Lead Application & Product Architect, Tax

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting is seeking a Lead Application & Product Architect to modernize core Tax platforms and services. This role involves defining and driving product and platform architecture, focusing on event-driven and workflow-orchestrated designs using Confluent Kafka and Temporal. The architect will also guide .NET application code, lead modernization efforts, ensure security compliance, and provide technical leadership and coaching to engineering teams. The position requires deep technical expertise and the ability to influence senior leadership.

Must Have

• Define and drive product and platform architecture for Tax services.
• Focus on event-driven and workflow-orchestrated designs (Temporal) and streaming (Confluent Kafka).
• Review and guide .NET application code and solution designs (.NET 6/8, ASP.NET Core).
• Own high-risk technical spikes and POCs, using VS Code and GitHub Copilot.
• Lead migration/modernization efforts (modularization, API first, messaging, caching strategies).
• Collaborate with Platform Engineering to onboard domains to Confluent Cloud.
• Ensure threat modeling and Security Review / SRTM artifacts are produced and signed off.
• Translate complex design tradeoffs into concise executive communication.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent work experience.
• 10+ years in software engineering with 5+ years in architecture for SaaS products.
• Strong hands-on depth with .NET (C#, ASP.NET Core, API design), code review, refactoring, and performance profiling.
• Proven delivery of modernization programs (monolith to modular/microservices, event driven patterns, API first, cloud native).
• Practical experience with Kafka (Confluent preferred).
• Practical experience with Temporal (or equivalent workflow engines).
• Fluency with VS Code and GitHub Copilot.
• Expertise in architecture qualities/NFRs and observability.
• Excellent written & verbal communication.

Good to Have

• Experience in Tax or adjacent accounting domains.
• Familiarity with compliance, data lineage, and auditability concerns.
• Hands-on with cloud services (Azure/AWS), container platforms, CI/CD, IaC, secrets/identity, and API gateways.
• Experience leading ARC/ARB reviews and promoting reusable assets.
• Familiarity with application security practices (OWASP, STRIDE, SAST/DAST).

Perks & Benefits

• Medical, Dental, & Vision Plans
• 401(k)
• FSA/HSA
• Commuter Benefits
• Tuition Assistance Plan
• Vacation and Sick Time
• Paid Parental Leave
• Bonus eligibility

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting creates solutions to optimize your entire firm with industry-leading integration and innovations to transform your tax, accounting, audit, firm operations, and research workflows.

We’re modernizing core Tax platforms and services to a resilient, event driven architecture with Confluent Kafka and Temporal workflows, while evolving legacy .NET codebases to current standards.

As the Lead Application & Product Architect, Tax, you will be the technical bar raiser who can deep dive into code with engineers and influence senior leadership with crisp architectural narratives.

In this role, you will report to the Principal Application & Product Architect; and work a hybrid schedule (2 days in office, 3 days at home) from our Coppell, TX office.

Key Responsibilities:

Architecture & Delivery

• Define and drive product and platform architecture for Tax services, with a focus on event driven and workflow orchestrated designs (Temporal) and streaming (Confluent Kafka). Lead decisions on patterns, integration contracts, data models, resiliency, and observability.
• Review and guide .NET application code and solution designs (.NET 6/8, ASP.NET Core), elevating code quality, testability, security posture, and performance. Partner with teams on upgrade roadmaps and dependency hygiene.
• Own high risk technical spikes and POCs; rapidly validate approaches using VS Code and GitHub Copilot to accelerate engineering feedback loops.
• Provide clear decision records (ADRs) and architectural documentation, and lead design reviews per Architecture CoE policies, champion reuse where practical.

Modernization & Platform Adoption

• Lead migration/modernization efforts (modularization, API first, messaging, caching strategies), aligning with the TAA modernization milestones (Temporal orchestration, Kafka onboarding) and platform guardrails.
• Collaborate with Platform Engineering to onboard domains to Confluent Cloud; set partitioning, schema strategy, consumer group patterns, and SLAs. Guide performance testing and tuning practices.

Security, Risk & Governance

• Ensure threat modeling and Security Review / SRTM artifacts are produced and signed off; partner with Security Champions and AppSec CoE to meet standards.

Leadership & Communication

• Translate complex design tradeoffs into concise executive communication and product decisioning. Coach squads and tech leads; elevate design maturity across teams via templates, patterns, and learning sessions.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, or equivalent work experience.
• 10+ years in software engineering with 5+ years in architecture for SaaS products; prior lead/principal scope in complex distributed systems. (Leveling guidance aligned to lead architect baseline.)
• Strong hands-on depth with .NET (C#, ASP.NET Core, API design), code review, refactoring, and performance profiling.
• Proven delivery of modernization programs (monolith to modular/microservices, event driven patterns, API first, cloud native).
• Practical experience with Kafka (Confluent preferred): topics, partitions, consumer groups, schema registry, connectors, and end to end performance testing/tuning.
• Practical experience with Temporal (or equivalent workflow engines) for long running orchestrations and reliability patterns.
• Fluency with VS Code and GitHub Copilot to accelerate POCs, scaffolding, and code reviews.
• Expertise in architecture qualities/NFRs (availability, scalability, security, resilience, cost) and observability.
• Excellent written & verbal communication—able to dive deep with engineers and rise above for leadership alignment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in Tax or adjacent accounting domains; familiarity with compliance, data lineage, and auditability concerns reflected in TAA programs.
• Hands on with cloud services (Azure/AWS), container platforms, CI/CD, IaC, secrets/identity, and API gateways.
• Experience leading ARC/ARB reviews and promoting reusable assets per Architecture CoE.
• Familiarity with application security practices (OWASP, STRIDE, SAST/DAST), and our internal SRTM/reporting requirements.

Our Interview Practices

To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we’re getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process.

Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process.

Additional Information:

Wolters Kluwer offers a wide variety of competitive benefits and programs to help meet your needs and balance your work and personal life, including but not limited to: Medical, Dental, & Vision Plans, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Commuter Benefits, Tuition Assistance Plan, Vacation and Sick Time, and Paid Parental Leave. Full details of our benefits are available upon request.