Principal System Architect
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Summary
Hands-on principal architect who sets technical direction for LI-COR Environmental's connected instruments and cloud platforms, owning device-to-cloud architecture across AWS, APIs, event-driven data pipelines, security, and observability. Stays hands-on in backend design and code, leads architecture reviews, and mentors engineers.
Primary Work Location
Lincoln, NE or Remote in the U.S.
Overview
The Principal System Architect provides technical direction and hands-on engineering for LI-COR Environmental's connected products and cloud platforms. This individual contributor works across instruments, firmware, connectivity, cloud services, data, and applications to build systems that are reliable, secure, scalable, supportable, and economically sustainable. The architect partners with engineering, product, science, quality, IT and DevOps, and external technology partners to turn complex needs into practical technical direction.
Professional Qualifications
Education
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent demonstrated experience. A master's degree is preferred.
Qualifications
- Typically 12 or more years of software and cloud engineering experience, including significant experience as a system, solution, platform, or principal architect for production systems.
- Demonstrated architecture ownership for a commercial IoT, connected device, industrial, scientific, telemetry, or other high volume data platform.
- Deep experience with AWS or a comparable public cloud, including compute, containers, networking, databases, storage, identity and access, observability, security, resiliency, and infrastructure as code.
- Strong backend engineering and API design skills, with hands-on proficiency in at least one modern backend language.
- Experience with event driven and distributed systems, device ingestion, message delivery, high volume time series data, data modeling, and data lifecycle management.
- Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, observability, incident response, and secure software delivery at production scale.
- Ability to connect architecture decisions to delivery effort, operational cost, product economics, and customer impact.
- Strong communication, technical judgment, systems thinking, and the ability to lead through influence across teams and external partners.
Preferred Experience
- Architecture spanning embedded devices or firmware, cellular or gateway connectivity, cloud ingestion, web or mobile applications, and analytics.
- Regulated, validated, or quality controlled systems with requirements for data access, retention, privacy, auditability, and change control.
- Platform modernization, microservice simplification, globally distributed teams, or blended employee and contractor delivery models.
- Professional level cloud certification or equivalent practical expertise.
General
- Self starter and motivated. Enjoy challenges. Proven drive to achieve goals.
- Creative. High insight, curiosity and problem solving ability. High attention to detail.
- Good interpersonal and networking skills.
- Team player. Enjoys and works well with other people in a team environment.
- Effective oral and written communication skills in English.
- Dependable, positive attitude and good attendance.
- High ethics, integrity, honesty, patience.
Position Responsibilities
Architecture and Platform Direction:
- Define and maintain the target architecture, system boundaries, data models, integration patterns, and technical roadmap for connected products and cloud platforms.
- Lead architecture reviews for services, APIs, data pipelines, databases, identity, applications, deployment patterns, and device-to-cloud communication.
- Simplify the platform by identifying unnecessary coupling, duplicate processing, fragile patterns, and services that should be consolidated, redesigned, or retired.
- Guide platform modernization and the use of managed cloud services based on product needs, customer continuity, cost, portability, security, reliability, and operational burden.
- Maintain architecture decisions and documentation so LI-COR retains the knowledge, access, data portability, and technical control needed to make sound future decisions.
Device to Cloud Architecture:
- Guide how devices produce data and how cloud services receive, process, store, and present it, including schemas, batching, retries, deduplication, derived data, and retention.
- Partner with Firmware and Hardware Engineering to identify connectivity, scalability, reliability, support, and cost implications early in product development.
- Review new products and sensor integrations for downstream effects on cloud services, storage, analytics, applications, and cost-to-serve.
Reliability Security and Operations:
- Define end-to-end observability and nonfunctional requirements for availability, performance, security, privacy, scalability, recovery, and supportability.
- Partner with Engineering and IT and DevOps on CI/CD, infrastructure as code, release architecture, incident response, disaster recovery, vulnerability remediation, and operational readiness.
- Provide technical leadership during significant incidents and recurring performance or connectivity issues, driving root cause correction and durable improvement.
- Ensure platform designs support applicable validation, data separation, retention, privacy, auditability, and customer contractual requirements.
Technical Leadership:
- Serve as a technical partner to the Software and Cloud leader and as an architecture authority across engineering, product, science, quality, and operations.
- Remain hands-on through backend design and implementation, prototypes, technical investigations, code reviews, and resolution of high risk production issues.
- Translate product intent into technically complete approaches and communicate tradeoffs, risks, costs, and recommendations to technical teams and business leaders.
- Mentor engineers and strengthen architecture capability across employees and partners so knowledge and decision quality do not depend on one person.
- Act as LI-COR's technical counterpart with cloud, data, connectivity, and engineering partners while business leaders retain commercial and contract authority.
General
- Periodic travel to LI-COR locations, partner sites, or team working sessions may be required.
- Other job related duties as assigned.
Skills
As published by greenhouse · 19 questions · 2 written answers
Basics
First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Resume/CV, Cover Letter, Location
Short answers (11)
- LinkedIn Profile optional
- Website optional
- How did you hear about this job?
- We know this is everyone's least favorite question. We value your time and want to ensure we're in the same ballpark by better understanding your compensation expectations. Feel free to provide a specific number or a range.
- Are you 18 years of age or older?
- Have you ever been employed by LI-COR Biosciences? If so, please indicate the dates in which you were employed.
- If yes, please explain. optional
- Are you subject to a non-compete or any other employment agreement? If yes, please explain.
- By typing my name below, I attest that if employed, I agree to conform to the rules and regulations of LI-COR, Inc., and understand that I will be an employee at-will, and my employment may be terminated at any time by me or the Company, with or without notice, for any reason. I understand that only an Officer of the Company has the authority to enter into an agreement for employment for any specified period of time, or to make any agreement contrary to the foregoing, and it must be in writing and signed.
- By typing my name below, I attest that the information I am presenting in this application is complete, true, and correct, to the best of my knowledge. I understand that any falsification, misrepresentation, or omissions could result in the denial of my application, withdrawal of any offer of employment, or immediate discharge.
- By typing my name below, I attest and understand that in connection with the application process, the Company and its representatives may contact my former employers and educational institutions, conduct a background check, may contact references, and other relevant third parties to obtain additional information related to the information given by me in this application. I hereby request, release, and consent to the release and disclosure of such information. I further release and hold harmless the Company, its affiliates, their officers, employees, and agents, and any other third parties inquiring about, investigating, furnishing, communicating, reviewing, or evaluating such information from any and all potential claims, demands, damages, liabilities, and/or actions of any kind arising from such activities, whether known or unknown to me presently, that I may have now or in the future.
Pick from a list (6)
- Do you have at least eight years of hands-on experience designing and implementing production systems in AWS?
- Do you have experience architecting production data flows from edge or connected devices through cloud ingestion, processing, storage, customer applications, and analytics?
- I am able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, all the duties described in the posted position description.
- In compliance with federal law, I understand that if I am hired by LI-COR, I will be required to verify my identity and eligibility to work in the United States.
- Will you now or in the future require LI-COR to sponsor an immigration case in order to employ you (e.g. H-1B, or other employment-based immigration cases)?
- Have you ever been fired or asked to resign from a position?
Written answers (2)
- In three to five sentences, describe a system you architected that moved data from edge or connected devices through cloud services to customer-facing applications or analytics. Include the scale of the system, your role, and one significant technical decision you made.
- Briefly describe a major AWS platform modernization or architectural transformation you led. What problem were you solving, what constraints did you manage, and what result did the work produce?