Charles Schwab

Director, Architect Principal

Charles Schwab • $150K — $180K *
Southlake, TX 76092In-Person
Finance & Insurance
5 - 7 years of experience
Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field with 15+ years of technology experience including 5+ years in a Solution/Enterprise/Principal Architect role within financial services.
  • Experience in leading large-scale modernization programs of legacy platforms into cloud-native architectures.
  • Expertise in application, data, integration, and infrastructure architecture with proficiency in Java/Spring Boot and relational/NoSQL databases.
  • Strong knowledge of public cloud platforms and related design patterns, including containerization and Infrastructure-as-Code strategies.
  • Fluency in financial services compliance frameworks and ability to embed them in solution designs.
  • Leadership experience in enterprise architecture governance and collaboration with engineering and cybersecurity teams for mission-critical systems.
  • Exceptional stakeholder management skills with the ability to communicate complex architectural concepts clearly.

Responsibilities

  • Evangelize SRE practices across the organization to promote reliability initiatives.
  • Collaborate with various stakeholders to define and measure service level objectives.
  • Design solutions to automate and reduce manual support efforts.
  • Implement improvements to logging and telemetry systems across diverse technologies.
  • Lead triage and postmortem activities for critical issues, ensuring effective prioritization and resolution.
  • Conduct chaos engineering experiments to enhance application resilience.
  • Document and advocate for reliability best practices while mentoring others within the organization.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
  • Retirement savings plans with company matching contributions.
  • Paid time off, including vacation and holidays.
  • Educational reimbursement for professional development.
  • Access to wellness programs and employee assistance resources.
Full Job Description
Position Responsibilities:
  • Evangelize SRE mindset and practice across the Schwab Technology Solutions organization.
  • Partner with support, development, and business stakeholders to develop, measure, and leverage service level objectives.
  • Design and develop solutions to eliminate toil and manual effort from day-to-day support responsibilities.
  • Identify and implement improvements to logging, metrics, and tracing telemetry and triaging capabilities across a diverse technology stack.
  • Lead complex triage and postmortem activities for critical issues and drive prioritization/resolution of remediation items.
  • Perform chaos engineering experiments to improve application resilience to known and unknown failures.
  • Document reliability guidance and best practices. Advocate for and drive adoption of said practices.
  • Foster a culture of learning through coaching, mentoring, and knowledge sharing around reliability practices, processes, and tools.
  • Develop tools, frameworks, and instrumentation to validate and increase release success for applications.


What you have

Required Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline, with 15+ years of progressive technology experience including a minimum of 5+ years in a Solution/Enterprise/Principal Architect capacity within financial services
  • Proven track record leading large-scale legacy platform modernization programs, including decomposition of monolithic Oracle/PLSQL or mainframe systems into cloud-native microservices, event-driven, and API-first architectures.
  • Deep expertise across multiple architecture domains - application, data, integration, and infrastructure - with hands-on proficiency in Java/Spring Boot, REST APIs, relational (Oracle, PostgreSQL) and NoSQL/distributed databases, and messaging/streaming technologies (Kafka, MQ).
  • Strong working knowledge of public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including cloud-native design patterns, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure-as-Code for regulated financial workloads.
  • Fluency in financial services regulatory and compliance frameworks relevant to brokerage and equity compensation (SOX, SEC Rule 17a-4, FINRA recordkeeping, IRS Section 409A/423/422, GDPR/CCPA, PCI-DSS) and the ability to embed controls into solution designs.
  • Demonstrated leadership in driving enterprise architecture governance, standards, and reference architectures, partnering with engineering, product, risk, and cybersecurity teams to deliver scalable, resilient, and highly available mission-critical systems.
  • Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with proven ability to influence C-suite executives, business partners, and technical teams by translating complex architectural concepts into clear business outcomes and trade-offs
  • Deep practical expertise across observability, resilience engineering, and capacity planning, not just familiarity, but proven delivery in production environments.
  • Demonstrated experience using AI tools to solve real reliability problems: anomaly detection, incident triage, noise reduction, postmortem acceleration, capacity forecasting, or auto-remediation and reduce repetitive operational toil.
  • In-depth knowledge of resilience patterns (i.e. circuit breakers, timeouts, retries, etc.) and how to design and implement them.
  • In-depth knowledge of CI/CD processes and tools to ensure software is delivered safely using known deployment strategies (i.e. blue/green, canary deployments, feature toggles, etc.).

Preferred Qualifications:
  • Industry certifications such as TOGAF, AWS/Azure Professional Architect, CISSP, or SAFe Architect.
  • Demonstrated experience architecting end-to-end solutions for equity compensation, stock plan administration, brokerage, or wealth management platforms, including recordkeeping, vesting, tax withholding, corporate actions, and participant servicing workflows.
  • Prior experience at a major financial institution or fintech serving equity plan participants, with familiarity in issuer-side workflows, record keeping, broker integrations, and participant experience platforms.
  • Hands-on exposure to AI/GenAI-driven modernization techniques, including LLM-based reverse engineering of legacy code, automated requirements extraction, intelligent document processing, and human-in-the-loop agentic workflows.
  • Experience with Domain-Driven Design (DDD), event-driven architecture, CQRS, and strangler-fig patterns for incrementally retiring legacy systems while sustaining business continuity
  • Familiarity with modern data architecture paradigms like data mesh, lakehouse, streaming ETL, CDC, and cloud data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift) for analytics, reporting, and regulatory reconciliation use cases.
  • Proven success leading geographically distributed, cross-functional teams of architects, engineers, and product owners in Agile/SAFe environments, including mentoring senior technical talent and building communities of practice.
  • Working knowledge of adjacent capital markets and wealth domains, brokerage clearing/settlement, custody, tax lot accounting, corporate actions processing, and open finance/API ecosystems to drive integrated platform strategies
  • Track record of vendor evaluation and strategic partner management for SaaS/COTS platforms, system integrators, and emerging fintech providers in the equity compensation and wealth ecosystem.

In addition to the salary range, this role is also eligible for bonus or incentive opportunities.

About Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab is a financial services company that provides a full range of securities, brokerage, banking, money management, financial advisory, investor, and retirement plan services. It operates in four main divisions; investing, wealth management, banking, and trading. Charles Schwab provides a full-service brokerage platform that serves individual investors who invest on their own or through a workplace-sponsored retirement or equity plan, as well as banking through Schwab Bank. The firm was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Charles Schwab Careers

Join the vibrant team at Charles Schwab, a leader in global finance, where your career is propelled by innovation, leadership, and a commitment to diversity and professional growth. At Charles Schwab, we offer more than just job opportunities; we provide a platform for you to make a significant impact on the industry and our clients' lives.

Work You’ll Do

At Charles Schwab, we are dedicated to helping our clients manage their financial futures. Being part of our team means you'll work alongside some of the most skilled professionals in the financial services industry. Our culture thrives on teamwork, integrity, and relentless dedication to our clients. Whether you're looking for a position in financial consulting, technology, or administrative support, Charles Schwab offers a dynamic work environment where your skills will be honed and your achievements recognized.

Innovate and Lead

Embrace the opportunity to lead through innovation. Charles Schwab’s commitment to technology and innovation is fundamental to our service delivery. By joining our team, you will be at the forefront of developing new solutions that redefine the future of finance. Your leadership can guide significant projects that impact our company and the industry.

Grow Your Career

Charles Schwab believes in fostering the growth of its employees. Whether through professional development programs, diversity training, or leadership workshops, we ensure that our team members receive the support and training they need to advance their careers. With a variety of career paths available, your job at Schwab can evolve with your interests and expertise.

Internship and Employment Opportunities

Start your professional journey with Charles Schwab through our internship programs or full-time employment opportunities. We seek individuals who are passionate, curious, and ready to drive change. A career at Schwab is not just about having a job; it's about building a lasting relationship with a company that values your potential.

Benefits and Culture

Charles Schwab is renowned for its employee-friendly culture. We offer a comprehensive benefits package that supports the health, financial stability, and work-life balance of our team members. From competitive salaries and bonuses to health insurance and retirement plans, Schwab ensures that your career is as rewarding as it is enriching.

Networking and Professional Development

Expand your professional network and enhance your skills through our various networking events, mentorship programs, and training sessions. At Charles Schwab, we believe in leveraging collective expertise to foster learning and innovation. Engage with leaders, gain insights from experienced professionals, and build relationships that will aid your career trajectory.

Join Our Team

Explore the numerous career paths available at Charles Schwab and discover how your talents can be utilized to their fullest potential. Search open positions that match your skills and interests. We are continuously hiring across various disciplines and look forward to adding innovative, driven individuals to our team.

Stay Connected

Keep up to date with the latest from Charles Schwab Careers by subscribing to our job alert emails. Tailor your subscription to receive updates that align with your career preferences and be the first to know about new openings, company news, and professional tips.

Explore Charles Schwab Jobs

Ready to take the next step in your career? Visit our careers page to review current job openings, submit your resume, and prepare for your interview. At Charles Schwab, your future is waiting. [SEARCH CHARLES SCHWAB JOBS] Join Charles Schwab today and be part of a team that values diversity, innovation, and leadership—where your career can thrive in the exciting world of finance.
Learn more about Charles Schwab
Size
34,200 employees
Market Cap
$151.6 billion
Industry
Finance & Insurance
Net Income
$3.2 billion
Founded
1973
5 Year Trend
+20%
Revenue
$12.1 billion
NASDAQ
SCHW
* Ladders Estimates

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