Principal Software Architect Pleasanton, CA / Sunnyvale, CA

At Abbott, you can do work that matters, grow, and learn, care for yourself and your family, be your true self, and live a full life. You’ll also have access to:

• Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of.
• Employees can qualify for free medical coverage in our Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO medical plan in the next calendar year.
• An excellent retirement savings plan with a high employer contribution.
• Tuition reimbursement, the Freedom 2 Save student debt program, and FreeU education benefit - an affordable and convenient path to getting a bachelor’s degree.
• A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries worldwide and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune.
• A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as the best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists.

The Principal Architect is responsible for defining and governing the architecture strategy for a large-scale, multi-product cloud-native platform on Microsoft Azure. This role provides technical leadership across multiple engineering teams and products, ensuring platform scalability, security, reliability, interoperability, and operational excellence.

The architect will define the target architecture for a highly distributed ecosystem consisting of microservices, web applications, mobile applications, IoT device connectivity, APIs, event-driven integrations, data platforms, and AI-enabled capabilities. The role drives architectural consistency, engineering standards, technology strategy, and long-term platform evolution while partnering closely with product, engineering, operations, security, and executive leadership teams.

• Master’s degree preferred

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, or related field. Advanced degree preferred.

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience in enterprise and cloud architecture roles.
• 6+ years designing and architecting cloud-native platforms on Microsoft Azure.
• Proven experience architecting and delivering large-scale SaaS products serving multiple business domains and customer segments.
• Demonstrated success leading architecture for complex distributed systems consisting of:
  • Microservices
  • Web applications
  • Mobile applications
  • IoT-connected systems
  • Data platforms
  • Event-driven integrations
• Extensive experience designing enterprise-scale platforms using:
  • Java
  • Spring Boot
  • REST APIs
  • GraphQL
  • Event-driven architectures
  • Distributed messaging systems
• Deep expertise in cloud-native design patterns including:
  • Microservices
  • Service Mesh
  • Event Sourcing
  • CQRS
  • DDD
  • Containerization
  • Kubernetes
• Strong experience with Azure services including AKS, API Management, Event Hub, Service Bus, IoT Hub, Cosmos DB, Azure SQL, Functions, Storage Services, Redis, Monitoring, and Security services.
• Experience architecting highly available, globally distributed systems handling high transaction volumes and significant scale.
• Experience establishing enterprise architecture standards, governance practices, and technology roadmaps.
• Experience leading architecture across multiple product teams and large engineering organizations.
• Knowledge of AI/ML architecture, AI agents, intelligent automation, and modern software development lifecycle capabilities is highly desirable.
• Experience in healthcare, regulated environments, or enterprise SaaS platforms is preferred.

• Deep understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, scalability patterns, and cloud-native architectures.
• Expert-level knowledge of Azure Well-Architected Framework principles and enterprise cloud design practices.
• Strong expertise in:
  • API Architecture
  • Integration Architecture
  • Data Architecture
  • Security Architecture
  • Platform Architecture
• Experience architecting large-scale event-driven systems leveraging messaging, streaming, and real-time processing.
• Expertise in Kubernetes, container orchestration, platform engineering, and cloud operations.
• Strong understanding of resiliency patterns, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning.
• Experience implementing observability frameworks including monitoring, distributed tracing, logging, and operational analytics.
• Strong knowledge of Identity and Access Management, Zero Trust, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and enterprise security models.
• Expertise in performance engineering, scalability planning, capacity management, and cost optimization.
• Familiarity with enterprise integration patterns and modern architectural governance practices.
• Strong understanding of data privacy, compliance, and regulated software development requirements.
• Experience creating architecture blueprints, reference architectures, technical standards, and architecture decision records.

• Proven ability to influence executive leadership, engineering leaders, architects, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong strategic thinking and ability to translate business goals into technology roadmaps.
• Demonstrated success building alignment across multiple teams, organizations, and product portfolios.
• Strong mentoring, coaching, and talent development capabilities.
• Ability to drive technical excellence while balancing business priorities, delivery timelines, and operational considerations.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, global, and highly collaborative environment.
• Ability to travel approximately 10%.
• Consistent and reliable attendance.

Learn more about our health and wellness benefits, which provide the security to help you and your family live full lives: www.abbottbenefits.com

Follow your career aspirations to Abbott for diverse opportunities with a company that can help you build your future and live your best life. Abbott is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to employee diversity.

Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott, and on Twitter @AbbottNews.

In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.