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OCLC · 4 hours ago

Principal Architect, Public Library Software & Resource Sharing

Dublin, OH

Full-time

Hybrid

Lead/Staff

8+ years exp

OCLC is a technology company dedicated to connecting libraries and making knowledge accessible worldwide. The Principal Architect will lead the architecture for Public Library Software and Resource Sharing, translating business needs into high-level designs and driving modernization efforts while mentoring engineering teams.

Web Development

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

Lead architecture for Public Library Software and the Resource Sharing domain: define target architecture, patterns, and standards for APIs, integration, data, search, and deployment

Translate business needs into high-level designs and practical implementation plans; produce architecture artifacts and roadmaps

Champion ideas and drive change — actively promote and advance strategic technical and product ideas, not just report on them

Advocate for the business — balance technology leadership with a clear focus on business outcomes and user value

Drive modernization efforts (microservices, cloud, CI/CD, containerization, API design) and guide migration decisions

Design for non-functional requirements: availability, scalability, performance, security, resilience, observability, and operability across global deployments

Own technical review and governance — participate in and lead design reviews; enforce architectural patterns and request/advise on exceptions with Enterprise Architecture

Prototype and validate new technologies (search, indexing, big data, caching, streaming) to accelerate product innovation

Work closely with Product Management to prioritize technical investments and articulate tradeoffs and risks

Provide hands-on technical leadership: design, code and review critical components as needed; collaborate with engineering teams to unblock delivery

Mentor and coach engineers and architects; contribute to hiring, performance management, and technical career development

Reduce communication chaos — close gaps between teams, simplify messaging, and create clear channels for technical decisions

Own the big picture — provide high‑level architectural direction rather than micromanaging implementation details

Decisive yet empowering — make clear architecture decisions and enable teams to execute and make local choices

Lightweight people management — provide leadership and mentorship without heavy managerial responsibilities

Collaborate with integrations, support, security, and operations teams to ensure smooth production rollout and ongoing reliability

Evaluate third‑party products, standards (NCIP, ISO, NISO, etc.), and vendor solutions relevant to resource sharing; represent the organization in relevant forums when requested

Ensure security awareness — embed security considerations into architecture and design decisions

Operate effectively under ambiguity — make progress and adapt when requirements or technologies are unclear or shifting

Qualification

Architecture designCloud platformsAPI designMicroservicesData architectureJavaKubernetesCI/CDMentoringStakeholder managementCommunication skillsProblem-solvingTeam collaboration

Required

Master's degree required plus 8 to 12 years experience at a high technical level of knowledge and experience. (Equivalent experience without a Master's degree is 10 to 14 years experience at a high technical level of knowledge and experience.)

Demonstrated experience designing and delivering large-scale, highly-available, distributed web systems (international deployments preferred)

Strong hands-on background in modern backend technologies and languages (Java preferred; experience with JVM ecosystem, or equivalent in other languages)

Deep experience with service/API design (REST/GraphQL), integration patterns, message/streaming platforms (Kafka or similar), and event-driven architectures

Proven track record with cloud platforms and operational patterns (AWS/GCP/Azure), containers (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), CI/CD and infrastructure as code

Strong data architecture experience: data modeling, indexing/search systems (Elasticsearch/Solr), caching strategies, and familiarity with big data toolsets (Hadoop/Spark/Cassandra or equivalents)

Strong orientation to non-functional requirements: performance, capacity planning, reliability engineering, security and compliance (GDPR, etc.)

Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; ability to present architecture to both technical and non-technical audiences

Experience mentoring and growing engineering teams; able to influence cross-functional peers and senior leaders

Preferred

Prior experience with library systems, resource sharing, ILL, or library standards (NCIP, ISO protocols, OCLC products) — strongly preferred

Experience with search and indexing, relevancy tuning, and large index design

Familiarity with library metadata formats (MARC, Dublin Core) and identifiers used in the library ecosystem

Participation in standards bodies or community projects relevant to libraries or information exchange

Experience with security standards and threat modeling for multi-tenant SaaS or public-facing APIs

Benefits

Best-in-class health coverage

Retirement plans with generous company contributions

Free use of our on-site ﬁtness center, gym sports, group exercise classes, and game room

Onsite catering and cafeteria subsidized by OCLC

Health and wellness events

Paid parental leave and adoption assistance

Tuition reimbursement and Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility

Company-subsidized pricing on local tickets and memberships

Company

OCLC

OCLC, a non-profit cooperative of libraries, uses cloud-based infrastructure to connect libraries to manage and share the world’s knowledge.

Founded in 1967

Dublin, Ohio, USA

1001-5000 employees

http://www.oclc.org

H1B Sponsorship

OCLC has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)

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Trends of Total Sponsorships

2025 (41)

2024 (40)

2023 (27)

2022 (41)

2021 (22)

2020 (28)