• Govern architecture exceptions and provide guidance on complex technical trade-offs impacting multiple engineering organizations.
• Mentor and coach senior engineers, staff engineers, and architects, fostering architectural best practices and technical excellence.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends to inform platform strategy and future investments.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• 5+ years of experience in a Principal Architect, Staff Architect, or equivalent technical leadership role within a SaaS environment.
• Deep expertise in Microsoft Azure, including AKS, APIM, networking, identity, security, and infrastructure services.
• Strong Kubernetes architecture experience, including workload design, multi-tenancy, RBAC, GitOps, and platform operations.
• Experience architecting and operating large-scale multi-tenant SaaS platforms.
• Demonstrated success influencing technical direction across multiple engineering teams without direct management authority.
• Experience working within regulated environments requiring compliance with frameworks such as FedRAMP, GovRAMP, PCI-DSS, or SOC2.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical and business stakeholders at multiple levels of the organization. 

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience modernizing monolithic applications into cloud-native architectures.
• Experience integrating acquired products, platforms, or identity systems into a unified architecture.
• Expertise with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or OpenTofu.
• Familiarity with service mesh technologies, APIOps practices, and hybrid cloud migration strategies.
• Experience designing AI/ML platform infrastructure or supporting enterprise AI initiatives.
• Prior experience serving as an architecture leader within a high-growth SaaS or GovTech organization.
• Industry certifications related to cloud architecture, security, or Kubernetes administration.

TRAVEL

• Limited travel required, generally less than 10%.
• Occasional travel for team meetings, planning sessions, architecture reviews, customer engagements, or company events.

ABOUT ACCELA
For nearly 20 years, Accela has been an industry leader in designing and delivering government software to improve efficiency, increase citizen engagement and enable the development of thriving communities. Today, citizens are savvy to how services should be delivered, and expect a consistently convenient, openly transparent view into their local government. While government agencies struggle to do more with less, our mission has never been more critical. Accela provides a robust, cloud-based platform of government software solutions that accelerate growth, efficiency, and transparency in communities of all sizes. From planning, to building, to service request management and more, Accela’s SaaS offerings level the playing field for small and medium governments and enable smaller agencies to leverage larger city technologies. Our open and flexible technology helps agencies address specific needs today, while ensuring they are well prepared for the emerging challenges of the future.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
Accela believes in developing and nurturing a workplace community where our differences are celebrated, and everyone feels a sense of psychological safety and belonging. Accela is committed to putting resources and attention towards evolving our practices, policies, and philosophies to enable diversity to thrive and to support equity in opportunity for everyone.

COMPENSATION AND WELL-BEING
The annual base salary range for this full-time position is $175,000-$185,000 (less applicable taxes). The actual annual base salary offered may be adjusted based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, location, education, skills, training, and experience. In addition to an annual base salary, this position is eligible for an annual bonus target. This is a discretionary bonus awarded based on company and individual goal achievement.
 
Accela’s U.S. team members will receive a generous benefits package consisting of options including flexible time off, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, family planning benefits, 401(k) retirement savings plan with company match, health savings account with company contributions, flexible spending account, life, accident, and disability coverage, business travel insurance, employee assistance programs, and other well-being benefits.

Accela is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Employer and will respond to requests for job accommodations.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, protected veteran status, or based on disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation

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