Senior Manager, Architecture

Position Overview Autodesk's Technical Advisory organization is building a digital consulting platform that systematizes implementation expertise from hundreds of enterprise technology engagements into scalable digital products and services. The platform must handle structured knowledge assets, consulting tools, analytics, and integrated service delivery across Autodesk's customer base in architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and media and entertainment. The Senior Manager, Architecture will serve as the technical leadership anchor for this platform, reporting to the Director of Platform & Productization within Global Delivery & Solutions. You will own the platform architecture and non-functional requirements — system design, integration strategy, knowledge data models, and architectural standards. You will partner with corporate security, infrastructure, and platform teams on shared concerns including compliance, observability, and enterprise identity. This role requires someone who can think beyond building a traditional web application. The platform must serve implementation knowledge to human users and increasingly to AI-powered tools and workflows. As how customers consume consulting expertise evolves, the architecture must be flexible enough to support that evolution while keeping knowledge trustworthy and well-governed. In the first year, you will deliver a reference architecture and phased technical roadmap, validate the knowledge data model, and establish production readiness standards. You will lead a team of architects and technical specialists while also operating as a hands-on technical contributor on foundational decisions. You will partner closely with product management to translate business requirements into technical strategy, with engineering to ensure buildability and operational readiness, and with content and knowledge teams on knowledge representation requirements. Responsibilities Platform Architecture and Technical Strategy ·Own the end-to-end platform architecture: data models, API design, integration patterns, infrastructure strategy, and non-functional requirements ·Design knowledge representation and retrieval approaches that make consulting expertise trustworthy, versioned, and governable across its full lifecycle ·Design service layers that enable the platform to serve both human-facing applications and programmatic consumers ·Evaluate build-versus-buy decisions for platform capabilities, recommending where custom development adds value versus leveraging existing services ·Design integration approaches with Autodesk's broader platform ecosystem, including enterprise identity and emerging AI infrastructure Security, Compliance, and Production Readiness ·Own platform architecture standards for security, data governance, and SOC2 compliance; partner with corporate security and infrastructure teams on controls implementation and audit readiness ·Define non-functional requirements and reliability standards for the platform; partner with operations teams on monitoring, alerting, and disaster recovery ·Establish architectural governance — design reviews, technical standards, and decision records — that enable engineering velocity ·Own the technical risk register and communicate architectural trade-offs clearly to leadership, with particular attention to knowledge accuracy risk when serving AI-mediated channels Team and Cross-Functional Leadership ·Lead, mentor, and grow a team of approximately 6 architects and technical specialists while maintaining hands-on involvement in foundational architectural decisions ·Partner with product management to ensure technical architecture serves business goals, and with engineering to ensure designs are buildable and maintainable ·Collaborate with the Content & Knowledge team on knowledge data model and ingestion requirements — own how it's stored, indexed, and served ·Represent platform technical direction to stakeholders across Technical Advisory, IT, and Autodesk's platform engineering organization Minimum Qualifications ·10+ years of experience in software architecture, platform engineering, or technical leadership with progressive responsibility ·Demonstrated experience designing and scaling cloud-native, multi-tenant SaaS platforms from early stage through production ·Deep expertise in platform architecture: API design, event-driven systems, and cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP) ·Experience designing systems that store, govern, and serve structured or semi-structured content to multiple consumer types ·Strong understanding of security architecture and compliance frameworks (SOC2, data governance) ·Experience leading or managing teams of senior technical contributors while remaining hands-on ·Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience The Ideal Candidate ·Has built platforms that integrate structured content, knowledge assets, or professional services workflows — with real attention to provenance, versioning, and lifecycle governance ·Has experience with AI/ML integration patterns — semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation, knowledge graphs, or hybrid approaches — understands when and where these approaches create real value ·Has experience with data modeling for complex, semi-structured domains where the taxonomy evolves as the business learns ·Is comfortable operating as a hands-on technical leader who also manages people and builds team capability ·Has worked in or alongside professional services or consulting organizations and understands how technology supports human expertise delivery ·Brings a pragmatic engineering philosophy - the right approach for the problem, not a predetermined architectural dogma At Autodesk, we're building a diverse workplace and an inclusive culture to give more people the chance to imagine, design, and make a better world. Autodesk is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. We also consider for employment all qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable law. Autodesk has always valued flexibility in how we work. We continue to provide employees flexibility to support their work preferences wherever possible and nearly all roles are hybrid or remote, unless otherwise indicated. Are you an existing contractor or consultant with Autodesk? Please search for open jobs and apply internally (not on this external site). If you have any questions or require support, contact Autodesk Careers.