Director, Engineering - Solution Architecture

Director, Engineering - Solution Architecture

Position Summary

Natera is at the forefront of personalized genetic testing, transforming the management of disease worldwide. As we scale our life-saving diagnostics, we are transforming our approach to the development of complex software solutions. 

We are seeking a visionary & decisive Director of Engineering, Solution Architecture to lead the technical strategy for our core "Pillar" projects. You will be a technical strategist who combines deep architectural expertise with high-agency execution. You will not just design solutions; you will define the rigorous "Plan of Record"—the architectural blueprints and reusable frameworks that guide our engineering teams.

In this role, you will lead a team of "Active Architects" who serve as the Technical Quarterbacks for our most complex initiatives. You will champion the design of intelligent, cloud-native systems that balance speed and flexibility with the non-negotiable requirements of architectural robustness, observability, and regulatory compliance.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Define the Technical Vision: Lead the creation of comprehensive architectural strategies and blueprints that align with long-term business goals. You are responsible for the "Plan of Record"—the single source of truth that defines how business requirements convert into scalable software.
• Architectural Governance: Drive governance by setting standards, conducting deep-dive reviews, and managing technical risk across projects. Establish loops to detect "Architectural Drift" and take decisive action to correct code that deviates from the design or update the designs.
• Platform Evolution: Design and evolve cloud-native systems with a relentless focus on scalability, security, and observability. Create reusable frameworks that guide teams in building high-performance services.

Product Execution

• The "Technical Quarterback": Partner with Digital Product Managers and Product Integration Leads  in a "Three-in-a-Box" model. You own the "How," guiding solution design, decomposition, and critical trade-off decisions.
• Contract-First Design: Go beyond high-level diagrams. Explicitly define or facilitate integration specifications, API contracts (OpenAPI/Swagger), and event schemas (Kafka) to ensure robust interoperability between components.
• Hands-on Guidance: Work closely with engineering teams to troubleshoot technical roadblocks and ensure the "Sample-to-Report" lifecycle is robustly implemented.

Modernization & AI-Native Innovation

• Lead Modernization: Drive initiatives to migrate from monolithic legacy systems to service-oriented, event-driven architectures. Design strategies to safely encapsulate legacy logic using Anti-Corruption Layers.
• AI-Native Leverage: Pioneer the use of AI to revolutionize architecture. Use LLMs to map legacy codebases, generate specs, and identify refactoring opportunities. Partner with AI/ML teams to ensure the scalable integration of intelligent services.

Team Building & Culture

• Cultivate Excellence: Mentor senior engineers and architects, cultivating a culture of system thinking and technical excellence.
• Build a "T-Shaped" Team: Recruit and lead a team of architects who combine broad system views with deep technical specializations. Foster a culture where architects are expected to read code, dive into repositories, and own the success of the build.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with 6+ years in a senior architectural leadership role designing enterprise-scale systems.
• Deep Architectural Mastery: Proven success with architectural transformation initiatives, including service decomposition, Domain-Driven Design (DDD), and platform re-architecture.
• Cloud-Native Expertise: Deep experience designing systems in AWS, with a strong understanding of architectural trade-offs (performance vs. cost vs. resilience).
• Hands-On Engineering Background: Strong background in coding (Java, Python, etc.). You must be able to read code to understand the truth of the system.
• AI-Native Mindset: Demonstrated experience using LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Copilot) to accelerate technical tasks and document systems.
• Regulated Industry Experience: Familiarity with He