Senior Principal Software Engineer/Architect

UKG is a leading provider of HR and workforce management software, dedicated to making a real impact in the lives of workers. They are seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer/Architect to lead the architecture and design of the UKG Ready SMB product, focusing on AI integration and M&A technical outcomes, while ensuring scalability and governance of the product. This strategic role requires a hands-on approach to define architecture, lead technical diligence for acquisitions, and drive alignment on AI/ML adoption.

Responsibilities:

• Define, communicate and own the Ready SMB architecture to support 55K+ customers today and a product footprint that must scale to the company’s $1.2B revenue target — including tenancy models, service boundaries, performance/cost tradeoffs, extensibility and safe upgrade paths
• Develop and maintain architectural standards and governance frameworks tailored to HCM requirements, including compliance, data privacy, and security
• Design production-grade patterns for embedding generative AI and ML features into Ready: model serving patterns, inference topology (edge vs. centralized), latency / throughput SLAs, MLOps pipelines, evaluation & rollout strategies, and monitoring/rollback controls
• Lead technical diligence for acquisitions affecting Ready: evaluate architecture fit, identify integration risks (data, security, compliance), design migration/integration plans, and lead or advise post-close execution to minimize customer and delivery risk
• Translate product and customer needs (sales/professional services/CS constraints) into architecture decisions that enable configurability, localization, performance tiers, and integrations with customer systems
• Set platform standards for cloud, CI/CD, container orchestration (Kubernetes), observability, capacity planning and SRE practices that deliver predictable ops at scale and control operating cost as the product grows
• Establish guardrails for data privacy, model governance, explainability, bias mitigation and auditability appropriate to Ready’s customer base and regulatory footprint
• Own high-risk or high-impact technical work (POCs, performance optimizations, complex integrations), mentor architects and senior engineers, and lead architecture reviews and decision records
• Produce high-fidelity architecture artifacts: decision records, integration playbooks, runbooks, API and data contracts, and M&A intake/checklists
• Be extremely customer-oriented, have empathy for the users and have accountability & ownership of the Ready solution
• Leading upstream and downstream influence and communication as well as advising teams on executive leadership

Requirements:

• Seasoned architectural leader: ~12+ years engineering experience, with substantial time leading architecture for large SaaS products and proven individual technical leadership at scale (or equivalent)
• SaaS & multi-tenant expertise: Hands-on experience designing and operating multi-tenant, API-first SaaS systems supporting large numbers of customers and multiple operational tiers
• AI in production: Demonstrated experience integrating AI/ML (including LLM/generative features) into production products — defining serving topologies, MLOps, monitoring and governance
• M&A technical experience: Direct involvement in technical due diligence and post-close technical integration for acquisitions, including data migration, security and compliance assessments
• Cloud & platform expertise: Deep knowledge of public cloud architectures (AWS/GCP/Azure), container orchestration, API design, eventing/streaming and data platform patterns (ETL/ELT, feature stores, data contracts)
• Operational rigor & security: Strong background in SRE practices, observability (metrics/logs/traces), capacity planning and secure architecture for customer data
• Communicator & influencer: Proven ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders; exceptional documentation and architecture decision skills
• Education/credentials: Advanced degree (MS/PhD) preferred but not required if experience demonstrates equivalent technical stature
• Prior Senior Principal Engineer/Architect experience (or equivalent senior technical role)
• Track record of public speaking, patents, or publications in scalable systems or AI in production
• Experience with cost-efficient inference strategies, responsible AI tooling (bias testing, explainability), and model lifecycle management
• Experience with SMB/mid-market customer operations and the commercial constraints that shape product design
• Experience in regulated industries or privacy-sensitive product engineering