Job Description

Principal Software Architect

GE Vernova is the leading software provider for the planning and operations of national and regional electricity grids globally. This includes a wide range of software products, from enabling utility grid network design and planning to real-time grid operations to supporting electricity markets. Grid Software (a division of GE Vernova) is driving the vision of GridOS - a portfolio of software running on a common platform to meet the fast-changing needs of the energy industry and support the energy transition. Grid Software has extensive and well-established software stacks that are progressively being ported to a common micro-service architecture, delivering a composable suite of applications. Simultaneously, new software applications are being designed and built on the same common platform to provide innovative solutions that enable our customers to accelerate the energy transition.

Reporting directly to the Senior Director of Engineering for Plan Portfolio, this role is for a highly experienced software architect responsible for collaborating effectively across software portfolio of products that are deployed in field, edge and customer IT/OT environments globally. The role partners closely with lead software architects in field, modeling and geospatial, data and analytics areas in power transmission and distribution domains to ensure secure, performant and composable designs and implementation across the portfolio. This role will facilitate and drive architectural strategy and hands on activities across our GridOS Plan product lines. This individual will lead technical vision and strategy, planning and execution of best practices to drive architectural patterns and Cloud/Hybrid/On-premise deployments to deliver on a modern, scalable and composable micro-service containerized architecture at scale. This role is for a principal architect who understands the core designs, principles and technologies of GridOS.

Key responsibilities include:

• Systems Architecture & Engineering Focus: Hands-on design, technical implementation, and modernizing the application stack.
• Architect Cloud-Native Applications: Design and evolve distributed systems using micro-services, containers, Kubernetes, serverless, and modern DevOps practices.
• Guide Front-End Modernization: Shape UI architecture including micro-front-ends, design systems, and performance optimization for both workstation and mobile interfaces.
• Build Data Product Foundations: Architect data pipelines, data patterns, real-time streaming, and API-driven data services.
• Strategic Leadership & Alignment Focus: Bridging the gap between business objectives and technical roadmaps.
• Partner with Product Leadership: Translate business strategy into scalable technical roadmaps and architectural investments.
• Define and Operationalize SaaS Strategy: Establish patterns for tenant isolation, scalability, observability, and operational excellence.
• Drive AI Integration: Partner with engineering teams to embed AI/Gen AI and intelligent automation.
• Evaluate Emerging Technologies: Assess new cloud, AI, and platform capabilities for innovation.
• Governance and Compliance Focus: Maintaining high standards and managing cross-team workflows.
• Set Enterprise Architecture Standards: Drive consistency through reference architectures, design patterns, and governance.
• Review Architecture and Coordination: Lead architectural review processes and communication for GridOS Plan applications.
• Formalize Data Models and API Standards: Lead the formalization and standardization of data models and API standards to ensure interoperability and efficiency, leveraging industry standards such as the Common Information Model (CIM) where appropriate.
• Champion Security & Compliance: Ensure architectures meet enterprise security, privacy, and regulatory requirements.
• Solution Backlog Planning and Dependency Management: Manage cross-team dependencies regarding architecture standards and deliverables.
• Coaching & Collaborative Culture Focus: Elevating team capability and organizational knowledge sharing.
• Knowledge Transfer and Collaboration: Work with SteerCo and developer teams to establish standard practices for GridOS Plan applications.
• Mentor Senior Architects and Engineers: Provide technical leadership, coaching, and architectural guidance across multiple teams.

Education Qualification Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or "STEM" Majors (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) with 12+ years of software engineering experience with at least 5 years in architectural leadership roles.

Key Knowledge Areas and Expertise:

• Cloud, Infrastructure, & DevOps Expertise in running and orchestrating large-scale production environments. Deep expertise in cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP) and distributed systems. Understanding of Kubernetes, including software development, API aggregation, custom resources, Helm, and manifest standardization. Experience with CI/CD pipelines, DevSecOps practices, and GitOps in IT/OT environments. Proven experience designing SaaS applications at scale (multi-tenant, global, high-availability).
• Software Architecture & Modernization Building, evolving, and maintaining modern application stacks. Mastery of modern application architecture: Micro-services, event-driven systems, API design, micro-front-ends, and DevOps automation. Strong background designing secure, zero-trust system architectures. Deep understanding of methods and strategies for modernizing existing monolith applications into a composable set of API-based micro-services. Experience designing and delivering commercial applications both on-premises and in the cloud. Knowledge of mobile software architecture for field crew operations, offline support, and near real-time operation.
• Data Engineering & Interoperability Data-centric design and industry-standard integration models. Strong understanding of data engineering, data modeling, streaming, and analytics platforms. Understanding of data mesh and data fabric principles, enabling software composability and data-centric design. Expertise in defining and implementing API standards to ensure seamless integration; experience with contract-based development models.
• AI & Strategic Integration Emerging technologies and holistic system design. Strong background in AI/GenAI integration: Including model and agent deployment, inference pipelines, and responsible AI patterns. Experience with the design and delivery of enterprise solutions comprising of multiple integrated applications (customer and third-party).
• Leadership & Communication Focus: Influencing stakeholders and guiding organizational strategy. Experience working directly with customer stakeholders at all levels; ability to generalize requirements into product features. Ability to influence at executive levels and drive cross-organizational alignment. Exceptional communication skills with the ability to simplify complex technical concepts.

Additional Knowledge (Advantageous but not Essential) Energy Industry Technologies and Standards: Familiarity with key technologies specific to the energy industry, such as SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), Geospatial network modeling, etc. Familiarity with key industry standards such as NERC CIP and IEC CIM (International Electrotechnical Commission, Common Information Model). GE Solutions Experience: Experience in GIS, Field, Network Modeling and Power Applications architecture and implementation Experience with large‑scale AI systems, vector databases, LLM orchestration, or retrieval‑augmented generation. Background in enterprise integration patterns, domain‑driven design, and platform engineering.

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