Principal Architect – Communications Platform (SMS) – Remote

We’re partnering with a leading insurance organization to evolve its SMS and communications platform capability. This role is for an experienced, vendor-neutral SMS Architect who can navigate cross-domain complexity, close technical decisions, and translate them into sequenced, value-led delivery.

About the role

You’ll work across 3–4 teams spanning Business, Technology, and third-party vendors to define target and transition architecture for the SMS stack, assess integration patterns, and advise on build vs. buy vs. reuse decisions that will shape the platform’s future.

Responsibilities

• Define target and transition architecture across the SMS/communications stack, including delivery, short codes, templates, consent, retention, and orchestration.
• Understand how core platform components (e.g., DCP, EP, SLX, Chorus) and Line of Business systems fit together, and the cross-domain impacts of architectural change.
• Advise on build vs. buy vs. reuse decisions, with the judgment to know when each is the right call.
• Work across 3–4 teams to understand integration patterns and assess the implications of decisions across each.
• Close cross-domain technical decisions and translate them into sequenced, value-led delivery work.
• Support vendor evaluation, ideally staying through the first end-to-end implementation.
• Advise on the operating model: vendor management, consent enforcement, records/legal hold, incident ownership, and LOB adoption.

Requirements

• Strong Enterprise Architecture experience within SMS/communications platforms.
• Clear understanding of transition architecture and how decisions in one domain (e.g., login/authentication) ripple into others.
• Confidence operating vendor-neutral and closing decisions across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Experience advising on operating model considerations in a regulated environment.
• Previous experience within Insurance or another highly regulated industry is highly beneficial.

Schedule

This is a 3-month remote contract with a high chance of extension.