Principal Security Architect – Internet Edge (DMZ/PAZ) & API Security

About this role:

Wells Fargo is seeking a Principal Engineer to serve as the foremost technical authority responsible for designing, securing, and advancing the enterprise’s Publicly Accessible Zone (PAZ/DMZ) architecture as part of the company’s large‑scale Data Center Migration and Transformation Strategy.

This Principal Engineer will lead the strategy and resolution of highly complex technical challenges across Network Security, Cybersecurity, CTO Architecture, Digital, and multiple lines of business. The role operates with significant independence, owning the DMZ Neighborhood workstream under the Path to Production (P2P) pillar, and will directly influence transformation outcomes tied to secure ingress/egress, external user experience, and enterprise security posture.

The position requires deep expertise across API security, network and application security, reverse proxy, firewall design, secure connectivity, multi‑cloud, and modern DevOps pipelines. The engineer will partner across diverse technical domains to design a secure, scalable DMZ environment, drive architectural alignment, and reduce friction for applications migrating to the new data‑center neighborhood.

This Principal Engineer role sits at the Executive Director (ED) level, with high organizational visibility and cross‑enterprise impact, and is placed skip‑level to the Chief Development and Experience Officer.

In this role, you will:

• Act as an advisor to leadership to develop or influence applications, network, information security, database, operating systems, or web technologies for highly complex business and technical needs across multiple groups
• Lead the strategy and resolution of highly complex and unique challenges requiring in-depth evaluation across multiple areas or the enterprise, delivering solutions that are long-term, large-scale and require vision, creativity, innovation, advanced analytical and inductive thinking
• Translate advanced technology experience, an in-depth knowledge of the organizations tactical and strategic business objectives, the enterprise technological environment, the organization structure, and strategic technological opportunities and requirements into technical engineering solutions
• Provide vision, direction and expertise to leadership on implementing innovative and significant business solutions
• Maintain knowledge of industry best practices and new technologies and recommends innovations that enhance operations or provide a competitive advantage to the organization
• Strategically engage with all levels of professionals and managers across the enterprise and serve as an expert advisor to leadership

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of Engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work experience, training, military experience, education

• Deep technical expertise in designing and securing Publicly Accessible Zones (DMZ/PAZ) at enterprise scale
• Extensive experience with network security architecture, including segmentation, secure protocol enforcement, traffic inspection, and firewall configuration
• Strong knowledge of reverse proxy design, load balancers, API gateways, and secure ingress/egress patterns
• Hands‑on experience with API security, web security, and application protection technologies
• Expertise across multi‑cloud environments such as Azure, GCP, and OpenShift
• Strong understanding of DevOps pipelines, CI/CD workflows, and the ability to identify and eliminate friction in Path to Production
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives across multiple domains
• Proven capability to drive architectural strategy with minimal oversight
• Ability to analyze complex requirements and define secure, scalable, high‑performance solutions

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Desired Qualifications:

• Experience designing modern, cloud‑ready DMZ or external connectivity architectures
• Background in cloud‑native development and container platforms
• Strong understanding of enterprise security frameworks and regulatory requirements
• Experience conducting architectural assessments, developing roadmaps, and introducing new technical patterns
• Ability to influence senior leaders and align multiple technology teams around a unified architecture
• Strong communication skills for explaining complex technical concepts to technical and non‑technical audiences
• Experience leading or contributing to enterprise architecture governance forums
• Track record of innovation—challenging the status quo and driving modernization
• Experience mentoring engineers and bui