Description

The Principal Architect in the AWS Design Engineering organization has the ability to understand the customer demand as well as the technology & business opportunities that exist in order to lead the organization forward. You understand key problems, and propose and analyze multiple solutions to produce the most efficient, cost effective, resilient, and scalable architectural designs achievable.

The Principal Architect provides the global vision, rationale, and recommendations to leadership teams for challenging technical issues related to data center architectural design, while working on continually improvement of data center designs.

As a Principal Architect, you are a leader and visionary in your field, collaborating with and leading the work of cross-functional teams including: technical program management, product management, structural engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, supply chain management, operations, safety, security, finance, and legal. You will participate in external forums/consortiums to understand current trends and developments within the industry. You will be a leader for global architectural strategy and development. This role will communicate the technical decisions we make to Senior Management and will drive continuous improvements with our designs.

Key job responsibilities

Amazon's vision is to be the world's most customer-centric company, and this role is key to that vision. As a Principal Architect, you will be leading projects to ever-evolving customer needs for the continual development and innovation of AWS’ data center designs. As an ideal candidate:

• You understand the key aspects of legacy and modern data center architectural systems and how to incorporate new innovations.

• You are able to identify and solve technical challenges independently, while leading a collaborative team.

• You are responsible for continual improvement of internal design team standards and quality assurance

• Working with a team of architects and engineers, you are responsible for technical updates to our global data center basis of design & project specifications to drive standardization in the data center architectural performance.

• You lead projects with widespread impact on infrastructure design, innovation and implementation.

• You are responsible for solving technical challenges related to incorporating innovation into architectural design of data centers.

• You demonstrate ability to review business cases and analysis models including total cost of ownership and return on investment to select projects and designs.

• You decompose complex problems or new technologies or topologies to distill underlying risks and benefits, and identify straightforward and actionable solutions to reduce risk.

• You actively and aggressively grow and coach the engineering/architecture team through group forums and one-on-one coaching and mentoring to ensure development and promotion of the top engineers/architects in the Design Engineering organization.

• You work independently and have frequent reviews with business leadership, other Principal Engineers and Sr Engineers across AWS.

• You understand which architectural escalations to resolve independently, and actively facilitate the escalation of high-impact issues to senior engineering and business leadership.

We are open to hiring candidates to work out of one of the following locations:

Austin, TX, USA | Columbus, OH, USA | Herndon, VA, USA | Seattle, WA, USA

Basic Qualifications

• Accredited 5-Year Bachelor of Architecture degree.

• Architecture license recognized by National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).

• 15+ years of experience with architectural design/remediation of new/existing industrial or commercial or other complex technical projects.

• 7+ years of experience with architectural design of data centers or similar mission critical projects.

• 3+ years of experience leading multi-disciplinary product development and data analysis.

• Proficiency in industry standards, environmental codes, building codes, regulations, safety guidelines and standards including International Building Code (IBC), International Fire Code (IFC), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and Unified Facility Criteria (UFC) or equivalent.

• Experience reading, interpreting, and creating construction architectural drawings, specifications, and submittal documents.

• Ability and willingness to travel internationally/domestically.

Preferred Qualifications

• 15+ years of relevant architectural new design and remediation experience with mission critical facilities or complex technical infrastructure projects.

• Experience designing projects to comply with Intelligence Community Directive (ICD)/Intelligence Community Standard (ICS) 705 accreditation requirements.

• Direct experience with construction, operation, and maintenance of mission critical facilities, especially data centers.

• Fluent working proficiency with AutoCAD, Revit, Bluebeam, Navisworks, MS Office Suite, SharePoint, and Procore.

• Direct experience in negotiating with regulatory agencies regarding departures from building code.

• Knowledge of building codes and regulations in multiple international/geographical regions.

• Secondary understanding of uninterruptible power supplies, diesel generators, electrical switchgear, power distribution, chillers, direct and indirect evaporative cooling, and acoustics.

• Experience in vendor and consultant management.

• Experience as resident engineer or hands-on (in the field) design consultant.

• Experience mentoring/training the engineering community on complex technical issues.

• Possess excellent communication skills, attention to detail, and maintain high quality standards.

• Experience researching new designs, technologies, and construction methods of data center equipment and facilities, and carrying these into deployment.

• Developing advanced concepts from due diligence through design development, permitting, construction and turnover.

• Ability and willingness to think outside of the box to find creative and innovative solutions to reduce costs while managing impact to quality, cost, and schedule.

• Meets/exceeds Amazon’s leadership principles requirements for this role.

• Meets/exceeds Amazon’s functional/technical depth and complexity for this role.

Amazon is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/disability/us.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $146,300/year in our lowest geographic market up to $252,900/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, please visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits. This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.