Senior Integration Architect (Data & APIs)

About this role

Our vision for the future is based on the idea that transforming financial lives starts by giving our people the freedom to transform their own. We have a flexible work environment, and fluid career paths. We not only encourage but celebrate internal mobility. We also recognize the importance of purpose, well-being, and work-life balance. Within Empower and our communities, we work hard to create a welcoming and inclusive environment, and our associates dedicate thousands of hours to volunteering for causes that matter most to them.
Chart your own path and grow your career while helping more customers achieve financial freedom. Empower Yourself.
***Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time, including CPT/OPT.***

The Senior Integration Architect (Data & APIs) will serve as a strategic leader and hands-on technical expert responsible for designing and evolving enterprise integration architecture at Empower. Partnering with enterprise architects, application teams, and business leaders, this role will define API-first and event-driven architectures that enable real-time, reliable, and scalable system communication. This position will drive standardized integration patterns, lead modernization efforts across legacy and modern platforms, influence key architectural decisions, and mentor engineering teams to promote secure, resilient, and loosely coupled systems.

What you will do:

• Design and implement API-first and event-driven architectures that enable scalable, real-time system communication.

• Architect integration patterns, including RESTful and gRPC APIs, asynchronous messaging, and event-driven workflows across distributed systems.

• Define and enforce data contracts, schemas, and interface standards to ensure consistent and reliable data exchange across domains.

• Design resilient distributed systems that address duplicate processing, retries, replays, and fault tolerance.

• Lead modernization of legacy integrations by reducing point-to-point dependencies and enabling loosely coupled architectures.

• Establish best practices for API lifecycle management, including versioning, documentation, security, and governance.

• Provide architectural leadership through design reviews, mentoring, and cross-team collaboration to drive consistent adoption of integration patterns.

What you will bring:

• Bachelor's and/or master's degree in computer science or a related field, such as information systems, mathematics, or software engineering.

• Experience designing and implementing scalable integration solutions across distributed systems.

• Strong understanding of API-based system design and modern integration approaches, including synchronous and asynchronous patterns.

• Familiarity with event-driven architectures and messaging concepts in real-world applications.

• Experience defining and managing interfaces or data exchange patterns across systems.

• Understanding of distributed system reliability, including failure handling, retries, and duplicate processing.

• Experience working with legacy and modern systems in complex enterprise environments.

• Proficiency in backend or service-based development using Java, Python, or similar programming languages.

What will set you apart:

• Experience with API management platforms or gateways, such as Apigee, Kong, AWS API Gateway, or Azure API Management.

• Hands-on experience with messaging or streaming platforms, such as Kafka, Kinesis, or Pub/Sub.

• Familiarity with domain-driven design concepts, including bounded contexts and service boundaries.

• Experience with contract-first APIs or schema-driven development approaches.

• Exposure to cloud-native architectures and distributed system patterns in AWS, Azure, or GCP.

• Experience participating in architecture governance processes, including design reviews, reference architectures, and architecture decision records (ADRs).

• Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate or Professional).

This job operates in a professional office environment.

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications of the job. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. You will be evaluated in part based on your performance of the responsibilities and/or tasks listed in this job description. You may be required to perform other duties that are not included on this job description. The job description is not a contract for employment, and either you or the employer may terminate employment at any time, for any reason, as per terms and conditions of your employment contract.
What we offer you
We offer an array of diverse and inclusive benefits regardless of where you are in your career. We believe that providing our employees with the means to lead healthy balanced lives results in the best possible work performance.

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance

• Retirement savings – 401(k) plan with generous company matching contributions (up to 6%), financial advisory services, potential company discretionary contribution, and a broad investment lineup

• Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year

• Business-casual environment that includes the option to wear jeans

• Generous paid time off upon hire – including a paid time off program plus ten paid company holidays and three floating holidays each calendar year

• Paid volunteer time — 16 hours per calendar year

• Leave of absence programs – including paid parental leave, paid short- and long-term disability, and Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)

• Business Resource Groups (BRGs) – BRGs facilitate inclusion and collaboration across our business internally and throughout the communities where we live, work and play. BRGs are open to all.

Base Salary Range
$114,000.00 - $165,300.00The salary range above shows the typical minimum…