Principal Software Architect

Location: Schaumburg (currently hybrid with up to 50% remote)

Your mission in the Architecture team:

TouchTunes is seeking a Principal Software Architect to operate at a senior level of architectural leadership across the organization. This role reports to the Chief Architect and works in close partnership with technology leadership.

The Principal Software Architect is responsible for guiding architectural direction across backend, frontend, mobile, and data systems. A core enabler of this role is to institutionalize the disciplined use of AI across the software development lifecycle and operational aspects.

This is an enterprise-level architecture role with broad authority and long-term impact.

The mission of this role is to strengthen architectural coherence across the platform while embedding AI as a systemic enabler of engineering excellence.

The primary focus is not building isolated AI features, but redefining how software is designed, implemented, tested, deployed, and monitored through the effective use of AI-assisted tooling.

This includes:

• Establishing standards for AI-assisted development across the full stack.
• Integrating AI into workflows from UI development to backend implementation.
• Elevating testing, validation, and quality practices through AI augmentation.
• Leveraging AI in monitoring, observability, and operational analysis
• Ensuring AI adoption improves across all aspects of engineering discipline

This role is focused on production systems, measurable outcomes, and sustainable engineering practices.

Your day-to-day:

Enterprise Architecture Leadership

• Provide architectural direction across backend services, APIs, data systems, mobile applications, and web platforms.
• Establish and uphold architectural standards that ensure system coherence, scalability, and long-term maintainability.
• Guide major technical decisions and platform evolution efforts across multiple engineering domains.

AI-Enabled Engineering Transformation
Own and institutionalize the use of AI-assisted tooling across engineering teams.

Define and drive standards for incorporating AI into:

• UI design and implementation acceleration across front-end consumer apps and website
• Backend feature development
• Refactoring and code modernization
• Test generation, edge-case expansion, and regression analysis
• Static analysis and architectural review augmentation
• Documentation and knowledge capture
• Observability, monitoring analysis, and incident diagnostics
• Establish governance, guardrails, and evaluation mechanisms to ensure AI improves productivity, quality, and reliability without compromising security or architectural integrity.
• Ensure AI usage is systematic, measurable, and aligned with long-term platform strategy.

Platform & Operational Integration

• Ensure AI tooling and workflows integrate cleanly with CI/CD systems, code review processes, testing frameworks, and monitoring platforms.
• Align AI-enabled practices with data governance, privacy requirements, and operational constraints.
• Define architectural principles that prevent fragmentation or uncontrolled experimentation in AI adoption.

Technical Authority

• Operate at the Principal level as an enterprise architectural authority.
• Influence and align architectural decisions across backend, frontend, mobile, data, and platform domains.
• Mentor senior engineers and architects in applying AI effectively within disciplined architectural boundaries.
• Participate in long-term technical planning with technology leadership.
• This role carries decision-making authority over cross-stack architectural standards related to AI-enabled engineering practices.

Your profile:

• Extensive experience operating at Staff or Principal Architect level in complex distributed systems.
• Proven experience designing and evolving large-scale backend and application architectures.
• Demonstrated experience applying AI or LLM-based tools within real engineering workflows.
• Strong understanding of the full software development lifecycle across frontend, backend, and mobile systems.
• Experience improving engineering effectiveness at an organizational level.
• Proven ability to influence senior engineering leadership

Even better if you have:

• Experience integrating AI tooling into CI/CD and developer workflows.
• Experience using LLMs for code generation, test augmentation, or analysis at scale.
• Exposure to observability platforms and production diagnostics.
• Experience in high-traffic consumer or real-world deployed systems.

Your profile:

What’s in it for you:

At TouchTunes, your work impacts our customers as part of interesting projects that transform the in-venue entertainment industry. We foster open communication and collaboration across all levels, with approachable leaders that value all voices and empower you to excel and innovate. Our team thrives in an environment where fun meets hard work, and everyone is encouraged to be their authentic selves.

Our Perks and Benefits:

• Hybrid Work Environment: Hybrid schedule with 50% work-from-home and in-office time, with the ability to work anywhere in the world for up to 2 months per year.
• Financial Wellness: Annual performance bonus, long-term company bonus, 401k matching, life insurance.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Competitive health insurance and disability coverage, a Lifestyle Spending Account, access to telemedicine, and an unlimited sick days policy.
• Professional Development: Continuous hands-on learning with access to e-learning platform, tuition reimbursement, and peer mentorship.
• Accessibility: An inclusive workplace designed to accommodate people with disabilities.

TouchTunes

At TouchTunes, the world’s largest in-venue interactive music and entertainment platform, we’re all about sparking joy and human connection. That moment in a bar where someone at the next table cues the jukebox to play your favorite song? That’s what we do – our platform plays millions of songs daily – but we’re also so much more! We just bought the largest soft-tipped darts business in the United States, we’re reinventing our mobile app for launch later this year, and we’re operating nearly 100,000 connected devices across North America and Europe. We’re innovators, strategic thinkers, people making the future possible today – and what a great time to join our team.

Work Requirements: Must be authorized to work in the United States

TouchTunes is an Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. TouchTunes provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

🌈TouchTunes is a proud ally of QueerTech and DiversityJobs.