Principal Software Architect (Graph Architect)

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Software Architect to provide technical leadership and architectural direction across complex, high-scale software and data platforms. This role will have a particular focus on Identity Resolution, including the design of systems that accurately identify, match, link, and resolve individuals, households, organizations, devices, and other entities across large and diverse datasets. In addition to Identity Resolution, the Principal Software Architect will be responsible for designing scalable enterprise applications, distributed systems, large-scale data-processing platforms, and low-latency APIs and services. The ideal candidate will have deep, hands-on expertise across Java, Python, Scala, Apache Spark, and SQL, with strong experience designing systems on AWS, Snowflake, and Databricks. This is a senior technical leadership role requiring the ability to define architectural direction, evaluate technology choices, solve complex engineering challenges, and work closely with engineering teams to ensure solutions are scalable, reliable, secure, maintainable, and performant. Key Responsibilities Define and drive the architecture for enterprise-scale Identity Resolution platforms and services. Design systems for deterministic and probabilistic identity matching, entity resolution, identity graphs, record linkage, deduplication, and identity consolidation. Develop architectures capable of resolving identities across large, diverse, and rapidly changing datasets. Design solutions supporting both real-time and batch Identity Resolution use cases. Define strategies for identity matching, confidence scoring, survivorship, source prioritization, identity linking, and identity lifecycle management. Design and optimize low-latency APIs and services capable of supporting high-throughput, highly available production workloads. Architect distributed applications and services using Java, Python, and Scala, selecting the appropriate language and framework based on workload and system requirements. Design high-scale data-processing pipelines and platforms using Apache Spark, including Spark workloads implemented in Scala and Python. Design and optimize data solutions using Snowflake and Databricks for large-scale analytical and operational workloads. Design highly efficient data models and SQL-based solutions supporting transactional, analytical, and Identity Resolution workloads. Define appropriate caching, concurrency, partitioning, indexing, persistence, and data-access strategies to meet stringent performance and latency requirements. Define cloud-native architectures using AWS and modern distributed computing patterns. Design integration patterns between AWS, Snowflake, Databricks, internal applications, APIs, and external data providers. Evaluate technologies, frameworks, databases, processing engines, and architectural approaches based on performance, scalability, reliability, cost, and operational complexity. Establish standards and best practices for application architecture, API design, data architecture, distributed processing, security, observability, testing, and software development. Partner closely with engineering teams to translate architectural designs into practical, scalable, and maintainable implementations. Provide technical direction during the development of complex systems and assist engineering teams in resolving difficult performance, scalability, and design challenges. Conduct architecture and design reviews to ensure systems align with established technical standards and long-term platform strategy. Identify performance bottlenecks and guide teams in optimizing APIs, applications, Spark workloads, SQL queries, and distributed-processing systems. Define architectural approaches for resiliency, fault tolerance, high availability, disaster recovery, and operational monitoring. Collaborate with engineering, data engineering, product, security, infrastructure, and business stakeholders to translate complex requirements into effective technical solutions. Mentor senior engineers, technical leads, and architects and help develop architectural capabilities across the engineering organization. Stay current with evolving technologies and industry practices related to Identity Resolution, distributed systems, cloud computing, data platforms, and software architecture. Identity Resolution Expertise The Principal Software Architect should have significant experience designing or working with Identity Resolution, Entity Resolution, Customer 360, Master Data Management, identity graph, or similar large-scale matching systems. Strong candidates should understand concepts such as: Deterministic and probabilistic matching Exact and fuzzy matching techniques Entity and record linkage Identity graphs and relationship modeling Identity stitching and consolidation Match confidence and scoring Attribute normalization and standardization Duplicate detection and resolution Survivorship and golden-record strategies Source reliability and attribute precedence Real-time versus batch identity resolution Incremental identity processing Large-scale identity datasets Data quality and identity accuracy measurement Privacy, security, and governance considerations associated with identity data Required Qualifications 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant experience designing complex enterprise software systems. Proven experience serving as an Architect, Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, or equivalent senior technical leader. Deep experience designing and implementing Identity Resolution, Entity Resolution, identity graph, Customer 360, Master Data Management, or similar systems. Strong expertise in Java, including enterprise application development, high-performance services, concurrency, and distributed application design. Strong expertise in Python, including application development, data processing, automation, APIs, and distributed data workloads. Strong expertise in Scala, particularly for distributed systems and large-scale data-processing applications. Deep experience with Apache Spark, including architecture, optimization, partitioning, distributed execution, performance tuning, and large-scale processing. Advanced proficiency in SQL, including complex queries, relational data modeling, query optimization, and performance tuning. Demonstrated ability to select appropriately between Java, Python, Scala, Spark, and SQL based on performance, scalability, maintainability, and workload requirements. Strong experience designing REST APIs, microservices, distributed applications, and high-throughput backend services. Demonstrated experience designing and optimizing low-latency and low-latency APIs. Strong understanding of distributed systems concepts, including concurrency, caching, partitioning, consistency, resiliency, scalability, and fault tolerance. Extensive experience with AWS and cloud-native application architecture. Strong experience with Snowflake, including data modeling, performance optimization, security, data sharing, and large-scale data-processing patterns. Strong experience with Databricks, including Spark-based processing, distributed data engineering, optimization, and production workload management. Experience designing systems that span application, API, distributed-processing, data, and cloud infrastructure layers. Strong understanding of software engineering principles, design patterns, API design, data structures, algorithms, and application performance. Experience with modern CI/CD practices, automated testing, source control, and production software delivery. Strong understanding of security, privacy, authentication, authorization, encryption, and data-protection practices. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to diagnose complex architectural and performance problems. Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Preferred Qualifications Experience architecting large scale Identity Resolution platforms. Experience designing Identity Resolution systems that support both high-volume batch processing and real-time API-based resolution. Experience designing and optimizing large-scale Spark applications using both Scala and Python. Experience with graph databases or graph-oriented data models. Experience with probabilistic matching algorithms, machine learning-based matching, or advanced entity-resolution techniques. Experience designing APIs with stringent latency, throughput, and availability requirements. Experience with event-driven and streaming architectures. Experience with containerized workloads using Docker and Kubernetes. Experience with infrastructure-as-code technologies such as Terraform or CloudFormation. Experience designing multi-region or highly available cloud architectures. Experience establishing enterprise architecture standards and technical governance. Experience modernizing legacy applications and data platforms. Experience working with large-scale consumer, marketing, advertising, financial, or customer identity datasets. Core Technical Skills Languages & Data Processing Java Python Scala Apache Spark SQL Platforms AWS Databricks Snowflake Architecture Identity Resolution / Entity Resolution Distributed Systems Low-Latency APIs Microservices Enterprise Application Architecture Large-Scale Data Processing Cloud-Native Architecture Real-Time and Batch Processing Education Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience. Advanced technical education is a plus. Primary Location City/State: Homebased - Conway, Arkansas Additional Locations (if applicable): Acxiom is an equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veteran status (EOE/Vet/Disabled) and does not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training, promotion or other employment of associates or the awarding of subcontracts because of a person's race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, protected veteran, military status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetics or other protected status. Attention California Applicants: Please see our CCPA/CPRA Privacy Act notice here. Attention Colorado, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York City, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington Applicants: This position is not located in the aforementioned locations but applications for remote work may be considered. For information about this role under state or local equal pay or pay transparency laws, please contact compensation@acxiom.com. We are leaders in helping brands achieve the number one mantra for every business – know your customer. For fifty years, we’ve helped marketers deal with a fast-changing future of growing channels, data and technology. By understanding the customer, marketers can communicate with relevance everywhere and drive better customer experiences that build a better brand and, in turn, better business. We’re one of the marketing industry’s most experienced, respected and forward-thinking leaders. For nearly fifty years, we’ve helped the world’s best marketers understand their customers so that they can reach people with relevance rather than randomness. Our products and solutions form the data foundation that make it possible for marketers to drive better customer experiences and meaningful interactions at scale across every channel. Our job opportunities will give you the opportunity to showcase your talents, grow your skills, and expose you to cutting-edge technologies, whether you’re an engineer, developer, products guru, systems and security expert, sales and consulting executive, or an intern looking to gain real experience with a company that will make you stand out. At Acxiom, our values begin with our associates, who are the single most important driver of our success. We’re looking to hire people who share our core values: collaboration, excellence, innovation, a focus on outcomes, and being empowered to make and own decisions that benefit our clients and our company. Our values represent our brand promise – to our clients and to our associates – and define our company culture. If you are interested in applying for employment with Acxiom and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply for a posted position, contact our recruiting department at 1-877-314-2049. 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