Principal Architect - Consumer Banking

4 Days in the office from any of our locations in RI,  MA, or Phoenix AZ and couple other locations

Role is not relocation eligible. 

Principal Architect – Solutions Architect 

Responsibilities

As a Principal Architect, you will play a pivotal role in bringing innovative ideas to life. Your work will be central to the successful integration of disruptive technologies across the organization. You will provide architectural mentorship and oversight at the Consumer Banking Platform level, including its supporting Technical Platform.

This role requires working cross‑functionally with both technical and non‑technical teams—including business development, product management, software engineering, cybersecurity, and executive leadership—to drive meaningful, measurable outcomes. The Principal Architect must also be capable of presenting designs and architectural recommendations to the Architecture Review Board, as well as to senior technology and business leaders.

Key Responsibilities

• Design efficient, resilient, and scalable technology solutions that align with business objectives.
• Participate in design reviews with software, network, and cloud engineering teams to ensure architectural alignment with strategic technology direction.
• Assess business requirements, constraints, existing capabilities, and industry opportunities to define strategic technology capabilities.
• Collaborate frequently with leadership and engineering teams across functional areas to align, drive adoption of solutions, and contribute to overall technology direction.
• Develop architectural models, influence implementation approaches, and help achieve measurable business improvements.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of solution architecture experience
• 5+ years of software engineering experience
• Hands-on experience designing and developing complex, multi‑tiered systems
• Broad experience across multiple IT disciplines with strong understanding of relevant architectural concepts
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to facilitate technical discussions with non‑technical stakeholders
• Experience designing systems within AWS
• Experience designing highly available and resilient solutions
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field

Desired Qualifications

• Experience in the financial services industry; understanding of consumer and custodial banking; experience working with sensitive financial data
• Experience in AI engineering
• Experience in machine learning
• Experience building or designing systems for contact center and back‑office applications
• Strong business analysis, solution design, stakeholder management, and presentation skills
• Experience in cybersecurity
• Familiarity with multiple programming languages
• Master’s degree in computer science or a related field

Hours & Work Schedule

• Hours per Week: 40
• Work Schedule: Monday - Friday

Pay Transparency 

The salary range for this position is $ 132,000 - $ 198,000 per year plus an opportunity to earn an annual discretionary bonus. Actual pay is based on various factors including but not limited to the work location, and relevant skills and experience.   

We offer competitive pay, comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, maternity/paternity leave, flexible work arrangements, education reimbursement, wellness programs and more. Note, Citizens’ paid time off policy exceeds the mandatory, paid sick or paid time-away policy of very local and state jurisdiction in the United States. For an overview of our benefits, visit https://jobs.citizensbank.com/benefits.