Job Description

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What You'll Do
We're looking for a Director of Enterprise Architecture to lead our Retirement and Income Solutions team. In this role, you'll play a critical leadership role in defining and evolving the technology strategy and architectural vision for our suite of retirement and income products and services, including 401(k), annuities, pension plans, PCS, Bank and PRT. You will work across business, product, and technology teams to develop architecture blueprints and roadmaps that modernize our technology ecosystem, enable our digital transformation, and ensure our solutions are scalable, secure, and compliant with industry regulations!
Key Responsibilities:

• Architectural Strategy: Define and lead the enterprise architecture strategy for the retirement solutions portfolio, aligning technical decisions with long-term business goals.
• AI & Emerging Technology: Identify, evaluate, and drive AI opportunities to inform and evolve scalable, adaptive enterprise IT architecture.
• Leadership & Team Development: Lead, coach, and grow a high-performing team of enterprise architects while fostering accountability, collaboration, and technical excellence.
• Platform Modernization: Guide the strategic modernization of legacy systems and platforms, developing a "point of arrival" architecture for key capabilities.
• Cloud Transformation: Architect and drive cloud migration and modernization initiatives, using public cloud platforms like AWS for scalable, cloud-native solutions.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Collaborate with executives, product owners, and other technical teams to understand business processes and translate requirements into architectural blueprints.
• Roadmap Planning: Contribute to roadmap planning, solution assessments, and technical due diligence for new initiatives and vendor platforms.
• Regulatory Compliance: Ensure that all architectural designs adhere to stringent security protocols and financial services regulations, including SOX, SEC, and FINRA.
• Innovation & Mentorship: Evaluate and recommend new technologies, platforms, and tools. Serve as a mentor for delivery teams, promoting guidelines and design patterns.

Operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Principal builds financial tools that help our customers live better lives. We take pride in being a purpose-led firm, motivated by our mission to make financial security accessible to all. Our mission, integrity, and customer focus have made us a trusted leader for more than 140 years.
As Principal continues to modernize its systems, this role will offer you an exciting opportunity to build solutions that will directly impact our long-term strategy and tech stack, all while ensuring that our products are robust, scalable, and secure!
Who You Are

• You have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, (Master's degree is a plus) and 10+ years of experience in enterprise or solution architecture, with a minimum of 5 years focused on the financial services or insurance industry or equivalent work experience.
• You have deep expertise in designing complex, large-scale distributed applications and experience with microservices architectures.
• You are familiar with financial services regulatory frameworks (e.g., SOX, SEC, FINRA).
• You are a strong, strategic and analytical thinker with the ability to translate complex problems into clear, actionable insights for both technical and non-technical audiences.

Skills That Will Help You Stand Out

• Experience in enterprise or solution architecture, specifically with retirement products.
• Experience in designing architectures that support wealth management platforms, digital client portals, and agent/advisor technologies.
• Certification such as TOGAF or similar enterprise architecture frameworks is desirable.

Salary Range Information
Salary ranges below reflect targeted base salaries. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.
Salary Range (Non-Exempt expressed as hourly; Exempt expressed as yearly)
$153000 - $207000 / year
Time Off Program
Flexible Time Off (FTO) is provided to salaried (exempt) employees and provides the opportunity to take time away from the office with pay for vacation, personal or short-term illness. Employees don't accrue a bank of time off under FTO and there is no set number of days provided.
Pension Eligible
Yes
Our Engineering Culture
Through our product-driven Agile/Lean DevOps environment, we've fostered a culture of innovation and experimentation across our development teams. As a customer-focused organization, we work closely with our end users and product owners to understand and rapidly respond to emerging business needs.
Collaboration is embedded into everything we do - from the products we develop to the quality service we provide. We're driven by the belief that diversity of thought, background, and perspective is critical to creating the best products and experiences for our customers.
Work Environments
This role offers in-office and hybrid (blending at least three office days in a typical workweek), work arrangements from our Des Moines, IA or Charlotte, NC offices.
Work Authorization/Sponsorship
At this time, we're not considering applicants that need any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please use the following links.
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Investment Code of Ethics
For Principal Asset Management positions, you'll need to follow an Investment Code of Ethics related to personal and business conduct as well as personal trading activities for you and members of your household. These same requirements may also apply to other positions across the organization.
Experience Principal
At Principal, we value connecting on both a personal and professional level. Together, we're imagining a more purpose-led future for financial services - and that starts with you. Our success depends on the unique experiences, backgrounds, and talents of our employees. And we support our employees the same way we support our customers: with comprehensive, competitive benefit offerings crafted to protect their physical, financial, and social well-being. Check out our to learn more about our purpose, values and benefits.
Principal is an Equal Opportunity Employer
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.
Posting Window
We will accept applications for 3 full days following the Original Posting Date, after which the posting may remain open or be removed based upon applications received. If we choose to post the job again, we will accept additional applications for at least 1 full day following the Most Recently Posted Date. Please submit applications in a timely manner as there is no guarantee the posting will be available beyond the applicable deadline.
Original Posting Date
11/25/2025
Most Recently Posted Date
12/2/2025
LinkedIn Hashtag
#LI-EW1

Skills Required