Director Systems Architecture - Digital Products

Major Responsibilities

• Enterprise & Digital Architecture
• Collaborate with stakeholders across Digital Products and Enterprise IT to translate business strategy into scalable system and architecture solutions
• Define and maintain a technical systems model aligned to digital product and SaaS strategies
• Establish and evolve architecture roadmaps, including integration patterns, platform capabilities, and shared services
• Provide architectural guidance across infrastructure, data, and integration domains to ensure alignment with enterprise standards
• Act as a key liaison between Digital Product teams and Enterprise IT to ensure alignment, reuse, and scalability

• Systems & Application Architecture
• Lead architecture and solution design efforts across digital platforms, ensuring high availability, performance, and scalability
• Guide engineering teams on best practices for system design, integration, and application architecture
• Partner with teams to troubleshoot production issues, identify root causes, and implement long-term solutions
• Drive standardization and governance across systems while enabling flexibility for product innovation
• Ensure solutions align with enterprise tollgates, standards, and security requirements

• Reliability, Optimization & Operations
• Own system reliability, uptime, and performance across digital product platforms
• Establish and drive strategies for monitoring, alerting, and proactive issue resolution
• Continuously identify opportunities to optimize system performance, scalability, and cost efficiency
• Lead efforts to minimize downtime and improve end-user experience across digital systems

• Technology, CI/CD & DevSecOps
• Champion modern engineering practices including CI/CD, DevOps, and DevSecOps across teams
• Partner with engineering, operations, and security teams to improve automation and reduce manual processes
• Evaluate and recommend emerging technologies, platforms, and deployment strategies (cloud, hybrid, etc.)
• Drive continuous improvement in Agile practices, engineering standards, and delivery efficiency
• Ensure alignment with enterprise tools, platforms, and technology strategies

• People & Team Leadership
• Lead and develop a team that includes infrastructure, data platform, and integration engineers
• Build a high-performing, collaborative, and inclusive team environment focused on innovation and accountability
• Coach, mentor, and develop team members to grow technical and leadership capabilities
• Establish clear goals, performance expectations, and development plans
• Manage vendor and partner relationships as needed

• Project & Delivery Leadership
• Oversee delivery of complex, cross-functional initiatives supporting digital product platforms
• Ensure clear project planning, prioritization, and execution aligned to business objectives
• Drive accountability for timelines, quality, and outcomes across multiple concurrent initiatives
• Partner with product and business leaders to align technical solutions with customer and operational needs
• Identify and implement opportunities to streamline processes and improve delivery efficiency

• Other projects as assigned by leadership

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent experience required
• 10+ years of experience in system architecture, including infrastructure, data platforms, and integrations, with exposure to digital and SaaS environments preferred
• 5+ years of experience leading and developing high-performing technical teams in a cross-functional, enterprise IT environment
• Proven experience architecting, building, and delivering highly scalable, enterprise-wide software solutions across complex, multi-project environments
• Deep expertise in cloud and modern architecture, including IaaS, PaaS, cloud-native and multi-cloud architecture, CI/CD, and DevOps practices
• Strong experience with: Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Openshift), API gateways, service mesh, and modern service-to-service communication, Observability tools (Datadog, Prometheus, Splunk, Dynatrace, etc.)
• Strong knowledge of DevOps principles, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and infrastructure automation
• Experience with enterprise and cloud database technologies
• Ensure compliance with industry standards such as PCI DSS, SOX & GDPR
• Demonstrated ability to partner with business and IT stakeholders to deliver technology solutions that drive meaningful business value
• Experience managing global or offsite teams and fostering diverse, high-performing, and collaborative work environments
• Strong experience in application lifecycle management, including production support and issue resolution
• Solid project management capabilities with experience leading large-scale, complex initiatives
• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and build relationships across all levels of the organization
• Demonstrated ability to coach, mentor, and develop talent while promoting innovation and new ideas
• Able to make sound decisions aligned with organizational goals in a fast-paced environment
• Regular, predictable, full attendance is an essential function of the job
• Willingness to travel as necessary, work the required schedule, work at the specific location required, complete Penske employment application, submit to a background investigation (to include past employment, education, and criminal history) and drug screening are required