Principal Architect - Digital Architecture for Payments

Job Description

Shape the future of digital commerce and payments at one of the world's largest merchant acquirers. Lead digital transformation strategy and target-state architecture for Merchant Payments across web, API, headless checkout, commerce, and mobile experiences. Act as a senior technical leader and trusted advisor to business, product, and technology executives. Stay hands-on in design and solutioning, turning strategy into scalable, secure, cloud-native platforms.

As a Director of Architecture at JPMorganChase within the Commercial & Investment Bank Payments, you will define the target-state digital architecture for Merchant Payments and l ead the digital transformation strategy and target-state architecture for Merchant Payments across web, API, headless checkout, commerce, and mobile experiences. . You will serve as a trusted technical advisor to senior business and technology leaders, bridging strategy and execution to deliver scalable, secure, cloud-native platforms. This role sits at the intersection of product, engineering, and business — where your architecture decisions will directly shape how merchants and partners experience payments at global scale.

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Job responsibilities

- Define and drive the digital architecture strategy and target state for Merchant Payments products, aligned to business goals and go-to-market plans
- Shape and execute the digital transformation roadmap, covering digital onboarding, client self-service, partner integration, and omnichannel commerce
- Architect headless checkout and commerce solutions that connect web, mobile, in-store, and partner channels
- Lead API strategy, including API standards, design-first practices, governance, and partner and developer experience
- Establish web and mobile framework developer practices and governance
- Partner with business and technology stakeholders to assess needs, propose design options, and recommend the best path to market
- Build trusted relationships with senior business and technical decision makers, both internal and client-facing, and provide thought leadership
- Break product strategy down into technical delivery roadmaps, milestones, and executable workstreams for engineering teams
- Find opportunities to modernize platform capabilities alongside business initiatives. Contribute to and influence architecture governance forums, championing standards, patterns, and reusable capabilities
- Lead evaluations of external vendors, fintechs, startups, and internal solutions, assessing architecture, technical credentials, and fit. Mentor and influence architects and engineers across teams to raise architecture maturity

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Required qualifications, capabilities, and skills

- Formal training or certification on software engineering concepts and 10+ years applied experience, including significant architecture leadership with software patterns and principles
- Strong executive communication and leadership presence, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and steer outcomes in complex, matrixed organizations
- Proven track record shaping digital transformation in payments or financial services, such as digital onboarding, client self-service, developer experience, and partner integration
- Strong experience with agentic commerce, headless commerce, and checkout architectures for eCommerce and omnichannel merchant experiences
- Deep hands-on experience with web architecture, modern web frameworks, and mobile frameworks
- Expertise in APIs, including API standards, functional design, lifecycle management, and governance
- Experience in establishing AI standards, design, and governance
- Strong experience in Identity and Access Management (IAM), including partner integration through APIs and web (e.g., OAuth, OIDC, SSO, federation)
- Solid understanding of acquiring and merchant services payments, including in-store and eCommerce payment flows. Practical, hands-on experience with cloud-native architecture and delivery
- Experience as a functional (business/product) architect who can turn business requirements into designs and technical delivery roadmaps. Strong grasp of domain modeling, business process flows, client journeys, and use cases

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Preferred qualifications, capabilities, and skills

- Point of Sale (POS) experience
- Cloud certification (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Experience with payment industry standards and security requirements (e.g., PCI DSS, EMV, tokenization)
- Understanding of business capability models and feature taxonomies