Managing Architect

About the Role

The Managing Architect provides technical direction, leadership, and strategy for a single client or technical system, while managing the Development staff supporting that client or system. This role blends people management with technical leadership to deliver innovative solutions that generate client and stakeholder value.

Responsibilities

• Leadership (25%):
  • Lead high-performance teams by creating a common technical vision and fostering creativity, motivation, and personal development.
  • Facilitate Agile adoption, embed Agile values, and promote talent development and reskilling.
  • Mentor team members, provide direction, and deliver performance feedback and coaching to direct reports.
  • Collaborate with client services and product management teams to balance strategic objectives, operational needs, and client requirements.
  • Assist in managing budgets for development teams, projects, and technology spend.
  • Ensure on-time, on-budget, and scope-aligned project delivery.
• Business Strategy (25%):
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Product Management, Business Operations, Creative, Decision Science, and Senior Management) to deliver solutions.
  • Engage in product management activities, including scope definition, requirements refinement, and backlog prioritization.
  • Work with operations on solution enhancements and day-to-day tasks.
  • Partner with creative teams on user experience and communication strategies.
  • Collaborate with Decision Sciences on data, metrics, and insights.
  • Provide IT-related solutions, updates, and consultative support during client business reviews (QBRs), SOW reviews, and other interactions.
  • Serve as a technology subject matter expert, driving capabilities presentations and articulating the company’s value proposition to clients.
  • Maintain a "big-picture" view of product design, including architecture, logical design, and integrations.
  • Manage large budgets for client work.
• Technology (50%):
  • Define architecture standards, patterns, solution design approvals, technology stack, and tech debt strategy.
  • Manage technology vendors supporting the tech stack.
  • Develop technology strategies and roadmaps with a customer-centric perspective across the entire customer journey.
  • Collaborate with teams to infuse insights into technology solutions for marketing and loyalty innovations.
  • Stay ahead of market trends and translate early ideas into strategic planning to maintain a competitive edge.
  • Proactively explore new technologies or integrations to expand business opportunities.
  • Leverage AI-assisted development tools.
  • Communicate technological advancements to internal teams and clients, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
  • Apply architectural and engineering concepts to design scalable, maintainable, secure, and reliable solutions.
  • Understand security posture management and compliance frameworks (e.g., PCI, SOC 2).
  • Critically evaluate AI-generated code and configurations for correctness, security, and performance.
  • Apply responsible AI use principles in an enterprise engineering context.

Requirements

• Five years of experience directing software development teams and managers.
• Advanced knowledge of best-in-class technical tools, techniques, and processes.
• Solid understanding of IT technologies and project management tools (including Agile development).
• Proven ability to create prototypes and experiment with technologies.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Customer-facing experience.
• Thought leadership in technology, combining it with marketing and loyalty solutions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with a consultative leadership presence.
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) is a plus.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (e.g., GCP, AWS).

Schedule

This is a hybrid role based in Fenton, MO, requiring in-office presence on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.