Principal Architect

Powering the world's payments ecosystem

ACI powers the payments ecosystem - globally, and you power ACI. You'll innovate, collaborate, and grow - in an energetic technology culture with decades of proven success. ACIers - in all roles and levels - are truly your colleagues and many are your friends. Our size and reach allow you to see the global impact of your work. You are visible, your talents are valued, and you are empowered to shape the future of payments.

As a Principal Architectin Pune, you will join a diverse, passionate team, dedicated to powering the world's payments ecosystem!

About the Role

ACI Worldwide is seeking an exceptional Principal Architect to provide technical vision and leadership for our next-generation cloud-native payment platform. As our most senior technical leader, you'll shape the architecture of systems that process trillions of dollars annually, working directly with executive leadership to align technology strategy with business objectives.

This is a highly visible role where you'll tackle our most complex technical challenges, drive innovation across multiple products, and mentor our architecture community. You'll be responsible for setting architectural direction for AWS-based solutions spanning real-time payment processing and large-scale batch operations, ensuring ACI remains at the forefront of payment technology.

What You'll Do

Strategic Technical Leadership

Define and communicate the long-term technical vision for ACI's cloud-native payment platform

Lead architecture initiatives across multiple product lines and engineering teams

Solve the organization's most complex technical challenges requiring innovative approaches

Influence product strategy and roadmap through architectural insights and technical expertise

Partner with executive leadership and Chief Architects on enterprise architecture direction

Architecture & Innovation

Architect large-scale, mission-critical systems on AWS handling billions of transactions

Drive adoption of cutting-edge technologies and architectural patterns across the organization

Establish architectural standards for Java Spring Boot microservices, APIs, and cloud-native patterns

Design solutions that balance innovation, security, compliance, performance, and cost

Work directly with customers on innovative solutions and emerging payment technologies

Leadership & Influence

Mentor and develop Principal, Senior, and Staff Architects across the organization

Lead architectural reviews and provide authoritative guidance on critical technical decisions

Build alignment across architecture and engineering communities on strategic initiatives

Represent ACI's technical capabilities with customers, partners, and industry forums

Foster a culture of engineering excellence, innovation, and continuous learning

What You Bring

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related fieldMaster's or PhD preferred

15+ years of software architecture and development experience

Proven track record as Principal/Chief Architect or equivalent at enterprise scale

World-class expertise in AWS cloud architecture and services

Deep experience with Java, Spring Boot, and modern enterprise application frameworks

Expert knowledge of distributed systems, microservices, and event-driven architectures

Demonstrated ability to architect systems processing extremely high transaction volumes

Experience with both real-time processing and batch processing at massive scale

Outstanding communication skills with proven ability to influence at all organizational levels

Track record of driving technical strategy and delivering transformational architecture

Preferred Qualifications

Deep experience in payments, financial services, or mission-critical systems

Advanced AWS certifications (Solutions Architect Professional, Security Specialty, etc.)

Experience with event streaming platforms (Kafka, Kinesis) and real-time analytics

Knowledge of payment industry standards (ISO 20022, PCI-DSS, PSD2, EMV, etc.)

Experience architecting for regulatory compliance and security in financial services

Published thought leadership (speaking, writing, patents) in relevant technical domains

Experience with multi-region, multi-cloud, and hybrid cloud architectures

Background in performance engineering and capacity planning at massive scale

Why ACI Worldwide

ACI Worldwide powers electronic payments for more than 6,000 organizations around the world. Our proven, secure platform processes and manages digital payments across any channel, and we innovate constantly to help our customers stay ahead. As a Principal Architect, you'll have the opportunity to work on some of the most challenging and impactful technical problems in the payments industry.

In return for your expertise, we offer opportunities for growth, career development, and a competitive compensation and benefits package-all within an innovative and collaborative work environment.

Are you ready to help us transform the payments ecosystem To learn more about ACI Worldwide, visit our web site at

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