Principal IT Architect for Operational Technology

The Principal IT Architect for Operational Technology serves as a strategic technical and architectural authority for mission-critical operational technology platforms and environments. The role provides architectural leadership, operational insight, and cross-functional coordination across complex technology ecosystems where reliability, security, compliance, and business continuity are essential. This role acts as a bridge between architecture, operations, cybersecurity, infrastructure, identity, network, vendor, and business teams, ensuring operational systems are designed, integrated, modernized, and supported in a manner that enables safe, reliable, and sustainable business operations. The Principal Architect is expected to think beyond individual project delivery by developing platform roadmaps, reusable capabilities, architecture standards, and long-term technology strategies that reduce complexity, manage risk, and improve operational outcomes across the enterprise. Essential Responsibilities Operational Technology Strategy & Architecture Leadership

• Provide architectural leadership and subject matter expertise for mission-critical operational technology platforms operating in highly available, regulated, or industrial environments.

• Serve as a consultative, trusted advisor during system modernization, platform upgrades, integration challenges, production incidents, and operational reliability concerns.

• Develop, defend, and operationalize a clear OT technology strategy that supports safe, reliable operations while enabling modernization under cybersecurity, compliance, and operational constraints.

• Create and maintain platform roadmaps that guide long-term technology evolution, capability reuse, technical debt reduction, and operational sustainability.

• Ensure OT platforms evolve coherently across the enterprise rather than through isolated, project-specific technology decisions.

• Promote architecture decisions that balance innovation, operational stability, risk management, supportability, and cost effectiveness.

Architecture & Design Collaboration

• Lead and influence architecture and design discussions for complex technology initiatives spanning multiple platforms, domains, and stakeholder groups.

• Author and maintain architecture standards, reference patterns, and design guidance that serve as reusable building blocks for OT and mission-critical technology implementations.

• Ensure solution designs account for long-term maintainability, operational support, resiliency, scalability, and business value, not only project delivery objectives.

• Review and influence solution architectures to ensure alignment with enterprise strategies, technology roadmaps, cybersecurity requirements, and operational needs.

• Promote reuse of capabilities, reduction of duplicate solutions, and deliberate retirement of technical debt.

Operational Systems Integration

• Provide architectural leadership for integrations between operational technology platforms, enterprise systems, data platforms, and external partners.

• Guide architecture decisions involving real-time and near real-time data exchange, telemetry, event-driven integration, control workflows, and operational data flows.

• Validate that integration designs support performance, resilience, data integrity, security, determinism, and operational continuity requirements.

• Partner with application, data, infrastructure, network, vendor, and operations teams to resolve integration issues that cross traditional technology boundaries.

Security, Identity, Access & Risk Coordination

• Guide architecture decisions involving identity management, access controls, trust boundaries, network segmentation, cybersecurity requirements, and secure operational access patterns.

• Consult with cybersecurity, IAM, network, infrastructure, operations, and vendor teams to shape solutions where IT and OT boundaries intersect.

• Identify and address architectural risks that may impact operational reliability, regulatory obligations, cybersecurity posture, or business continuity.

• Partner across teams to clarify ownership, accountability, and design responsibilities for security and integration issues that span multiple organizations.

Operational Excellence, Observability & Reliability

• Advocate for operational readiness, observability, supportability, and resilience throughout the solution lifecycle.

• Ensure monitoring, alerting, logging, reporting, recovery, and support requirements are incorporated into architecture and validated before production deployment.

• Drive architecture practices that improve system reliability, availability, maintainability, and operational efficiency.

• Support modernization efforts while maintaining continuity of critical business operations and minimizing risk to production environments.

Cross-Team Collaboration & Communication

• Lead collaboration across architecture, engineering, operations, cybersecurity, infrastructure, vendors, and business stakeholders to resolve complex technology challenges.

• Translate highly technical OT and architecture concepts into clear, actionable guidance for leadership and non-technical stakeholders.

• Build alignment across historically siloed teams by establishing shared understanding, common technical language, and consistent architectural approaches.

• Influence enterprise-wide technology decisions through expertise, strategic thinking, relationship management, and practical architecture leadership.

• Mentor architects and technical leaders to improve architectural maturity, standards adoption, and design quality.

• Bachelor’s degree in Technology, Science, Business or related field, or 4 years of experience equivalent to the position.
• Ten years of related functional experience.
• Excellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill sets.
• Excellent Relationship Management and collaboration skills, with a track record of working as one team cross-organizationally to drive innovation and business results.
• Strong architecture acumen across multiple domains including network, infrastructure, software, hosting models, applications, data, mobile platforms, and security.
• Strong knowledge of core aspects of enterprise architecture (Software, Hardware, Network, Integration, Data, hosting models, platform types, etc.).
• In-depth expertise in at least two areas of: Architecture competency such as SOA, TOGAF, BPM, Data Analytics, standards & governance, or enterprise architecture frameworks.
• Expertise on future technology trends within area of expertise.
• Expertise in architectural review and technology lifecycle management disciplines.
• Experience in a leading role in project delivery & solutions architecture.
• Experience successfully owning and driving strategic roadmap planning, and simplifying technology eco-systems.

Preferred Requirements

• 5+ years of experience providing architectural leadership for real-time SCADA Systems

• Experience architecting operational technology, industrial control systems, real-time platforms, automation environments, or mission-critical operational systems.

• Experience in utilities, energy, manufacturing, oil and gas, transportation, telecommunications, industrial automation, data centers, or other critical infrastructure environments.

• Experience with OT platforms such as SCADA, ADMS, EMS, DEMS, DERMS, OMS, historian platforms, operational data platforms, or equivalent industrial and mission-critical systems.

• Experience with vendors or platforms such as Schneider Electric, GE, Siemens, OSI, Aveva, PI, or equivalent OT/industrial technology ecosystems.

• Prior involvement in major OT, industrial, or mission-critical system upgrades, modernization initiatives, cloud/data enablement efforts, or platform transformations.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. Individuals with a disability who need an accommodation to apply please contact us at recruiting@xcelenergy.com . Non-Bargaining The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $156,100.00 to $195,000.00 per year This position is eligible for the following benefits: Annual Incentive Program, Medical/Pharmacy Plan, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Dependent Care Reimbursement Account, Health Care Reimbursement Account, Health Savings Account (HSA) (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Limited-Purpose FSA (if enrolled in eligible health plan and HSA), Transportation Reimbursement Account, Short-term disability (STD), Long-term disability (LTD), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Fitness Center Reimbursement (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Tuition reimbursement, Transit programs, Employee recognition program, Pension, 401(k) plan, Paid time off (PTO), Holidays, Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO), Parental Leave Benefit plans are subject to change and Xcel Energy has the right to end, suspend, or amend any of its plans, at any time, in whole or in part. In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information including but not limited to dates of school attendance and graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

As a leading combination electricity and natural gas energy company, Xcel Energy offers a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.4 million electricity and 1.9 million natural gas customers across eight Western and Midwestern states. At Xcel Energy, we strive to be the preferred and trusted provider of the energy our customers need. If you’re ready to be a part of something big, we invite you to join our team.