Principal Enterprise Architect

At Disney, we’re storytellers. We make the impossible, possible. The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) is a world-class entertainment and technological leader. Walt’s passion was to continuously envision new ways to move audiences around the world—a passion that remains our touchstone in an enterprise that stretches from theme parks, resorts and a cruise line to sports, news, movies and a variety of other businesses. Uniting each endeavor is a commitment to creating and delivering unforgettable experiences — and we’re constantly looking for new ways to enhance these exciting experiences.

At Disney Experiences Technology, our team creates world-class immersive digital experiences for the Company’s premier vacation brands including Disney’s Parks & Resorts worldwide, Disney Cruise Line, Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa, and Disney Vacation Club.

We are seeking a Principal Enterprise Architect to lead through influence — shaping strategy, driving enterprise alignment, and guiding our most critical technology initiatives across the Commerce, Ticketing, and Guest Experience domains.

This is not an ivory-tower role. Our Principal Architects work shoulder-to-shoulder with business leaders, solution teams, and technologists to connect strategy with execution. The ideal candidate blends executive presence, architectural depth, and collaboration mastery, inspiring teams to deliver technology that scales the Disney magic globally.

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What You Will Do

• Lead Through Influence: Operate as a senior advisor and strategic influencer to executives and domain leaders, helping align technology investments with business outcomes.
• Advance Repository Practices: Ensure architectural metadata and taxonomy integrity within the BlueDolphin repository, enabling enterprise transparency and decision support.
• Foster Collaboration: Build partnerships with Product, Engineering, Operations, and Security teams to co-own outcomes, not dictate them.
• Mentor and Inspire: Coach solution architects across federated business domains to raise the bar on architecture quality, reusability, and scalability.
• Communication and Influence: Translate architectural strategy into compelling business narratives that resonate with executive audiences and technical teams alike.
• Champion Modernization and Platform Thinking: Lead initiatives that simplify, modernize, and integrate platforms across Commerce, Payments, Ticketing, and Entitlements.
• Balance Short-Term Delivery with Long-Term Strategy: Facilitate informed trade-offs, track technical debt decisions, and ensure alignment with enterprise objectives.

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What We’re Looking For:

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or related field required.
• 10+ years of increasing levels of responsibility in architecture-oriented roles.
• 5+ years of experience as an Enterprise Architect
• 8+ years of Software Engineering experience across multiple languages, both front-end and back-end.
• Expertise with enterprise architecture repository tools (e.g., tools similar to BlueDolphin or LeanIX)
• Strong leadership experience mentoring architecture teams
• Proven ability to influence without authority across technical and business domains
• Experience defining and applying metadata models, taxonomy relationships, and governance
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-domain architectural initiatives and guide decision processes
• Understanding of both front-end and back-end technologies
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical decisions to business stakeholders
• Deep understanding of governance frameworks (TOGAF or similar) and experience if Architecture Review Board both reviewing and presenting
• Experience developing and managing architecture taxonomies, patterns, and standards.
• Proven ability to align architecture with strategic objectives, OKRs, and scorecards.
• Hands-on familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), API-led integration, security-by-design, and data architecture principles.
• Experience integrating emerging platforms or modernizing legacy systems at scale.
• Evaluate emerging technologies within your area of expertise to guide strategic recommendations. ⠀
• Shape scalable architectures and support planning for complex enterprise projects.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to define requirements and influence technical direction.

Core Leadership Capabilities

• Demonstrate executive presence: can influence VP and SVP level leaders without authority.
• Proven collaboration leader who mobilizes teams across organizational boundaries.
• Skilled storyteller who can articulate the “why” behind architectural direction in simple, business-relevant terms.
• Diplomatic and pragmatic — a trusted advisor who aligns people as effectively as systems. ⠀

Business and Cultural Alignment

• Thrives in a federated, creative, and high-visibility environment, where technology enables storytelling and guest experience.
• Comfortable operating in matrixed organizations and partnering with multiple business units.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills — clear, concise, and outcome-oriented.

Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in an organization architecturally supporting commerce, payments, ticketing, or entitlements domains
• Advanced degree in Computer Science or similar (MBA, MS) preferred.
• Experience delivering architecture in platform-oriented and product-led organizations
• Background in API design and messaging standards
• Knowledge of security-by-design principles and secure architecture practices
• Experience integrating SaaS solutions and working with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Familiarity with architecture maturity models and scorecards
• Certifications such as TOGAF, ArchiMate, or equivalent enterprise architecture frameworks are desirable.
• 8+ years of experience working with cloud vendors
• 8+ years of experience with databases (relational and non-relational)
• Experience with SaaS vendor implementations
• Experience with messaging patterns and API design best practices
• Experience implementing security best practices and security-by-design

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The Ideal Candidate

A Principal Enterprise Architect at Disney Experiences:

• Thinks strategically like an executive and acts pragmatically like a builder.
• Is as comfortable on stage presenting to VPs as in workshops with engineers.
• Believes architecture is a team sport — driven by collaboration, context, and clarity.
• Measures success not by control, but by influence and adoption.