Enterprise Architect, Principal – Cloud Systems 

Scottsdale, AZ

Who are we looking for? 

Choice Hotels, one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, has an exciting new opportunity as our Enterprise Architecture, Principal – Cloud Systems in the Enterprise Architecture team. The award-winning Choice Hotels Technology Center is revolutionizing hospitality with cloud computing, AWS, data, ML/AI, and application development. As a key contributor to our innovation and cloud strategy, you will support Product Management in the near and long-term strategy and planning activities of our generative AI and cloud capabilities, and you will work closely with Engineering to modernize and optimize our platform and delivery capabilities. 

Do you have significant technical expertise and a demonstrated history of architecting and delivering leading-edge cloud solutions? We invite you to apply today for our Enterprise Architecture, Principal – Cloud Systems role and #MakeItYourChoice.  

Your Responsibilities  

Partner and align with key business and operational stakeholders throughout Choice Hotels to understand their objectives and long-range strategies.  

Collaborate directly and proactively on the strategic roadmap to influence and inform the roadmap based on hospitality industry and technology trends.  Translate trends into cloud infrastructure and development process opportunities.  

Engage in and be a thought leader in innovation / prototyping of new generative AI and cloud capabilities.   

Work with technology organization leaders to align business roadmap and technology capabilities to ensure long term efficient, effective, and value-driven delivery. 

Act as thought partner to Business and Technology leadership and Product Management, generating and prioritizing strategic ideas. 

Drive innovation in cloud systems and generative AI with respect to hospitality use cases. 

Own the strategic architecture for cloud area. Regularly assess current state and potential future states, identifying attainable incremental transition states. 

Create architecture runway for Product Management and delivery teams, considering new business capabilities as well as product technical debt. 

Engage in integrated planning with other Enterprise / Solution Architects to ensure seamless and cohesive operation of systems with other domains. 

Contribute consistently to Architecture Governance boards (e.g. Architecture Board, Technology Governance Committee) representing cloud space. 

Stay up on the latest technology trends in cloud and in the hospitality industry. You will be on point to assess new trends and Choice’s readiness to adopt new trends into our ecosystem. 

Your Experience and Education  

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, or related field, from a four-year college or university. Master’s degree or post graduate degree or equivalent work experience preferred. 

Minimum of 10 years relevant experience in software development, information systems, or equivalent technical environment, inclusive of experience in the development of distributed systems, cloud platforms, and API-based architecture, 8 years of related development experience and 4 years of experience serving a development team technical lead/or architecture experience 

Experience in implementing architectures that satisfy business, systems, information, security, application, and technology architecture requirements as well as support resilience, observability, and supportability requirements. 

Experience in systems engineering techniques such as architecture modeling, alternative analysis, tradeoff analysis, and portfolio analysis. 

Experience in business process modeling & reengineering. 

Exceptional knowledge and experience in designing and implementing enterprise class systems of applications including:  

Designing service APIs.  

Designing systems integrated with messaging solutions with a working knowledge of the service and messaging design patterns.  

Defining application and system boundaries and an understanding of Domain-Driven Design. 

Defining non-functional requirements such as scalability, availability, and security. 

Knowledge of Agile/Scrum development methodologies. 

Skills 

Proven leader with the demonstrated experience of creating technical solutions in large organizations with complex business requirements and constraints. 

Thought leadership that embodies being innovative, entrepreneurial and is well respected, actively sought out and is considered an authority by peers. 

High energy and drive. Laser-focused on delivery with strategic-thinking, collaboration, facilitation, negotiation, and motivational skills. 

Strategic dexterity which includes outstanding situational and flexible thinking with the courage to push difficult or unpopular perspectives. 

Business/Application Knowledge which demonstrates deep knowledge and expertise in multiple as well as inter-dependent applications and processes. 

Subject matter expert across multiple technologies, architectures, and business applications with special emphasis on application/systems inter-dependencies. 

Expert in one or more programming languages with a functional knowledge of multiple languages such as Java, Python, Node.js, Kotlin, and Swift. 

Expert in development upon major frameworks and libraries such as Spring, Pandas, Angular, and React. 

Expert in developing applications with data stored in a relational database such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLServer. Experience analyzing and performance tuning database calls. Familiarity with non-relational or NOSQL database technologies. 

Expert in defining service APIs using standard specifications such as Swagger or OpenAPI. Proficient with messaging integrations using JMS or Kafka. 

Expert in designing deployments for the cloud environment (AWS, GCP or Azure). Familiarity with distributed system design and an understanding of the related failure conditions. 

Expert with Jenkins, CI/CD pipelines, and version control with git. Experience with application profiling, performance tuning, and caching strategies. 

Understanding of Enterprise Architecture frameworks and concepts 

Knowledge of relevant security, regulatory and compliance matters as they relate to system design (PCI, SOX, GDPR, OAuth, ESAPI/OWASP, SAML etc.). 

Self-starter who solves complex technology and operational problems/issues with little to no guidance from senior management. Seeks senior management advice and guidance as needed for critical decisions with broad business exposure and high risk. 

Exceptional oral, written, presentation and listening communication skills. 

Exceptional interpersonal, persuasion and diplomatic skills. 

Exceptional reasoning, analytical, and problem-solving skills. 

Abilities 

Ability to develop technical specifications, designs, and architecture artifacts. 

Ability to deal with ambiguity during the inception stage of projects. 

Ability to take ownership of an assignment through to completion and work effectively with people from different departments, companies, and customer organizations. 

Ability to solve complex problems with multiple complex abstract variables. 

Ability to effectively lead others in the absence of formal positional power. 

Ability to communicate technical information in an appropriate manner for widely varied audiences (from senior management to individual contributors on software development teams). 

Ability to establish relationships with the business and Technology leaders, as well as be technology subject matter experts. 

Ability to influence strategic direction in partnership with key decision-makers and highly technical resources. 

Ability to remain unbiased towards any specific vendor or technology choice; is more interested in results than personal preferences. 

Ability to conduct tradeoff analysis to be able to look at alternative architectural approaches to present pros versus cons and recommendations. 

Desired 

The ideal candidate will have an extensive background in designing and deploying cloud applications with autoscaling, resilience, and sustainability in mind. 

A professional level AWS certification. 

Broad understanding of a spectrum of cloud infrastructure technologies including network, hardware, and operating systems. 

Innovative mindset.  Ability to marry emerging technology trends with business or technical problems and opportunities. 

Your Team 

This is an individual contributor role that will report to the Senior Director, Enterprise Architect. You will have four peer teammates and collaborate with cross functional departments on a regular basis.  

Your Work Location 

As our Enterprise Architect, Principal – Cloud Systems, you will be based in our beautiful, state-of-the-art technology hub in Scottsdale, AZ. In October 2021, Choice opened a newly constructed world class technology center. 

Right now, our associates in Scottsdale, AZ are working in a hybrid environment, up to 4 days per week in the office and virtually from your home office the remaining days. We provide flexibility and encourage ongoing communication with your leadership to establish expectations about your unique needs. 

About Choice 

Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the largest lodging franchisors in the world. With nearly 7,500 hotels, representing nearly 630,000 rooms, in 46 countries and territories, with a range of high-quality lodging options from limited service to full-service hotels in the upper upscale, upper mid-scale, midscale, extended-stay, and economy segments. We’re the hotel company for those who choose to bet on themselves – the underdog, the dreamer, the entrepreneur – because that’s who we are, too.  

At Choice, we are united by the simple belief that tomorrow will be even better than today – for associates, our company, and our franchisees. At our worldwide corporate headquarters in North Bethesda, MD and St. Louis Park, MN as well as our technology center in Scottsdale, AZ, and through our associates around the globe, every voice is heard, and every idea is listened to, no matter what area of the company they come from. We are united in supporting the entrepreneurial dreams of our more than 18,000 franchise owners, which propels us forward – giving our work at Choice a purpose larger than our business. 

*** PLEASE NOTE: This role is not eligible for sponsorship ***  

Ability to model Choice’s Cultural Values: Welcome and Respect Everyone, Be Bold, Be Quick, Listen, Be Curious and Show Integrity.