Principal Software Architect

About Ascendion

Ascendion is a full-service digital engineering solutions company. We make and manage software platforms and products that power growth and deliver captivating experiences to consumers and employees. Our engineering, cloud, data, experience design, and talent solution capabilities accelerate transformation and impact for enterprise clients. Headquartered in New Jersey, our workforce of 6,000 Ascenders delivers solutions from around the globe. Ascendion is built differently to engineer the next.

Ascendion | Engineering to elevate life

We have a culture built on opportunity, inclusion, and a spirit of partnership. Come, change the world with us:

• Build the coolest tech for the world’s leading brands
• Solve complex problems& and learn new skills
• Experience the power of transforming digital engineering for Fortune 500 clients
• Master your craft with leading training programs and hands-on experience

Experience a community of change makers!

Join a culture of high-performing innovators with endless ideas and a passion for tech. Our culture is the fabric of our company, and it is what makes us unique and diverse. The way we share ideas, learning, experiences, successes, and joy allows everyone to be their best at Ascendion.

About the Role

Job Title: Principal Software Architect

Irvine, CA 92618 or Plano, TX 75024

Role Summary:

Provides deep technical expertise and thought leadership in business-critical technology areas, including microservices, cloud design and enablement (containers/AKS), AI/ML, asynchronous application patterns, observability, performance management, and self-healing applications.

Responsibilities:

• Lead technical strategy, develop reference implementations, tooling, and abstractions, and actively contribute to hands-on POCs and prototypes (≈40-60% of the role).
• Embed with teams to guide complex initiatives, remove blockers, and ensure critical designs are implemented in production.
• Define and influence policies, standards, and best practices to balance risk management with value generation.
• Maintain and extend enterprise knowledge bases, including standards, templates, and guidance for engineering teams.
• Introduce, scale, and drive adoption of new platform capabilities through experiments, pilots, and controlled rollouts with training plans.
• Collaborate across time zones and with third-party teams to resolve application/technology challenges and ensure enterprise-wide alignment.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree preferred, or 10 years in software architecture/large-scale systems, including 5 years of deep expertise in at least one business-critical domain (e.g., cloud platforms, microservices, data/streaming, AI/ML).
• Strong preference for experience in mortgage or financial services, including familiarity with SOX, SOC2, and GLBA compliance.
• 8 years of proven experience in a core business-critical technology; for emerging or disruptive technologies, demonstrated authoritative expertise is required.
• Expert in the MS technology stack (C#, .NET, SQL) and Azure (AKS, ARM/Bicep/Terraform, managed services); multi-cloud experience is a plus

Salary and Other Compensation: The annual salary for this position is between $170,000 and $225,000 annually. Factors that may affect pay within this range may include geography/market, skills, education, experience, and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

Benefits: The company offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: [medical insurance], [dental insurance], [vision insurance], [401(k) retirement plan], [long-term disability insurance], [short-term disability insurance] [5 personal days accrued each calendar year]. The paid time off benefits meet the paid sick and safe time laws that pertain to the city/state. [10-15 days of paid vacation time] [6 paid holidays and 1 floating holiday per calendar year].

Want to change the world? Let us know.

Tell us about your experiences, education, and ambitions. Bring your knowledge, unique viewpoint, and creativity to the table. Let’s talk!