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# Principal Systems Architect

- **Company:** Medidata Solutions, Inc.
- **Location:** New York, NY, United States
- **Salary:** $157,500.0 - $210,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Java (Programming Language), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Clinical Trial Management Systems, Distributed Systems, Python (Programming Language), Software Engineering, Large Language Models, Multi-Agent Systems, Software Security, Agentic-AI, Kubernetes, Information Technology, Graphql, Terraform, Data Pipelines, Serverless Computing, Human in the Loop, GXP, Web Api, Microservices
- **Published:** October 4, 2026
- **Apply:** https://jobs.localjobnetwork.com/apply/add/88537585/1

## About the Role

* Bachelor's degree with 15+ years of experience, Master's degree with 12+ years, or PhD with 8+ years in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
 * Progressive software engineering background, including significant tenure at a Principal/Architect level shaping platform strategy.
 * Expert-level proficiency in Java and Python, alongside broad multi-language proficiency.
 * Proven history of designing resilient, high-throughput distributed systems and data pipelines operating at scale.
 * Hands-on mastery of cloud platforms (Kubernetes, serverless, Terraform/IaC) and modern data tooling.
 * Direct experience operationalizing enterprise AI/LLM product capabilities, agent orchestration, and evaluation frameworks.
 * Excellent communication and influencing skills-capable of translating architectural trade-offs for engineers, executive leadership, and compliance bodies.
 * Exercises wide latitude in high-ambiguity environments to establish technical direction and solve critical enterprise challenges.
*

Nice to Have

 * Substantial exposure to the life sciences sector, specifically regarding clinical trial platforms (EDC, CTMS, eTMF) or similar high-compliance GxP software environments.
 * Advanced AWS credentials or a demonstrated history of architecting sophisticated, large-scale solutions on the AWS cloud platform.

As with all roles, Medidata sets ranges based on a number of factors including function, level, candidate expertise and experience, and geographic location. Pay ranges for candidates in locations other than New York City, may differ based on the local market data in that region.

## Description

* Define end-to-end, outcome-based solutions across product lines and engineering domains - ensuring multi-system interoperability, alignment to enterprise architecture standards, and capability reuse.
 * Author architectural blueprints and decision records; partner with Product Management to evaluate emerging technologies and translate business strategy into multi-year technical roadmaps.
 * Design multi-tenant, event-driven, microservices systems at scale - messaging architectures, data partitioning strategies, and web APIs (REST, GraphQL) - setting enterprise standards for application security.
 * Stay hands-on: build proofs of concept and reference implementations, review critical pull requests, and set engineering standards through working code - not just documents.
 * Own AWS cloud architecture across container orchestration (Kubernetes/EKS) and serverless (Lambda), standardizing the deployment lifecycle through Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).
 * Design enterprise-grade AI agents and LLM-powered capabilities - MCP-based services, orchestration, tool use, and evaluation - with human-in-the-loop governance; partner with Data teams to operationalize production ML.
 * Lead complex legacy modernization and migration programs with phased, de-risked delivery strategies; advise executive leadership on technical risk assessment.
 * Exercise wide autonomy to mentor senior and staff engineers, run cross-team architecture reviews, and resolve critical, enterprise-level challenges where precedent does not exist. Responsible for developing resolution to critical issue.