Software Architect - Java/Spring Boot/Kafka

At PNC, our people are our greatest differentiator and competitive advantage in the markets we serve. We are all united in delivering the best experience for our customers. We work together each day to foster an inclusive workplace culture where all of our employees feel respected, valued and have an opportunity to contribute to the company's success.

As a Software Architect within PNC's Lending Technology organization, you will be based in Pittsburgh PA, Dallas TX, Strongsville OH, Birmingham AL, Phoenix AZ, Denver CO or Charlotte NC.

We are seeking an experienced Software Architect with deep expertise in Spring Frameworks, SOAP/REST APIs, J2EE, and Kafka to join our technology organization. The ideal candidate will be responsible for defining end-to-end architecture, guiding solution design, and ensuring delivery of scalable, resilient, and high-performing systems.

This role requires close collaboration with business stakeholders, engineering teams, and enterprise architects to align technology solutions with business goals.

- Define, design, and own solution architectures for complex enterprise applications. - Leverage Spring (Spring Boot, Spring Batch), SOAP/REST APIs, J2EE, and Kafka to build highly scalable and distributed solutions. - Establish patterns, frameworks, and best practices for system design and integration.

- Guide engineering teams on design decisions, code quality, and architectural compliance. - Lead proof-of-concepts (POCs) to evaluate new technologies, tools, and frameworks. - Evaluating vendor products and executing/leading integration with in-house products/applications. - Provide thought leadership in microservices, event-driven architectures, and API-driven integration.

- Partner with business stakeholders, product owners, and delivery teams to translate requirements into technical solutions. - Work with enterprise architects to ensure alignment with enterprise strategy, standards, security frameworks and reference architectures.

- Review solution designs and code to ensure alignment with security, scalability, and performance standards. - Support project planning, estimation, and roadmap development. - Ensure systems are compliant with regulatory and organizational requirements.

- Strong expertise in Java/J2EE and Spring Framework (Spring Boot, Security, Data, etc.). - Hands-on experience with Kafka for building real-time streaming and event-driven architectures. - 10+ years of IT experience with at least 3+ years as a Solution or Software Architect. - Solid understanding of microservices architecture, RESTful APIs, messaging systems, and integration patterns. - Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes). - Strong background in scalability, performance engineering, and security best practices. - Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders. - Experience with DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines. - Familiarity with NoSQL and relational databases (Cassandra, MongoDB, Oracle, PostgreSQL, etc.). - Knowledge of data streaming, real-time processing frameworks, and observability tools. - Leads in the overall design of cross-functional, multi-platform, and Web-based application systems; oversees all application system processes. - Develops application architecture and blueprints aimed at reflecting enterprise business logic. - Defines application components, platforms, interfaces, and development tools.

Directs mapping activities on specific technology platforms. - Provides technical guidance to application development teams. Consults on integration and conversion activities. - Conducts reviews, and analyses organizational needs and goals to develop and implement applications.

Preferred Skills Apache Kafka, Competitive Advantages, Customer Solutions, Design, Enterprise Architecture Framework, Enterprise IT Architecture, Java Enterprise Architecture, Machine Learning (ML), Risk Assessments, Spring Boot, Technical Knowledge

Competencies Analytical Thinking, Application Development Tools, Industry Knowledge, IT Architecture, Platform Architecture, Products and Services, Service Oriented Architecture Technologies, Software Process Improvement (SPI)

Work Experience Roles at this level typically require a university / college degree, with 5+ years of industry-relevant experience. Specific certifications are often required. In lieu of a degree, a comparable combination of education, job specific certification(s), and experience (including military service) may be considered.

Generally, this opening is expected to be posted for two business days from 07/20/2026, although it may be longer with business discretion.