Lead IT Architect

McKesson is an impact-driven, Fortune 10 company that touches virtually every aspect of healthcare. We are known for delivering insights, products, and services that make quality care more accessible and affordable. Here, we focus on the health, happiness, and well-being of you and those we serve – we care.

What you do at McKesson matters. We foster a culture where you can grow, make an impact, and are empowered to bring new ideas. Together, we thrive as we shape the future of health for patients, our communities, and our people. If you want to be part of tomorrow’s health today, we want to hear from you.

Lead IT Architect

Job Summary

The Lead IT Architect is responsible for defining and driving technology strategy, architectural direction, AI-enabled engineering transformation, and solution design across a Value Stream and its Agile Release Train (ART). This role owns the architectural runway for the ART, ensuring teams have the technical direction, architecture patterns, technical enablers, architectural context, and future-state designs needed to deliver scalable, secure, resilient, and maintainable solutions.

Working closely with Engineering, Product Management, Enterprise Architecture, Security, Delivery Leadership, Shared Services organizations, and the CoverMyMeds AI Enablement team, this individual proactively identifies technology opportunities, architectural risks, modernization initiatives, and emerging engineering patterns before they impact delivery.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strong leadership skills, communications skills, and a passion for architectural excellence, agentic engineering, AI-assisted software delivery, enterprise-scale software development, and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

Architectural Runway & Value Stream Leadership

• Plan the architectural runway for an Agile Release Train (ART), proactively defining solution approaches, technical enablers, architecture patterns, dependencies, and future-state designs that enable teams across the Value Stream to deliver effectively at scale.
• Partner with Product Management, Engineering Leadership, and Enterprise Architecture to ensure upcoming features, epics, and initiatives have a clear architectural path prior to implementation.
• Develop and maintain technology and architecture roadmaps that support Value Stream objectives while balancing scalability, technical debt reduction, reliability, security, compliance, and delivery velocity.
• Identify capability gaps, modernization opportunities, architectural risks, and cross-team dependencies before they become delivery impediments.
• Establish architectural direction across multiple teams and applications, ensuring alignment on technology strategy and implementation approaches.
• Ensure teams are never waiting on architecture guidance, standards, patterns, technical decisions, architecture artifacts, or technical enablers required to execute delivery commitments.

AI & Agentic Engineering Leadership

• Partner with the CoverMyMeds AI Enablement team to evaluate, adopt, and operationalize AI-assisted software delivery practices across the ART.
• Serve as the primary architecture lead for AI adoption within the Value Stream, driving practical implementation of approved AI capabilities, tools, patterns, and engineering practices.
• Identify opportunities to improve engineering productivity, software quality, documentation, testing, knowledge management, architecture governance, operational support, and delivery effectiveness through AI-enabled workflows and automation.
• Develop adoption roadmaps and implementation plans that accelerate AI-assisted software delivery across engineering teams.
• Partner with Engineering Managers, Technical Leads, and development teams to increase adoption of AI-assisted development practices using platforms such as Microsoft Copilot, Claude, GitHub Copilot, and future enterprise-supported solutions.
• Define and maintain the architectural context, Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), repository standards, architecture artifacts, and knowledge-management practices required to effectively support agentic engineering.
• Drive adoption of architecture-as-code, AI-assisted documentation, automated architecture validation, and agent-enabled engineering workflows.
• Collaborate with the AI Enablement team to evaluate emerging agentic engineering capabilities and determine how they can be safely and effectively operationalized within the Value Stream.
• Serve as a champion for modern engineering practices and help teams evolve how software is designed, built, tested, documented, and supported.

Solution Architecture & Technical Design

• Lead the design of scalable, secure, resilient, and maintainable enterprise solutions.
• Create detailed architecture artifacts including system context diagrams, solution architecture diagrams, integration diagrams, deployment topologies, sequence diagrams, data flow diagrams, domain models, reference architectures, and implementation-ready design materials.
• Translate business and product objectives into actionable technical designs that can be executed consistently across multiple delivery teams.
• Evaluate architectural alternatives and recommend solutions based on business, operational, compliance, security, and technical tradeoffs.
• Develop implementation-ready architectural guidance that accelerates delivery and reduces ambiguity.
• Establish architecture patterns that promote reuse, consistency, maintainability, and operational excellence across the ART.
• Create current-state and future-state architecture views used to drive portfolio planning and modernization activities.

Agile Delivery & Technical Leadership

• Actively participate in Agile, Scrum, and SAFe planning and delivery activities, providing architectural guidance throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Partner with Product Managers, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Engineering Managers, and Technical Leads to ensure architectural priorities and technical enablers are reflected in team backlogs and delivery plans.
• Guide decomposition of large initiatives into implementable capabilities, features, and architectural enablers aligned with Agile delivery practices.
• Mentor engineers and technical leaders, helping elevate architectural maturity and engineering excellence across the ART.
• Influence technical decision-making and technology adoption across teams without direct managerial authority.
• Foster a culture of architectural thinking, engineering excellence, continuous learning, and innovation.

Enterprise Architecture Alignment & Governance

• Serve as the primary architecture representative for the ART, preparing, presenting, and defending solution designs, architecture decisions, technology strategies, and exception requests through Architecture Review Board (ARB) governance processes.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture to operationalize enterprise standards, approved reference architectures, architectural guardrails, and strategic platform direction within the ART.
• Promote and govern adherence to enterprise architecture standards, ensuring solutions align with enterprise technology direction and approved patterns.
• Drive adoption of approved architectural patterns, shared services, platform capabilities, reusable solutions, and strategic technology platforms across teams and applications within the Value Stream.
• Partner effectively with Enterprise Architecture, Security, Platform Engineering, Compliance, Infrastructure, Cloud Operations, Developer Experience, AI Enablement, and other shared service organizations.
• Advocate for Value Stream needs while leveraging enterprise platforms, shared services, and reusable capabilities whenever possible.
• Track and communicate architectural risks, technical debt, modernization opportunities, major technology decisions, and cross-team dependencies.
• Maintain visibility into enterprise and platform dependencies that could impact delivery outcomes across the ART.

Architecture Documentation & Knowledge Management

• Own the architecture repository for the ART and application portfolio.
• Accountable for maintaining the architectural context, Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), architecture artifacts, and solution documentation for all applications and platforms within the ART.
• Establish and maintain architectural context including system boundaries, integrations, dependencies, data flows, technology selections, technical constraints, and historical decision records.
• Create and maintain current-state and future-state architecture documentation for applications and platforms owned within the Value Stream.
• Maintain architecture diagrams including system context diagrams, integration diagrams, deployment topologies, application interaction diagrams, domain models, sequence diagrams, and solution blueprints.
• Ensure architecture documentation remains current, accurate, discoverable, and accessible to engineers, architects, leadership, and stakeholders.
• Establish documentation standards and review processes that institutionalize architecture knowledge and reduce dependency on individual contributors.
• Maintain architectural knowledge in a manner that enables both engineers and AI-assisted tools to effectively understand and operate within the application portfolio.

Security, Compliance & Operational Excellence

• Ensure solutions adhere to enterprise security, privacy, audit, regulatory, and compliance requirements.
• Design architectures that support appropriate handling of Protected Health Information (PHI), Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and other sensitive data assets.
• Incorporate requirements associated with HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC, SOX, and related compliance frameworks into architectural designs and technology decisions.
• Partner with Security, Risk, Compliance, and Enterprise Architecture teams to proactively identify and mitigate architectural risks.
• Ensure security, resiliency, observability, and compliance requirements are incorporated into architectural runway planning and solution design activities.
• Promote secure-by-design and compliance-by-design practices throughout the software development lifecycle.

Cloud, Platform & Engineering Excellence

• Design and implement cloud-native architectures utilizing Azure and modern platform services.
• Promote CoverMyMeds standards for platforms, APIs, integrations, distributed systems, platform services, observability, resiliency, scalability, security, and operational excellence.
• Collaborate with Security, Platform Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, and Operations teams to align solutions with organizational standards.
• Evaluate technology investments and modernization initiatives that improve platform reliability, maintainability, scalability, and engineering effectiveness.
• Guide adoption of engineering platforms and practices leveraging technologies such as Azure, GitHub, Jira, Lucidchart, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and related engineering productivity tools.

Minimum Qualifications

Degree or equivalent and typically requires 10+ years of relevant experience. Less years required if has relevant Master’s or Doctorate qualifications.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related discipline.

Critical Skills:

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, solution architecture, enterprise architecture, or related technology disciplines, including 5+ years in a Lead Architect, Principal Architect, Solution Architect, or equivalent technical-leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience owning architecture across multiple applications, products, or Agile engineering teams.
• Experience establishing architectural roadmaps and technical direction within Agile, Scrum, or SAFe delivery environments.
• Experience designing enterprise solutions using Microsoft Azure or a comparable cloud platform, including cloud-native or distributed architectures, APIs, microservices, event-driven systems, and enterprise integrations.
• Experience with architecture governance and documentation, including architecture review processes, architecture decision records, technical diagrams, roadmaps, or implementation-ready architecture artifacts.
• Experience applying DevOps, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, or related modern engineering practices to enterprise software delivery.
• Experience designing systems subject to security, privacy, or regulatory requirements, including experience with healthcare or other regulated data environments.
• Demonstrated experience introducing or supporting AI-assisted software engineering, engineering-productivity initiatives, or agentic engineering practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting an Agile Release Train or Value Stream within a SAFe environment.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, GitHub, Jira, Microsoft Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Claude, Lucidchart, or comparable technologies.
• Experience with architecture-as-code, documentation-as-code, policy-as-code, or automated architecture validation.
• Experience developing enterprise architecture standards, reusable patterns, governance models, or engineering best practices.
• Experience within healthcare technology or another highly regulated industry.
• Relevant architecture, cloud, or Agile certifications such as TOGAF, SAFe, Scrum, or Microsoft Azure credentials.

What Success Looks Like

• Establishes and maintains architectural runway ahead of delivery demand.
• Ensures teams are never waiting on architecture decisions, technical guidance, standards, patterns, diagrams, ADRs, technical context, or solution designs to execute.
• Successfully drives adoption of AI-assisted software delivery and agentic engineering practices across the ART in partnership with the CoverMyMeds AI Enablement team.
• Creates reusable architectural context, documentation standards, repository standards, and knowledge assets that improve both engineering productivity and AI effectiveness.
• Maintains comprehensive architecture documentation, ADRs, technical roadmaps, architectural context, and current-state/future-state diagrams across the application portfolio.
• Successfully represents the ART in Architecture Review Board (ARB) reviews and governance processes.
• Effectively partners with Enterprise Architecture, Security, Platform Engineering, Compliance, AI Enablement, and other CoverMyMeds and McKesson shared service organizations to accelerate delivery while maintaining enterprise alignment.
• Identifies and addresses architectural risks before they impact delivery.
• Ensures solutions consistently meet security, compliance, audit, privacy, and regulatory requirements.
• Advances adoption of modern engineering practices, AI-assisted delivery, and platform modernization initiatives.
• Serves as a trusted technical advisor to engineering, product, and technology leadership.
• Raises the overall architectural maturity, technical quality, engineering effectiveness, and delivery outcomes of the Value Stream.

We are proud to offer a competitive compensation package at McKesson as part of our Total Rewards. This is determined by several factors, including performance, experience and skills, equity, regular job market evaluations, and geographical markets. The pay range shown below is aligned with McKesson's pay philosophy, and pay will always be compliant with any applicable regulations. In addition to base pay, other compensation, such as an annual bonus or long-term incentive opportunities may be offered. For more information regarding benefits at McKesson, please click here.

Our Base Pay Range for this position

$150,800 - $251,300

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McKesson is an Equal Opportunity Employer

McKesson provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, age, genetic information, or any other legally protected category. For additional information on McKesson’s full Equal Employment Opportunity policies, visit our Equal Employment Opportunity page.

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