Principal Architect

WHO WE ARE
Mariner innovates always and everywhere, turning novel ideas into practical solutions. From products and services to venture creation, we build better futures powered by people.

Our purpose has always been to be a great, everlasting technology company for those who make an impact - elevating people, data, and technology in the best way to solve hard problems.

We partner with people embracing change, leveraging data, cybersecurity, cloud, and change management to drive successful business outcomes that matter to our customers.

Mariners build for change. Like SHIFT Energy, our energy management and decarbonization company. Or East Valley Ventures, created to scale social economic impact in our communities through investment and mentorship of emerging change-makers and their companies.

Mariner’s purpose has always been to be a great, everlasting technology company and the core values that guide us every day are:

OUR VALUES
• We care for our team.
• We care about the impact we have on our community.
• We serve by solving complex problems.
• We grow because growth fuels opportunities.
• We innovate always and everywhere.
• We build a business that lasts.

OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE
We are looking for a Principal Architect to join the Mariner team — a senior technical leader with the business acumen, strategic vision, and hands-on expertise to strengthen and grow our Architecture Practice. The right person will lead our architectural strategy, elevate our team of architects, serve as a trusted advisor to client executives, contribute to business growth, and be a recognizable voice in the technology community.This is a role for someone who wants to shape how we do architecture at Mariner — and who is energized by the opportunity to grow alongside the practice.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING IN THE ROLE:
Architecture Strategy & Practice Leadership
• Define and drive Mariner’s overall architecture strategy and roadmap, translating business goals into scalable, forward-looking architectural plans that span application, data, infrastructure, security, and AI domains
• Lead and continuously evolve the Architecture Practice: setting standards, building the community of practice, driving knowledge sharing, and establishing governance processes that scale.
• Identify and recruit strong architectural talent; actively shape team composition and mentor architects at all levels to build a high-performing, cohesive practice.
• Align technology initiatives with enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF), ensuring consistency and integration across all architectural domains.
• Identify architectural risks, assess trade-offs, and define mitigation strategies to ensure robust, resilient solution design at enterprise scale.
• Champion innovation by staying ahead of industry trends — particularly in Data, AI/ML, cloud, and cybersecurity — and translating emerging capabilities into strategic advantage for clients.
Executive Advisory & Client Engagement
• Serve as a trusted executive advisor to C-suite and senior leadership stakeholders at client organizations, communicating complex architectural concepts with clarity, authority, and business relevance.
• Lead executive-level architecture reviews, workshops, and strategy sessions — building lasting client relationships and reinforcing Mariner’s value as a strategic partner.
• Translate technical architecture into business value narratives that resonate with non-technical decision makers, including boards, executives, and procurement leaders.
• Support and influence major technology investment decisions at client organizations, ensuring architectural alignment and strategic coherence across large-scale programs.
Business Development & Growth
• Play an active role in pre-sales and business development — engaging with prospective clients, contributing to solution design during the sales cycle, and helping shape proposals and pitches that win.
• Bring architectural credibility and executive presence to client discovery sessions, RFP responses, and competitive pursuits, particularly for complex, high-value engagements.
• Identify and develop new business opportunities within existing client accounts, leveraging deep relationships and architectural insight to surface unmet needs.
• Collaborate with account teams, practice leads, and executives to develop go-to-market positioning for Mariner’s architecture and Data/AI offerings.
• Contribute to thought leadership — white papers, conference presentations, industry forums — that strengthen Mariner’s brand and competitive differentiation.
Delivery & Technical Oversight
• Provide technical leadership and architectural oversight across large-scale, multi-stream programs — contributing to planni