Lead Application Architect

Become a part of our caring community   Join our Digital Technology organization as a Lead Application Architect and play a critical role in shaping the future of healthcare technology. This role provides strategic architectural leadership across complex enterprise initiatives, driving the design and implementation of scalable, secure, cloud-native solutions that improve member, provider, and associate experiences. As a Lead Application Architect, you will define architecture strategies, establish engineering standards, and guide cross-functional teams in building API-first, event-driven, and microservices-based platforms leveraging Azure cloud technologies. You will partner with business and technology leaders to deliver resilient, high-performing digital solutions while mentoring engineering teams and fostering architectural excellence across the organization. Key Responsibilities • Architecture & Technical Leadership • Lead architecture and design of enterprise-scale applications using microservices, domain-driven design, and cloud-native principles. • Define target-state architectures and modernization roadmaps for strategic business capabilities. • Establish architecture standards, reference architectures, and engineering best practices. • Drive API-first architecture and enterprise integration strategies. • Lead architecture reviews, design governance, and technology evaluations. • Cloud & Platform Engineering • Design and implement scalable, resilient, and secure solutions on Microsoft Azure. • Guide adoption of Azure-native services including AKS, App Services, API Management, Event Hub, Service Bus, Azure Functions, and Azure Storage. • Define cloud migration and modernization strategies for legacy applications. • Event-Driven & Integration Architecture • Design and govern event-driven architectures leveraging Apache Kafka and related streaming technologies. • Establish messaging patterns, event contracts, topic governance, and real-time integration strategies. • Ensure scalability, reliability, observability, and fault tolerance across distributed systems. • Drive asynchronous communication patterns across enterprise platforms. • DevSecOps & CI/CD Enablement • Champion DevSecOps practices and automation across engineering teams. • Design and implement CI/CD pipelines supporting automated testing, security scanning, deployment, and monitoring. • Collaborate with platform engineering teams to standardize deployment patterns. • Promote Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and GitOps methodologies. • Provide architectural guidance on Argo CD, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, and related automation platforms. • Stakeholder Collaboration • Partner with product, engineering, security, data, and business teams to align technical solutions with business goals. • Influence technology strategy and architecture decisions across multiple initiatives. • Present architecture recommendations and trade-off analyses to senior leadership. • Mentorship & Governance • Mentor architects, engineers, and technical leads on architecture principles and emerging technologies. • Lead architecture review boards and technical design sessions. • Ensure solutions adhere to security, compliance, performance, and scalability standards. • Foster a culture of innovation, engineering excellence, and continuous improvement. Use your skills to make an impact   Required Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent experience. • 10+ years of experience in software engineering, application architecture, or enterprise architecture roles. • 5+ years of experience designing and implementing enterprise-scale distributed systems. • Strong expertise in microservices architecture