Principal Forward Deployed Architect

Working at Atlassian
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Your Future Team
The Principal Forward Deployed Architect (FDA) is a trusted transformation architect who combines enterprise-grade technical design with consulting-grade business acumen to shape how strategic customers adopt Atlassian as their operating system for work.
This is not a traditional Solutions Engineer role, nor a hands-on-keyboard engineering role. The FDA is the architect in the room - the person who turns a CIO's ambiguous "modernize how we work" into a credible, phased, AI-native architecture and the business transformation plan that makes it stick across HR, Finance, Marketing, PMO, Operations, and Engineering.
You will be embedded with 1-3 strategic accounts at a time, typically for 3-9 months each, owning both the technical truth and the business transformation narrative end-to-end.
What You'll Do
Business Transformation & Expansion
Design and deliver the customer's end-to-end System of Work - expanding Atlassian beyond engineering into every business function.

• Lead workflow transformation including operating model design, CoE structures, governance, and platform team design.
• Expand into HR, Finance, Marketing, PMO, and Operations through cross-functional workflow design.
• Drive AI adoption through practical use cases embedded into daily work.
• Own and evolve the System of Work blueprint based on outcomes and usage data.

Architecture & Technical Design
Own the target-state architecture for strategic enterprise customers across the full Atlassian System of Work - Plans, Goals, Work, Knowledge, Code, and AI.

• Design across the full stack: multi-tenant SaaS, identity (SAML/OIDC/SCIM), data residency, integrations (REST/GraphQL/event-driven), Forge & Connect, Marketplace, and migration paths.
• Co-design AI-native workflows - Rovo agents, knowledge grounding, Teamwork Graph enrichment, and human-in-the-loop patterns.
• Ship durable artifacts - reference architectures, ADRs, Forge prototypes, Terraform/IaC modules, Compass scorecards, and automation rule libraries.

Orchestration & Influence
Lead executive engagement and cross-functional delivery - translating business outcomes into capability roadmaps and phased plans.

• Orchestrate execution across SE, SA, TAS/FDE, Professional Services, Partners, and customer stakeholders.
• Close the loop with Product - convert field patterns into prioritised product and platform requirements.
• Mentor Senior Solution Engineers, Solution Architects, and Partner Architects.
• Represent Atlassian externally through conference talks, reference architectures, and Developer Community contributions.

Your background

• Deep experience in forward deployed, customer engineering, professional services, or consulting roles - owning end-to-end platform transformations at Fortune 1000, large regulated, or public sector customers (at a SaaS vendor, major SI, or Atlassian Solution Partner).
• Experience designing on Forge, the Atlassian Marketplace ecosystem, or leading large Atlassian Cloud migrations.
• Executive presence and exceptional written communication; able to produce memos, ADRs, or design docs that stand up to executive review.
• Strong workflow and systems thinking - ability to map complex processes and design scalable ways of working across business functions.
• Comfort with enterprise architecture concepts: cloud-native design, integration patterns, identity, security, and data.
• Ability to prototype, debug, and read code in at least one of: Java/Kotlin, TypeScript/Node, Python.
• Cross-functional credibility with IT, PMO, HR, Finance, and senior business stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel 25-50% and operate across customer time zones.

What will set you apart:

• AI/LLM architecture experience - RAG, knowledge graphs, agent design, AI governance.
• Domain depth in one or more of: DevOps / Platform Engineering, ITSM/ESM, Agile-at-Scale, FSI, Public Sector, Healthcare.

Benefits & Perks
Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/perksandbenefits .
About Atlassian
At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together.
We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone's perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them.
To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit go.atlassian.com/crh .
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