Principal Chief Architect

The Principal Chief Architect is a dual-mandate leadership role that unifies product strategy and solution architecture across CenterWell's four core business segments: Pharmacy, Primary Care Organization (PCO), Home Solutions, and Humana Military.

You will operate within CenterWell IT – Cross-CenterWell Architecture, partnering with segment product leaders, engineering teams, EA Activation, security, data, and compliance to deliver integrated, interoperable health solutions that serve members, providers, and partners across the full care continuum.

Key Activities

• Define and own a unified cross-segment product roadmap that balances segment-specific priorities against shared platform investments, and communicates trade-offs clearly to leadership.
• Establish and maintain reference architectures, design patterns, and integration standards applicable across all four CenterWell segments.
• Conduct cross-segment discovery sessions, design workshops, and architecture reviews to surface shared needs, resolve competing priorities, and prevent duplicative build.
• Own and prioritize top-level product backlogs for shared platforms, partnering with segment product owners to decompose initiatives into delivery-ready user stories with clear acceptance criteria and non-functional requirements (NFRs).
• Define integration contracts, API standards, and domain boundaries for cross-segment data flows spanning pharmacy, clinical, home health, and military health domains.
• Lead architecture checkpoints and risk reviews for cross-segment initiatives; represent the combined product and architecture perspective in governance forums (ARB, TRB, MOR).
• Translate product vision into architectural runways and delivery-ready specifications that engineering teams across segments can act on immediately.
• Identify and steward opportunities for component and pattern reuse across segments; build the case for platform consolidation where segment convergence creates lasting efficiency.
• Serve as the primary liaison between segment business leaders, engineering leads, EA Activation, security, and the enterprise CIO organization.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 10+ years of progressive IT experience spanning product management, solution architecture, or a meaningful combination of both disciplines.
• 5+ years of solution architecture or senior product ownership experience within healthcare IT; demonstrated delivery in regulated environments (HIPAA/PHI, HITECH); experience across payer, provider, pharmacy, or government health domains preferred.
• Proven track record owning and prioritizing cross-functional product backlogs and roadmaps across multiple business lines or segments simultaneously, including managing competing stakeholder demands at the executive level.
• Hands-on architecture experience with Azure services (Azure API Management, Event Hub, Service Bus, Azure Data Factory, AKS, Azure AD/Entra ID); working knowledge of Snowflake or Databricks data platform patterns.
• Deep competency in API design and governance, event-driven architecture, and microservices patterns; experience with FHIR R4 and HL7 interoperability standards in healthcare contexts.
• Demonstrated ability to produce reference architectures, architectural decision records (ADRs), and solution blueprints consumed by multiple engineering delivery teams.
• Experience participating in and translating output from enterprise governance forums (ARB, TRB, MOR or equivalent) into actionable product and architecture direction.
• Proficiency in agile and SAFe delivery models: backlog management, PI planning, iteration ceremonies, and dependency management across agile release trains.
• Executive-level communication skills; able to synthesize complex architectural and product trade-offs into clear, concise recommendations for senior and C-suite audiences.

Generative & Agentic AI

• Demonstrated experience incorporating AI/ML capabilities into product strategy and architectural design, including Generative AI use cases such as clinical document NLP, prior authorization automation, member-facing conversational AI, or care gap identification.
• Working knowledge of LLM integration patterns including RAG, prompt engineering, knowledge management, and fine-tuning; ability to evaluate platform options (Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Vertex AI) and make informed build/buy/integrate recommendations.
• Depth in agent orchestration: planning loops, tool/function calling, multi-agent coordination, and human-in-the-loop override workflows,especially for clinically sensitive or compliance-gated outputs.
• Familiarity with MLOps/LLMOps practices: model lifecycle governance, observability, evaluation frameworks, and cost/performance optimization at enterprise scale.
• Understanding of enterprise AI guardrails including responsible AI principles, bias mitigation, policy enforcement, and regulatory considerations specific to healthcare (FDA SaMD guidance, ONC AI framework).

Additional Information

• Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40
• Pay Range: [Not provided]