Chief Architect Jobs in Raleigh, NC (NOW HIRING)

Note: Fidelity will not provide immigration sponsorship for this position.

The Role

Fidelity Wealth is seeking a Vice President, Architecture Leader to lead a forward‑deployed team of highly skilled architects aligned to Wealth business domains and business‑specific product areas.

Reporting to the Head of Wealth Architecture, this leader will combine organizational leadership, architecture strategy, and hands‑on technical depth. The role will directly manage approximately 10 to 15 architects, hold architecture responsibilities across Fidelity Wealth, approve material technology selections and solution architectures developed by Wealth engineering teams, and influence critical technology decisions across Fidelity.

The leader will partner with Wealth business, product, and engineering leaders and collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and other Fidelity business units, including Brokerage and Workplace Investing. They will will drive consistent architecture, increase adoption of enterprise platforms, simplify the technology landscape, accelerate engineering delivery, and help shape and advance the Wealth AI strategy.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and inspire a forward‑deployed team of approximately 10 to 15 architects aligned to Wealth business domains and business‑specific product areas, building trust with business and engineering leaders while creating a culture of accountability, inclusion, collaboration, and technical excellence.

• Provide architecture leadership across Fidelity Wealth while collaborating with Enterprise Architecture and architecture, product, and engineering leaders in other Fidelity business units, including Brokerage and Workplace Investing.

• Operate a community model — allocate architects by priority and bandwidth using primary/secondary pairing rather than permanent 1:1 assignment; proactively scan roadmaps to deploy architecture capacity before problems form; coach architects while enabling substantial autonomy; and serve as the escalation point for complex or high‑risk decisions.

• Partner with Wealth engineering teams during design to co‑author material technology selections and solution architectures, ensuring alignment with business objectives, enterprise standards, security expectations, and long‑term technology strategy

• Drive consistent architecture practices across Wealth by establishing clear guardrails, promoting reusable patterns, driving ADR‑based decision closure with one owner and one deadline, and increasing adoption of enterprise platforms.

• Influence critical cross‑organizational technology decisions by framing options, trade‑offs, risks, dependencies, and recommended paths for SVPs, CIOs, and other senior leaders; make timely decisions and demonstrate intellectual honesty when facts or assumptions change.

• Lead by example and participate directly in the highest‑risk initiatives, balancing enterprise strategy with sufficient technical depth to resolve complex architecture challenges spanning Wealth domains, product areas, platforms, and the broader Fidelity enterprise.

• Help shape, advance, and drive the Wealth AI strategy in partnership with business, product, engineering, data, AI, risk, and enterprise architecture leaders.

• Rationalize vendors, platforms, and technologies to reduce unnecessary complexity, improve reuse, strengthen strategic alignment, and optimize long‑term investment.

• Build and develop a strong, high‑performing architecture team through hiring, coaching, performance management, succession planning, clear accountability, and inclusive leadership; partner with peer architecture leaders on the broader talent strategy for the Wealth Architecture organization.

• Demonstrate customer focus and enterprise thinking by connecting architecture decisions to client, associate, business, risk, and engineering outcomes.

Required Qualifications

• 15 plus years of technology experience, including significant experience in software engineering, architecture, or platform leadership.

• 7 plus years of architecture leadership experience with accountability for technology strategy and complex enterprise‑scale solutions, including 5 plus years directly managing architects.

• Demonstrated experience leading, developing, and retaining a team of 10 or more architects or comparable senior technical leaders; this role requires an established architecture people leader rather than an individual‑contributor‑only background.

• Proven ability to build trust with business and engineering leaders, develop strong architecture talent, hold teams accountable, make timely decisions, lead by example, and balance strategy with technical depth.

• Broad technical depth across cloud architecture, APIs, event‑driven architecture, data, cybersecurity, integration, distributed systems, digital platforms, and AI architecture.

• Experience defining target‑state architectures, multiyear roadmaps, architectural guardrails, and transition strategies tied to business and product outcomes.

• Experience co‑authoring and ensuring alignment of material technology selections and solution architectures in a complex enterprise environment, operating as a partner to engineering rather than a gate.

• Proven ability to create consistency across distributed architecture and engineering teams while increasing adoption of shared enterprise platforms and capabilities.

• Experience rationalizing vendors, platforms, and technologies across a complex enterprise environment.

• Strong judgment in balancing delivery speed, customer outcomes, quality, risk, cost, enterprise standards, and long‑term sustainability.

• Experience partnering with product and engineering leaders to accelerate delivery while improving architectural quality, customer outcomes, security, and operational resilience.

• Executive presence and communication skills, with demonstrated experience presenting technology strategy, architecture decisions, risks, and trade‑offs to SVPs, CIOs, and comparable senior leaders.

• Demonstrated leadership grounded in customer focus, accountability, collaboration, intellectual honesty, inclusion, enterprise thinking, and developing others.

• Experience with AI‑enabled engineering capabilities, AI‑assisted development approaches, or enterprise AI architecture strategies.

• Experience in financial services or another regulated industry is helpful but not required; candidates must be able to operate in an environment with strong expectations for security, privacy, auditability, resilience, and change control.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in wealth management, brokerage, financial planning, investment, financial services, or another regulated industry is helpful but not required.

• Experience leading forward‑deployed architects aligned to business domains, product areas, value streams, or comparable operating models in a large, matrixed enterprise.

• Experience advancing responsible AI adoption, modern engineering practices, enterprise platform reuse, cloud modernization, or technology portfolio rationalization.

Fidelity’s Onsite Working Model
Fidelity is transitioning to a full‑time onsite working model through a phased rollout across regions and roles. Currently, some roles and locations require 100% onsite presence, while others require less. Onsite expectations are likely to evolve as the rollout continues. This transition does not apply to fully remote roles.

Please be advised that Fidelity’s business is governed by the provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Investment Company Act of 1940, ERISA, numerous state laws governing securities, investment and retirement‑related financial activities and the rules and regulations of numerous self‑regulatory organizations, including FINRA, among others. Those laws and regulations may restrict Fidelity from hiring and/or associating with individuals with certain Criminal Histories.