Associate Architect Jobs in Riverside, CA (NOW HIRING)

Exciting Opportunity at Orange County's Federal Credit Union

Enterprise Architect

The targeted annual salary range is $146,340.00 to $182,920.00. Final offer will be determined based on experience, education, training/certifications and specialized skills.

OCFCU will consider H1-B VISA transfer eligibility.

CREDIT UNION’S PURPOSE: Simple Banking. For People, Not Profit.

CREDIT UNION’S CORE VALUES: Integrity, Service Excellence, Growth & Development, High Performance, Mutual Respect, Community, and Fun

Workplace Excellence. Through our associates' opinions and voices, Orange County's Federal Credit Union is a proud recipient of the Peter Barron Stark Best of the Best Award for highest associate satisfaction in the workplace! As a leading financial service provider with over 80 years of experience serving 123,000+ members, Orange County's Credit Union is currently $2+ billion in assets & growing.

Generous benefits include:

POSITION SUMMARY:

Under minimal direction, the Enterprise Architect is responsible for designing cloud-native solutions, deconstructing our legacy architecture, and defining clear, executable roadmaps to modernize OCFCU’s technology platforms.

This role will work across core banking (Symitar/Episys), digital banking (e.g., Lumin), lending & payments, data & analytics, and integration platforms to move OCFCU from tightly coupled legacy systems to modern, scalable, secure, and observable architectures. This includes leveraging cloud services, APIs, event-driven patterns, and AI/LLM capabilities where they make sense, and ensuring everything is properly documented and ready for handoff to Operations.

This role will spend a significant portion of time embedded with teams reviewing designs, building reference implementations, prototyping, and helping teams ship better systems that can be operated reliably by OCFCU’s Infrastructure and Operations teams.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

1. Enterprise & Solution Architecture (Hands-On)

• Designs target-state architecture for key OCFCU domains including:
  • Core banking & surrounding ecosystem (Symitar, Jack Henry integrations, payments, statements, ancillary services).
  • Digital banking channels (online, mobile, APIs, third-party fintech integrations).
  • Lending, onboarding, and back-office platforms.
• Creates end-to-end solution designs: context diagrams, sequence/flow diagrams, APIs, data models, non-functional requirements (NFRs), and security patterns.
• Develop reference architecture for:
  • Cloud-native services (e.g., Azure/AWS), APIs, and integration layers.
  • Event-driven workflows (e.g., member activity, transactions, alerts, service).
• Builds and maintains a living architecture blueprint and application portfolio for OCFCU, including current state, target state, and interim milestones that align with the technology roadmap.

2. Legacy Decomposition & Modernization

• Deep-dives into OCFCU’s existing legacy and vendor platforms: Symitar customizations, batch jobs, flat-file/EDI interfaces, on-prem services, and custom applications.
• Documents current-state architectures, dependencies, data flows, and technical debt in a form usable by engineers, operations, and leadership.
• Defines pragmatic modernization strategies, such as:
  • Encapsulating legacy systems via APIs.
  • Strangler patterns to incrementally replace monolithic functionality.
  • Re-platforming or re-architecting high-risk/high-value components.
• Prioritizes modernization efforts in partnership with the CIO, VP-level leaders, and business/product owners based on member impact, operational risk, and business value.
• Works closely with delivery teams to execute modernization iteratively, favoring measurable wins over “big bang” cutovers.

3. Cloud-Native & AI/LLM Patterns for Financial Services

• Designs solutions that leverage cloud platforms (e.g., Azure/AWS) with a focus on:
  • Security and regulatory compliance (NCUA, FFIEC, GLBA).
  • Resiliency, performance, and cost optimization.
  • Observability (logging, metrics, tracing, dashboards).
• Defines patterns for:
  • Containerization and/or serverless workloads.
  • API gateways, integration hubs, and secure connectivity to Symitar and other vendors.
  • Messaging/event-driven architectures (e.g., for real-time alerts, fraud signals, member interactions).
• Establishes reference patterns for integrating AI/LLM capabilities into OCFCU workflows and member experiences, such as:
  • Intelligent document processing (KYC, loan docs, servicing).
  • AI-powered member support, agent assist, and knowledge retrieval.
  • Analytics and decisioning enhancements (working with Data & Analytics teams).
• Partners with InfoSec and Risk to ensure AI use follows appropriate governance, privacy, and model/data protection practices.

4. Technical Leadership, Delivery Support & Handoff to Operations

• Embeds with OCFCU project teams and squads on critical initiatives as the lead architect, participating in design sessions, code/design reviews, and troubleshooting.
• Builds prototypes and reference implementations that:
  • Demonstrate new patterns (e.g., new API gateway patterns, event bus usage, AI integration).
  • De-risk complex integrations between core, digital banking, and external fintech partners.
• Provides hands-on guidance on API design, domain modeling (including domain-driven design where appropriate), data flows, and integration strategies around Symitar and other key platforms.
• Helps teams make thoughtful tradeoffs between the “ideal” architecture and practical delivery constraints, always ensuring a clear path toward the target state.
• Ensure solutions are fully prepared for handoff to Operations, including:
  • Up-to-date architecture diagrams and system overviews.
  • Runbooks, support models, and escalation paths.
  • Defined SLOs/SLAs and capacity/performance expectations.
  • Clear ownership boundaries between Application, Infrastructure, Security, and vendor teams.
• Collaborates closely with Infrastructure, Operations, and Service Desk teams to confirm monitoring, alerting, backup, and recovery procedures are in place before go-live.

5. Architecture Standards, Governance & Documentation

• Defines lightweight architecture principles and standards tailored to a credit union environment, focusing on member experience, security, resilience, and simplicity.
• Participates in or leads architecture/design reviews for major OCFCU initiatives, evaluating risk, reusability, and alignment with OCFCU’s target architecture.
• Maintains clear, concise architectural documentation (diagrams, architecture decision records, standards) that engineers, operations, and auditors can rely on.
• Partners with InfoSec, Risk, and Compliance to ensure that architecture support OCFCU’s obligations around data protection, business continuity, vendor management, and incident response.

6. Stakeholder Collaboration & Communication

• Translates complex technical topics into clear, non-technical language for OCFCU leadership, risk committees, and business partners—highlighting options, tradeoffs, and risks.
• Partners with leaders in Digital Banking, Core & Operations, Lending, Member Experience, and Data & Analytics to ensure architectures support their strategies and roadmaps.
• Contributes to OCFCU’s multi-year technology roadmap, including:
  • Core & digital modernization.
  • Data & analytics platform evolution.
  • Integration and automation capabilities.
• Mentors’ senior engineers and technical leads in good architecture practices and patterns, helping to raise the architectural maturity across the organization.

OTHER DUTIES:

The preceding functions have been provided as examples of the types of work performed by associates assigned to this job classification. Credit Union Management reserves the right to add, modify, change or rescind the work assignments of different positions and to make reasonable accommodations so that qualified associates can perform the essential functions of the job.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience / Training / Education:

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering and architecture roles, with substantial hands-on design and implementation work.
• Education: Computer Science degree preferred.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering cloud-native solutions on a major cloud platform (Azure and/or AWS), including:
  • APIs and microservices.
  • Containerization and/or serverless.
  • Messaging/event-driven architectures.
  • Observability and reliability patterns.
• Proven experience decomposing legacy or vendor-centric environments and delivering stepwise modernization in production (e.g., core banking, digital banking, or similar transactional systems).
• Practical exposure to AI/ML/LLM-enabled solutions, such as integrating cloud AI services, building AI-backed features, or partnering with data science/analytics teams.
• Experience producing operational documentation (runbooks, support models, monitoring/alerting requirements) that enables effective, stable handoffs to Operations.
• Experience in financial services preferred, particularly banking or credit unions, with familiarity around NCUA, FFIEC, GLBA, and vendor risk considerations.
• Experience with CI/CD and DevOps practices (Infrastructure as Code, automated testing, deployment pipelines), data platforms (data warehouse/lake, analytics, BI), and API management platforms and/or service meshes preferred.
• Prior participation in or ownership of enterprise architecture practices preferred (road mapping, standards, reference architecture) even without direct people management.

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:

• Solid understanding of modern integration patterns: REST/GraphQL APIs, batch/EDI, messaging/streaming, and iPaaS/integration platforms.
• Strong grasp of security-by-design and compliance expectations for financial institutions, including:
  • Authentication/authorization, secrets management, encryption, and secure connectivity.
  • Auditability and logging practices are suitable for regulatory examinations.
• Comfortable reading and reviewing code in at least one modern language (e.g., C#, Java, Python, or TypeScript/Node.js).
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to work across technology, risk, and business teams.
• Familiarity with core banking and digital banking platforms preferred (e.g., Symitar, Jack Henry ecosystem, digital banking providers, lending platforms).
• Ability to speak and hear to give and receive instructions and information to others in person and over the telephone. Other language skills are helpful.
• Ability to accurately perform mathematical calculations.
• Ability to create and maintain accurate reliable records.
• Requires good memory, knowledge retention skills and ability to multi-task, prioritize projects and duties effectively.
• Requires excellent follow-through skills, member relations skills, and sound business judgment.
• Ability to interface with others in a positive and professional manner.
• Goal-oriented with a desire to work in a fast-paced and results-driven environment.
• Demonstrates ability to work independently and be self-directed when necessary as well as the ability to work and accomplish goals in a team environment.

This position is currently hybrid-eligible, with the expectation of three days pre-assigned on-site attendance. This role requires California residency and living within a 50-mile commute of our headquarters in Santa Ana.

We perform thorough background checks and credit checks. EOE