Principal Architect – GitHub & Azure DevOps Platform Engineering

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management asset servicing asset management and banking services Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the worlds most successful individuals families corporations and institutions.

Since 1889 we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service Expertise and Integrity. Together they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees whom we call partners and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24000 partners we serve the worlds most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Position Summary

We are seeking a Principal Architect GitHub & Azure DevOps Platform Engineering to lead the strategy architecture engineering governance and modernization of our enterprise software delivery platforms. This role is accountable for the current and future state of GitHub Enterprise Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines software supply chain security artifact management and developer productivity services across the organization.

As a senior technical leader you will help drive the evolution of our software delivery ecosystem in support of enterprise modernization initiatives including platform transformation efforts adoption of modern engineering practices and the establishment of scalable self-service developer capabilities.

You will work closely with engineering architecture security infrastructure application teams and executive leadership to define and execute the long-term roadmap for enterprise DevOps and developer experience platforms.

This role is ideal for a hands-on architect who enjoys solving complex technical challenges establishing engineering standards mentoring teams and influencing technical strategy across a large enterprise.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Own the technical vision roadmap and architecture for GitHub Enterprise Azure DevOps Nexus Repository and related CI/CD platforms.
• Define the target-state software delivery architecture standards governance models and platform operating model.
• Drive modernization of software delivery capabilities including migration from legacy CI/CD tooling and platforms to GitHub and Azure DevOps.
• Lead the migration strategy and execution approach for enterprise-scale CI/CD transformation initiatives.
• Establish reference architectures reusable patterns and engineering standards for application delivery across diverse technology stacks.
• Partner with enterprise architecture and engineering leaders to align platform capabilities with broader modernization and cloud strategies.

Developer Experience & CI/CD Engineering

• Design and implement enterprise CI/CD standards reusable workflows templates and automation frameworks.
• Establish scalable self-service onboarding capabilities for development teams.
• Define standards for source control management branching strategies pull request workflows approvals repository governance and release management.
• Drive adoption of GitHub Actions Azure DevOps Pipelines Infrastructure as Code and modern software delivery practices.
• Improve developer productivity through automation platform engineering and developer experience improvements.
• Create and maintain technical documentation standards engineering playbooks and onboarding materials.

Platform Modernization & Migration

• Lead migration initiatives involving:
  • Legacy CI/CD platforms to GitHub and Azure DevOps
  • Pipeline modernization and standardization
  • Repository consolidation and governance improvements
  • Modern artifact and package management practices
• Develop migration factory approaches including inventory complexity assessment wave planning automation testing and cutover strategies.
• Define success metrics and operational KPIs for platform transformation initiatives.

Security Compliance & Software Supply Chain

• Embed security compliance and risk management throughout the software delivery lifecycle.
• Establish standards for:
  • Secrets management
  • Identity and access management
  • OIDC and modern authentication
  • Software supply chain security
  • Dependency management
  • SBOM generation
  • Artifact integrity and provenance
  • Auditability and traceability
• Partner with security and risk teams to ensure platforms meet regulatory compliance and governance requirements.
• Drive adoption of DevSecOps practices and secure-by-design engineering patterns.

Reliability Operations & Observability

• Establish platform reliability standards operational procedures monitoring strategies and support models.
• Design scalable and resilient architectures for GitHub runners Azure DevOps agents repositories package management and supporting infrastructure.
• Define observability standards dashboards alerting and operational KPIs.
• Lead incident resolution root cause analysis and continuous improvement efforts for platform services.
• Drive automation to reduce manual operational overhead and improve platform scalability.

Technical Leadership

• Mentor and coach engineers architects and platform teams.
• Lead design reviews architecture governance and engineering standards discussions.
• Influence technical direction across engineering organizations.
• Serve as the primary technical advisor for platform modernization DevOps strategy and developer productivity initiatives.
• Collaborate with application and platform engineering teams to shape the future-state GitHub and Azure DevOps ecosystem including reusable patterns frameworks pipelines and self-service developer capabilities.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence automation continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.

Required Qualifications

• 12 years of experience in DevOps Platform Engineering Site Reliability Engineering Cloud Engineering or software delivery platforms.
• Proven experience architecting and operating enterprise-scale GitHub Enterprise and Azure DevOps environments.
• Deep expertise in CI/CD architecture pipeline engineering and software delivery modernization.
• Experience leading large-scale platform transformation and migration initiatives.
• Strong understanding of source control management repository governance release management and software development lifecycle practices.
• Hands-on experience with GitHub Actions Azure DevOps Pipelines reusable workflows templates and automation frameworks.
• Strong scripting and automation experience with PowerShell Python Bash or similar technologies.
• Experience implementing Infrastructure as Code using Terraform Bicep Ansible or similar tools.
• Experience operating artifact management platforms such as Nexus Repository or equivalent solutions.
• Strong understanding of software supply chain security secrets management dependency management and DevSecOps principles.
• Experience designing highly available resilient and scalable platform architectures.
• Strong communication presentation and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence both technical and executive audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within highly regulated enterprise environments.
• Experience with GitHub Enterprise Cloud.
• Experience with Azure cloud services identity governance networking and security capabilities.
• Experience with container platforms and Kubernetes-based workloads.
• Familiarity with GitOps and modern deployment methodologies.
• Experience with enterprise observability and monitoring platforms.
• Experience supporting multiple application technology stacks Java Python containerized workloads and mainframe-integrated delivery pipelines.
• Industry certifications related to GitHub Azure DevOps cloud architecture security or platform engineering.

Success Measures

Successful candidates will:

• Deliver a clear enterprise roadmap for GitHub Azure DevOps Nexus and developer platform services.
• Accelerate modernization and migration initiatives across software delivery platforms.
• Improve developer productivity through standardized and automated CI/CD capabilities.
• Reduce platform risk through enhanced security governance and compliance controls.
• Establish scalable self-service engineering capabilities.
• Drive measurable improvements in platform reliability operational efficiency and software delivery performance.
• Serve as a trusted technical leader and strategic advisor for software engineering platform engineering and enterprise modernization initiatives.

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged senior leaders are accessible and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trusts history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process please email our HR Service Center at or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.

About Our Pune Office

The Northern Trust Pune office established in 2016 is now home to over 3000 employees. The office handles various functions including Operations for Asset Servicing and Wealth Management as well as delivering critical technology solutions that support business operations across the globe.

Our Pune team takes our commitment to service to 2024 they volunteered more than 10000 hours into the communities where they live and work. Learn more.