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 lead 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.

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

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

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