Sophisticated Work. In a Great City. Making a Difference.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) manages more than $162 billion in assets, including those of the fully-funded Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). SWIB operates at a level more often seen in top-tier global asset managers than in typical public pension funds. SWIB is a home for top talent. Approximately 61 percent of SWIB’s investment professionals are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholders.
The City of Madison, the state capitol and home of Wisconsin’s flagship university, makes regular appearances on lists of best places to live, eat, and play. SWIB offers a modern workspace, hybrid work options, and competitive compensation and benefits.
Serving over 692,000 WRS beneficiaries, SWIB is driven by a clear mission: securing the financial future of those who serve Wisconsin. When you work at SWIB, you know your work matters.
Job Description:
Applicants requiring H-1B transfers or sponsorship into the H-1B lottery will not be considered for this position.
About the Team
The Technology Team at SWIB designs, implements, and operates best-in-class systems and platforms that enable a broad range of investment portfolios and strategies. As a trusted advisor to the business, the team is valued for delivering innovative, reliable, and strategic technology solutions that drive SWIB’s continued growth. We leverage technology to achieve enterprise goals, align IT initiatives with future direction, and operate in accordance with industry-leading standards. The Business Integration Team plays a key role in aligning people, processes, and platforms—supporting the transformation of SWIB’s investment infrastructure.
Position Overview
The Senior Architect is a strategic and hands-on leader within the Business Integration Team, a core group within SWIB’s Technology function. This individual is responsible for shaping and evolving SWIB’s enterprise architecture — including business, application, data, and technology domains — while influencing the design of integrated solutions across the organization.
This role acts as a key integrator between business and IT, connecting strategic goals to actionable architectural decisions. The Enterprise Cloud Architect collaborates with senior leaders to drive modernization, establish architectural standards, and guide solution delivery to support SWIB’s investment priorities and enterprise transformation.
Essential activities:
Solution Architecture
Lead solution architecture efforts for strategic initiatives and enterprise-wide implementations:
- Act as the lead architect for large-scale strategic programs, providing end-to-end solution oversight from concept through implementation.
- Partner with Business Architects, Data Architects, and Business Systems Engineers to ensure aligned, secure, and scalable solutions.
- Review and validate architecture and design documents ensure compliance with SWIB standards and objectives.
- Guide the development of highly resilient multi-region cloud architectures, specifically in cloud environments.
- Build and contribute code (e.g., microservices, IaC templates, automation scripts, platform accelerators).
- Lead cloud platform strategy, adoption, and modernization of legacy systems.
- Mentor engineers, architects, and technical leads on design best practices and emerging technologies.
- Support agile, iterative delivery by aligning rapid development with long-term architectural integrity.
- Guide cross-functional teams on platform choices, solution integration, and implementation strategies.
Enterprise Architecture
Drive the definition and continuous evolution of SWIB’s enterprise architecture framework and long-term strategy:
- Develop architectural blueprints (e.g. cloud, software, IaaS) and roadmaps aligned to SWIB’s investment strategies and modernization goals.
- Conduct architecture reviews (focused on sound cloud principles) and contribute technical architectural leadership to enterprise-wide initiatives such as platform rationalization, infrastructure modernization, and data architecture improvements.
- Govern the use of architecture tools, standards, reference models, and reusable design patterns.
- Works across the technology organization to develop and promote reference architectures.
- Works across the technology organization to craft and promote comprehensive Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity playbooks.
- Serve as a strategic advisor for architecture governance, investment prioritization, and technology portfolio planning.
The ideal candidate brings a strategic mindset, hands-on architectural expertise, and a passion for transforming enterprise capabilities.
Qualifications include:
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field; advanced degree or industry certifications (e.g., ArchiMate, AWS/Azure Architect) strongly preferred.
- 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise and solution architecture, ideally in investment management or financial services.
- Proven ability to connect long-term strategy with actionable architecture across business, technology, data, and application domains.
- Expertise in modern architecture patterns including microservices, API-first design, event-driven systems, and zero-trust security.
- Familiarity with enterprise architecture platforms and modeling tools (e.g., BizzDesign, OpenSearch, ArchiMate).
- Strong verbal and visual communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for business stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to influence and align across functions and leadership levels in a collaborative and strategic environment.
- Exposure to real-time data processing, messaging systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ), or event sourcing architectures.
- Working knowledge of Kubernetes, service meshes, and hybrid/multi-cloud deployments.
- Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or equivalent.
SWIB Offers:
- Competitive total cash compensation, based on AON (formerly McLagan) industry benchmarks
- Comprehensive benefits package
- Educational and training opportunities
- Tuition reimbursement
- Challenging work in a professional environment
- Hybrid work environment
The position requires U.S. work authorization.
Pursuant to our Hybrid Remote Work Policy, all staff have the flexibility to work remotely, but are required to have a weekly presence in our offices, the frequency of which is dependent on their distance from office. Staff are not required to reside locally; however, we offer relocation reimbursement to the Dane County area per our policy.
All SWIB employees are subject to SWIB’s Ethics Policy and Personal Trade Approvals Policy. These policies include restrictions on outside business activities and employment and have limits on personal trading. You may request copies of these policies from SWIB’s talent acquisition team and any questions can be answered by SWIB’s compliance team.
