The Principal Architect for Netsmart is a senior technical leader responsible for defining and guiding the architecture of Netsmart's platforms and products. This role blends high-level strategic architectural leadership across UX, Application, Infrastructure, and Cloud with deep, hands-on engineering expertise across modern cloud technologies, including Microsoft Azure, AWS, and cloud-native architectures. This role is onsite within our Overland Park, KS office location.

This individual drives architectural roadmaps, leads technical decision-making, and acts as an evangelist for data-driven, AI-enabled innovation. The Principal Architect must work onsite at our Overland Park, KS headquarters, collaborating closely with engineering, product, and executive teams to deliver highly scalable, modern solutions aligned with Netsmart's mission.

Responsibilities

Architectural Leadership & Vision

- Define, maintain, and evolve enterprise-wide architectural strategies and multi-year platform roadmaps.

- Establish architectural principles, standards, and reusable patterns ensuring consistency across engineering teams.

- Evaluate and drive adoption of modern cloud technologies including Azure, AWS, Kubernetes, serverless, microservices, and event-driven architectures.

- Champion the integration of AI, ML, and data-driven capabilities into Netsmart's product ecosystem.

Hands-On Technical Leadership

- Promote and provide hands-on engineering support through code reviews, design reviews, prototyping, and reference implementations.

- Deliver deep architectural guidance across .NET, C#, ASP.NET Core, SQL Server, Java, Progres QL Azure, and AWS cloud services.

- Build and validate technical proofs-of-concept to accelerate innovation and reduce delivery risk.

- Support delivery teams in designing scalable, performant, cloud-native systems.

AI, Data & Innovation Advocacy

- Promote an AI-first, data-driven mindset across engineering and product teams.

- Partner with data engineering and analytics teams to define modern data architectures, pipelines, and governance.

- Drive adoption of emerging AI/ML technologies and frameworks that enhance user experience and operational intelligence.

- Champion modern engineering practices rooted in data insights and model-driven design.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

- Partner with Executive Business Leadership to translate business goals into well-architected solutions and long-term technology roadmaps.

- Collaborate with DevOps, UX, cloud infrastructure teams, and engineering leaders to ensure alignment on delivery and architecture.

- Communicate complex technical strategies and tradeoffs to executive leadership in clear, digestible terms.

Execution & Delivery Support

- Support teams throughout the SDLC with architectural oversight, technical guidance, and mentorship.

- Identify risks and constraints early and guide engineering toward scalable, practical solutions.

- Lead modernization initiatives including cloud migration, legacy system decomposition, domain-driven design, and API-first architecture.

- Ensure architectures meet standards for performance, reliability, interoperability, observability, security, and cost efficiency.

Governance & Standards

- Maintain architectural documentation, technical decision logs, and detailed system diagrams.

- Define and enforce standards for coding practices, integration patterns, cloud deployment, and service design.

- Promote excellence in application architecture, technical debt management, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and observability systems.

Minimum Qualifications

- Extensive experience as a Principal Architect, Senior Architect, or Principal Engineer building enterprise-scale systems.

- Deep, hands-on experience with industry standard technologies including C#, .NET, ASP.NET Core, Azure, and SQL Server, Java and Postgres QL

- Strong experience with AWS cloud services, serverless computing, and distributed systems.

- Demonstrated ability to conduct high-quality code reviews and guide engineering best practices.

- Experience designing data-driven systems and integrating AI/ML into applications.

- Effective communication skills with the ability to influence without authority.

- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

- Must be onsite and work full-time at our Overland Park, KS office.

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience in healthcare technology or regulated industries.

- Azure or AWS architecture certifications.

- Experience with Kubernetes, microservices, event-driven systems, and large-scale data platforms.

- Track record leading cloud modernization or AI/ML-driven initiatives.