It's a new day with a new opportunity at 8am!
About the role:
We are seeking a highly technical and strategically minded Enterprise Architect to lead the advancement of 8am’s integrated systems architecture. This role focuses on strengthening our corporate IT foundation, optimizing endpoint management, enhancing SaaS integrations, and enabling secure expansion into AI-driven capabilities.
The Enterprise Architect will serve as the key technical bridge between IT operations, corporate security, and business systems teams—driving cohesive architecture, system interoperability, and future-proof designs. This individual will report to the Senior Director of IT and collaborate closely with the Sr. VP of Security to ensure aligned but non-overlapping responsibilities. The Enterprise Architect’s mandate is to design, implement, and govern technology ecosystems that are secure, scalable, and harmonized across all business functions.
About us:
At 8am, our vision is to power a world where professionals thrive. We start every day on a mission to empower professionals with the most trusted, innovative technology to deliver world-class outcomes for their clients and exceptional financial results for their business. They count on our purpose-built solutions to simplify operations, ensure compliance, and fuel profitable growth, so they can focus on their clients and do more of the work that matters.
Founded in 2005, 8am™ (formerly AffiniPay) is the professional business platform built to help legal, accounting, and other client-focused professionals run stronger, more profitable businesses. Today, more than 250,000 professionals across the U.S. trust 8am to help them work smarter, serve clients better, and unlock their full potential. We have been recognized as one of Inc 5000’s fastest growing companies in the U.S. for 13 years in a row, and as a result, our teams continue to grow as well!
What you'll do:
Enterprise Systems Architecture & Design
- Develop and maintain a holistic enterprise architecture blueprint that defines the relationships among business systems, SaaS platforms, endpoints, and integrations.
- Evaluate and implement architectural patterns that support interoperability, workflow automation, and security by design.
- Conduct architectural reviews and provide guidance on system scalability, resiliency, and data integrity.
Corporate Systems & Endpoint Management
- Oversee endpoint lifecycle management (Windows, macOS, mobile, and virtual endpoints) with a focus on automation, zero-trust enforcement, and MDM/EDR integration.
- Design strategies for patch management, software deployment, and asset compliance across the enterprise.
- Partner with IT Operations to standardize configurations and ensure alignment with corporate security baselines
SaaS & Integrations Governance
- Establish architectural frameworks for managing and integrating 3rd-party SaaS applications (Okta, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Zoom, etc.).
- Define policies for secure onboarding/offboarding, identity management, and data flow between SaaS platforms.
- Drive the development of API-based workflows to reduce manual work and improve data consistency across systems.
AI Expansion Enablement
- Partner with internal product and data teams to evaluate and safely implement enterprise AI integrations (e.g., LLM-based automation, data enrichment tools, or security AI analytics).
- Define architectural and compliance requirements for AI use within corporate and customer-facing systems.
- Support proof-of-concept builds that explore responsible automation and productivity enhancement.
Operational Systems Support & Optimization
- Collaborate with the IT Helpdesk and Infrastructure teams to improve workflows, automate request handling, and standardize escalation paths.
- Ensure that operational systems (ticketing, asset tracking, onboarding tools, etc.) are architected for growth, resilience, and integration.
- Conduct periodic reviews to assess system health, technical debt, and process improvement opportunities.
Security Architecture Collaboration
- Work in close partnership with the Sr. VP of Security to align system architecture with corporate security strategy.
- Focus on architectural enablement and governance, leaving ownership of incident response and threat management to the security organization.
- Participate in security design reviews for major initiatives and ensure that risk considerations are incorporated early in solution planning.
About you:
- 8+ years of progressive experience in enterprise systems architecture, infrastructure engineering, security or IT operations.
- Strong technical foundation in networking, security frameworks, endpoint management, and system integrations.
- Hands-on experience with EDR and SIEM solutions (e.g., CrowdStrike, CrowdStrike LogScale (Humio), SentinelOne, Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel).
- Proven success designing architectures for complex SaaS and hybrid environments.
- Experience automating workflows across IT and business systems using APIs, middleware, or low-code platforms.
- Exceptional documentation and systems mapping skills.
- Strong interpersonal and communication abilities to partner effectively with both technical and business stakeholders.
- Demonstrated experience leveraging AI tools and technologies to improve workflows, enhance decision-making, or drive innovation.
- This position is preferably based in Austin, Texas.
Nice to Have:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent experience.
- Experience with Okta, Kandji/JAMF, Intune, Google Workspace, and enterprise MDM solutions.
- Familiarity with NIST, ISO 27001, and zero-trust security principles.
- Knowledge of AI systems integration or experience enabling LLM-driven workflows.
- Background in or collaboration with ITIL/Service Management practices.
- Prior experience working in a fast-paced, security-conscious technology environment.
Why 8am:
At 8am, our culture is shaped by the people who bring it to life every day. Together, we build a company rooted in continuous learning, genuine community, holistic wellness, and meaningful engagement—values that empower us as individuals and unite us as a team. Our culture is grounded in our core values: Work Smart, Win Fast; Outshine Ordinary, and We Find a Way. These values drive how we serve our customers and work with each other in a collaborative, inspiring, and empowering environment, every day.
Here’s how we support our 8Team:
- Health Insurance Coverage: We offer our 8Team a variety of medical, dental, and vision plans, designed to fit your needs, including a 100% company-paid HDHP plan for employees.
- Financial perks: We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package including annual bonuses, equity options and 401(k) or RRSP if in Canada, with a company match for all team members.
- Time for what matters: Flexible Time Off, paid holidays, and a parental leave program for our new parents.
- Wellness: Wellness stipends, mental health support, and one-on-one nutrition coaching.
- Learning and Development: Continuous learning through 8am.edu, leadership programs, professional development funds, and individually focused talent development.
- Giving back to the communities around us: Participate in our charitable matching gift program, paid time off for volunteer service, and company-sponsored volunteer events (both local and virtually).
- Engagement: Virtual and in-person team-building events, quarterly award recognition through our Rise & Shine Award of Excellence Program, and our peer-to-peer appreciation platform.
At 8am, we don’t just offer benefits - we create an environment where people can thrive, grow, and make a real impact every day.
Diversity, equity & inclusion at 8am:
At 8am, we recognize that innovation occurs with a strong team of people who are diverse in background, personality, talent and ideas. Experience comes in many forms and ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace where we continue to learn from each other is an integral part of our culture. We are committed to creating a welcoming and transparent environment for all that embraces those differences through education, equal access to opportunities and information, inclusionary programs, and community outreach.
Security advisory:
Our hiring teams at 8am are dedicated to recruiting top talent that share our passion for serving the professional services industry through innovative financial technology. As such, our Talent Acquisition Team only follows legitimate hiring practices. We will always communicate with our candidates using emails with the 8am domain and will never ask for sensitive/personal data during the application process. All interviews take place over phone call, Zoom/Google Meet or in person. All offers are communicated verbally by our Talent Acquisition Specialists with a written offer letter as a follow up.
