Principal Architect

About the role

Location: San Jose, CA (Hybrid with min. 3 days in office)

Summary

Drives architectural evolution of Adobe's Enterprise Customer Experience platform and applications through system and application design as well as technology innovation for Agentic AI solutions. This role will partner closely with engineering, product, and business leaders to define architecture strategy, influence product direction, and deliver highly scalable systems that support global-scale workloads, ensure data governance, and drive AI solutions.

This is a highly visible, leadership role requiring deep expertise in data management, distributed systems, and Agentic AI technologies, along with the ability to operate across organizational boundaries.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive end-to-end system architecture for large-scale data management, ensuring performance, security, and reliability
• Drive the development, integration and adoption of AI-native services (including Agentic Tools, Skills and Context-sensitive Agentic Loops).
• Partner with engineering and product leadership to translate business requirements into technical architecture
• Lead architectural reviews, guide design decisions, and ensure adherence to best practices
• Establish standards for scalability, observability, resiliency, and cost efficiency
• Influence cross-team alignment and provide thought leadership across the organization
• Mentor senior engineers and architects; elevate overall technical capability
• Represent architecture strategy in executive discussions and customer engagement

Basic Qualifications

• 20+ years of experience in software engineering with strong focus on end-to-end systems and application development
• Proven experience designing and operating large-scale, reliable distributed systems (high performance and high availability)
• Strong experience with microservices, APIs, and platform engineering
• Familiarity with Agentic AI solution design and development
• Demonstrated ability to influence org-wide teams and drive architecture at scale
• Excellent communication skills with ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with streaming data platforms and real-time processing frameworks (e.g., Kafka, Spark)
• Experience in developing Agentic AI systems and solutions
• Background in building developer platforms or cloud-enabled products
• Experience working in highly matrixed, enterprise-scale environments
• Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in Computer Science or related field

Success Profile

• Strong systems thinker with ability to simplify complex problems
• High ownership and bias for execution
• Ability to operate at both hands-on technical depth and strategic leadership level
• Proven track record of building scalable, enterprise-grade systems and applications

AI Use Guidelines for Interviews

Our interviews are designed to reflect your own skills and thinking. If these tools are used inappropriately or in a way that misrepresents your work, your application may not move forward in the process.

At Adobe, we empower employees to innovate with AI - and we look for candidates eager to do the same. As part of the hiring experience, we provide clear guidance on where AI is encouraged during the process and where it's restricted during live interviews. See how we think about AI in the hiring experience.

Expected Pay Range

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $190,200 - $360,500 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process. In California, the pay range for this position is $248,900 - $360,500

At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).

In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.