Principal Software Architect
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
The Principal Software Architect is a senior individual-contributor who defines, leads, and governs the software architecture vision across our device and digital ecosystem. This includes our on-device firmware, cloud services, analytics platforms, data pipelines, clinician and patient-facing applications, AI/ML enablement platforms, and operational software systems.
This leader drives architectural excellence, technology strategy, and systems coherence across R&D, product, clinical, data science, and the intersection of our products with IT. The role ensures that the on-device and off device software ecosystem is secure, scalable, resilient, compliant, and aligned with product strategy and long-term business goals. Operating at an enterprise level, this role influences senior stakeholders across engineering, product, quality, regulatory, and security while maintaining deep technical credibility.
Key Responsibilities
Technology & Architecture Strategy
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Define the multiyear architecture strategy for all product software systems, spanning cloud, application, data, integration, and ML/AI infrastructure.
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Establish architectural principles, reference architectures, and guardrails that support reliability, performance, interoperability, maintainability, and regulatory compliance.
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Ensure holistic systems thinking across software platforms, clinical workflows, device interactions, and data flows.
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Evaluate emerging technologies and provide strategic recommendations for adoption, modernization, and platform evolution.
Architectural Leadership & Governance
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Lead cross-functional architecture forums and governance processes, ensuring consistent patterns, shared services, and disciplined decision-making across teams.
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Drive architectural clarity early in product development by guiding systems decomposition, API strategies, data models, and cloud architectures.
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Review key technical proposals, high-impact design decisions, and fundamental platform changes across R&D teams.
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Champion engineering quality standards for architecture, coding, testing, observability, and documentation.
Cross Functional Influence & Collaboration
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Partner with product management to translate business needs into scalable technical strategies and architectural roadmaps.
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Collaborate with security, privacy, regulatory, quality, and clinical teams to ensure designs meet medical device standards and software compliance requirements.
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Serve as a trusted technical advisor to senior leadership, articulating architectural options, trade-offs, risks, and business impacts.
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Bridge offdevice and ondevice systems to ensure seamless endtoend workflows, data flows, and system integrity.
Execution Support & Technical Leadership
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Provide architectural oversight throughout the SDLC, guiding teams during concepting, detailed design, implementation, and release.
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Drive standardization, reducing duplication and accelerating development velocity through clear architectural patterns.
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Mentor engineering leads and architects across the organization through thought leadership, coaching, and technical review.
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Lead technical investigation and resolution of complex systemic issues, spanning data, scalability, reliability, or workflow interactions.
Requirements
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Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
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15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering or architecture, with deep expertise in largescale distributed systems, cloud architectures, and modern application platforms.
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Proven experience architecting regulated or high reliability systems (preferably within medical, health tech, or similar domains).
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Mastery of architectural domains such as microservices, event driven systems, data pipelines, observability, DevOps/SRE practices, and cloud native technologies.
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Ability to operate as a senior level individual contributor influencing executive teams without direct authority.
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Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts in clear, concise, and businessrelevant terms.
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Demonstrated success partnering with crossfunctional leaders across product, security, quality, regulatory, data science, and infrastructure.
Preferred
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Experience with FDA, EU MDR, IEC 62304, HIPAA, and related regulatory frameworks for software as part of medical systems.
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Background supporting AI/ML platform architecture, model deployment, and clinical decisionsupport software.
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Experience designing architectures that integrate with medical devices, clinical systems, EHRs, or healthcare data standards (FHIR, HL7).
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Prior leadership in organizations scaling complex multiproduct software ecosystems.
Benefits & conditions
Actual compensation may vary depending on job-related factors including knowledge, skills, experience, and work location.
Estimated Pay Range
$198,000.00 - $258,000.00
As a part of our core values, we ensure an inclusive workforce. We welcome and celebrate people of all backgrounds, experiences, skills, and perspectives. iRhythm Technologies, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We will consider for employment all qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with all applicable laws.