Software Architect at Transunion in Reston, VA

Job description

TransUnion's Job Applicant Privacy Notice Personal Information We Collect Your Privacy Choices Team Overview The Trusted Call Solutions and Mobile Messaging team develops and supports enterprise-scale communication platforms that help businesses and consumers interact securely and confidently. This portfolio includes KONTXT solutions, Branded Messaging, and Messaging Fraud Protection products focused on preventing fraud, improving trust, and enabling secure communications. The team partners closely with Product, Engineering, Security, Operations, and Enterprise Architecture organizations to deliver highly scalable, resilient, and secure messaging solutions. This role reports to Senior Director of Software Development.

This is a hybrid position and involves regular performance of job responsibilities virtually as well as in-person at an assigned TU office location for a minimum of two days a week. Role Overview and Core Responsibilities Define and govern the target architecture for enterprise-grade applications, messaging platforms, APIs, data services, and integrations supporting Trusted Call Solutions and Mobile Messaging products. Translate product strategy and business objectives into architecture roadmaps, technology standards, implementation plans, and modernization strategies. Lead architecture and solution design reviews for new products, major enhancements, integrations, data platforms, and security initiatives. Establish scalable architecture patterns for microservices, distributed systems, event-driven platforms, Kafka messaging, Cassandra databases, and REST APIs. Drive modernization efforts that transition legacy platforms toward cloud-ready and cloud-native architectures while balancing customer commitments, stability, and delivery timelines. Partner with engineering teams to validate architecture through prototypes, performance testing, code reviews, production readiness assessments, and technical guidance. Improve platform scalability, reliability, resilience, observability, security, and operational supportability across business-critical systems. Provide technical leadership during high-priority production incidents, identify root architectural challenges, and implement long-term solutions. Collaborate across Product, Engineering, QA, DevOps, Security, Data, and Enterprise Architecture teams to resolve technical dependencies and business tradeoffs. Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders while promoting engineering excellence, architectural best practices, CI/CD standards, and modern software development principles. Required Knowledge and Experiences 12+ years of experience designing and building enterprise software solutions, including significant experience with Java-based backend platforms and distributed systems architecture. Deep understanding of microservices architecture, object-oriented design principles, integration patterns, data modeling, scalability strategies, and performance optimization for high-volume systems. Proven experience defining architecture roadmaps, reference architectures, technical specifications, non-functional requirements, architecture decision records, and implementation estimates. Experience evaluating technology solutions, communicating architectural tradeoffs, and influencing technical and business stakeholders to drive strategic decisions. Strong expertise in production operations, observability, reliability engineering, capacity planning, troubleshooting, and operational readiness for mission-critical applications. Required Technical Skills Java, Spring Boot, Spring Web, Spring Security, and Spring Data for enterprise application architecture and development. Apache Kafka for event-driven and distributed messaging architectures. Cassandra and related distributed database technologies for highly scalable data platforms. RESTful API design, integration architecture, and enterprise application connectivity patterns. Linux administration and AWS (Amazon Web Servi