Principal Software Engineer/Architect

Job title: Principal Software Engineer/Architect

About the Role Lead architecture and drive the design and implementation of key modules within the UKG Ready product suite. This role blends hands-on software development with architectural leadership to drive innovation, resilience, and performance across services.

What You'll Do

• Provide technical leadership and support to UKG Ready engineering teams
• Develop, design, and communicate a clear architectural vision and design for the teams that is aligned with the organization's goals and objectives
• Understand product requirements, drive for clarity of requirements to ensure the design is fit for purpose, and ensure design supports architecture strategy
• Develop technical roadmaps and ensure that services for the suite meet established architectural guidelines and standards
• Deep dive into the code to confirm design integrity and maintain a cost-effective straightforward design throughout the teams
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including developers, operations, and product managers, to gather requirements and ensure architectural design meets the needs of internal and external stakeholders
• Collaborate with peers and technical leaders to define/articulate constraints and guidelines
• Define and enforce CI/CD standards, development methodologies, and quality assurance processes
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with architectural decisions
• Anticipate business needs 6+ months out and work with leaders to inject effort
• Use resources provided by Architecture Governance on common architecture practices (standards, templates, etc.) to ensure designs and vision reflect our principles and standards
• Ensure effective adoption of observability tools for proactive alerting of production performance issues, adopt service-owner mindset to ensure quick recovery from problems, and constantly seek opportunities to improve resilience of services from failures
• Leverage artificial intelligence tools to identify productivity improvements for engineering teams, as also value-add features for our users
• Document and maintain the product & service architecture
• Drive strategic architecture vision and innovation
• Identify and evaluate emerging technologies, industry trends, and best practices to ensure the Value Streams scalability, security, and performance
• Provide architecture leadership, focusing on creating and maintaining cross-product and multi-year architecture visions
• Identify architecture risks, develop mitigation strategies, and maintain architectural opportunities for all stakeholders
• Understand how architecture is done across the industry; research new technology trends; identify innovations that can drive a competitive advantage for UKG products

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's/Master’s in engineering / Computer Science or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of software development experience in a fast-paced environment, working through all phases of the software development life cycle
• Proven experience as a lead architect or similar role, driving the architecture and implementation of complex software solutions
• Proficiency in Java and cloud platforms, with strong observability and CI/CD experience
• Experience with databases, analytics, messaging, and large-scale systems
• Comfortable with analytics and AI/ML technologies (LLMs, etc.)
• BS/MS in CS or equivalent

Nice to Have

• Experience with cloud infrastructure, enterprise architecture, and cross-product architectural governance
• Strong interest in AI tooling to improve engineering productivity and product value

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary range: $164,000 – $236,000 per year
• Hybrid work arrangement