INTRODUCTION

Futures start here. Where first steps, new friendships, and confident learners are born. At KinderCare Learning Companies, the first and only early childhood education provider recognized with the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award, we offer a variety of early education and child care options for families. Whether it’s KinderCare Learning Centers, Champions, or Crème de la Crème, we build confidence for kids, families, and the future we share. And we want you to join us in shaping it—in neighborhoods, at work, and in schools nationwide.

At KinderCare Learning Companies, you’ll use your skills and expertise to support the work (and fun) that happens in our sites and centers every day. From marketers and strategists to financial analysts and data engineers, and so much more, we’re all passionate about crafting a world where children, families, and organizations can thrive.

As Enterprise Application Architect you'll support the entire customer lifecycle for our families, from inquiry through enrollment and beyond! Shaping and enabling all center and family facing digital experiences and related operational reporting. You will partner closely with our Digital Products and Digital Engineering team leaders to ensure solutions are scalable, integrated, secure and aligned with enterprise architecture standards while delivering exceptional customer experiences.

The Senior Enterprise Application Architect balances strategic leadership in architecture with active project participation. They guide teams to build using current software patterns, platform capabilities, and integration strategies that enhance growth, speed, and reliability throughout the enterprise. Together you will enable KinderCare’s transformational initiatives to deliver against our vision of building confidence for life for families and our employees.

Responsibilities

Value Stream & Solution Architecture Partnerships

• Serve as the lead Enterprise Application Architect for the Inquiry to Revenue value stream, spanning marketing, inquiry, enrollment, pricing, contracting, payments, and related customer and center-facing experiences. This is your business domain focus.
• Partner with solution architects and delivery teams to ensure architectural intent is realized without becoming a delivery bottleneck.
• Represent application architecture for the Enterprise Architecture team. Here is your architecture domain focus.
• Partner with Product Management, Engineering, and your fellow Enterprise Architects to translate business capabilities and customer journeys into scalable application architectures.
• Be the “tip of the spear” for IT by initiating the capability digitization process well before product delivery, exposing likely impacts to current-state architecture, critical decisions, and key risks with clear response options.
• Evaluate build vs. buy decisions and guide product and platform selections with a long-term enterprise perspective, optimizing current platform investments while modernizing the application ecosystem to enable business innovation.

Enterprise Architecture & Governance

• Establish and evolve enterprise modeling practices while driving automation of core enterprise architecture workflows, bringing to bear AI-enabled solutions to improve governance, dependency transparency, and decision velocity.
• Ensure solutions align with KinderCare’s enterprise architecture principles, standards, and reference architectures.
• Actively participate in and help lead the Architecture Review Board (ARB), providing architectural guidance, reviewing designs, and influencing technology direction through standards, frameworks, and best practices.
• Identify architectural risks, technical debt, and cross-domain dependencies; propose pragmatic risk management strategies and tactics.
• Collaborate with other domain architects (business & information, application, and technology) and solution architects to ensure cohesive enterprise solutions.

Integration & Platform Enablement

• Define and promote modern application and integration patterns and reference architecture, including API-first, event-driven, and composable architectures.
• Partner with integration and platform groups to guarantee Inquiry to Revenue solutions are well-integrated with core enterprise systems (e.g., CRM, ERP, identity, payments).
• Provide clear architectural mentorship to the enterprise on how AI capabilities, including LLMs, agents, and agent orchestration, should be applied thoughtfully. Use these technologies efficiently to speed up IT and business value delivery.
• Work with Solution Architects and Engineers to define principles that guide our adoption of AI capabilities. This includes LLMs, agents, and agent orchestration. Ensure these are applied thoughtfully and efficiently to accelerate IT and organizational value realization.

Collaboration & Influence

• Communicate architectural concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leaders.
• Influence roadmaps and investment decisions through data, tradeoff analysis, and clear articulation of architectural impacts.
• Act as a trusted advisor to business and technology leaders throughout the organization.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, or equivalent experience.
• 2+ years in an enterprise architecture role. 7+ years of in application or solution architecture roles.
• Proven excellence in designing and delivering customer facing digital platforms - web and/or mobile.
• Demonstrated progression from Software Engineer through Domain and Solutions Architecture, and finally Enterprise Architecture.
• Past experience with C#, MSSQL, and associated tooling.
• Solid understanding of modern application architectures, including microservices, APIs, event-driven systems, cloud-native design, and AI.
• Experience integrating large-scale enterprise platforms such as CRM and ERP.
• Skilled in influencing decisions across teams and functions without direct authority.
• Stellar verbal and written communication skills, with comfort presenting to senior leadership.
• Demonstrated experience shaping architecture across multiple teams or products within a shared enterprise ecosystem.
• Boomi, Salesforce and Workday architectural and functional expertise are a huge plus for this role.

LI-Remote

OUR BENEFITS MEET YOU WHERE YOU ARE. We’re here to help our employees navigate the integration of work and life:

• Know your whole family is supported with discounted child care benefits.
• Breathe easy with medical, dental, and vision benefits for your family (and pets, too!).
• Feel supported in your mental health and personal growth with employee assistance programs.
• Feel great and thrive with access to health and wellness programs, paid time off and discounts for work necessities, such as cell phones.
• … and much more.

We operate research-backed, accredited, and customizable programs in more than 2,000 sites and centers across 40 states and the District of Columbia. As we expand, we’re matching the needs of more and more families, dynamic work environments, and diverse communities from coast to coast. Because we believe every family deserves access to high-quality child care, no matter who they are or where they live. Every day, you’ll help bring this mission to life by building community and delivering exceptional experiences. And if you’re anything like us, you’ll come for the work, and stay for the people.

KinderCare Learning Companies is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, military or veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law.