Principal Architect - ECD

POSITION SUMMARY:

Natera is at the forefront of personalized genetic testing, transforming the management of disease worldwide. We are at the cusp of a new inflection point with the development of our Early Cancer Detection (ECD) product that detects cancer earlier than ever before

We are seeking a visionary Principal Architect to lead the design and evolution of intelligent, high-scale systems for our Early Cancer Detection (ECD) portfolio. This role is ideal for a technical strategist who combines deep architectural expertise with a strong ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and operational teams.

You will define and drive architectural patterns, influence platform strategy, and ensure our systems are robust, modular, and built for continuous innovation. If you are passionate about system design, cloud-native architecture, and shaping technical direction in a mission-driven environment, we’d love to connect.

Responsibilities

Enterprise & Platform Architecture

• Define and own architectural strategy across product lines, ensuring alignment with long-term technical and business goals.

• Design and evolve cloud-native systems with a focus on scalability, maintainability, observability, and security.

• Create architectural blueprints and reusable frameworks that guide teams in building high-performance services and user-facing applications.

Leadership & Cross-functional Influence

• Act as a technical thought partner to engineering leadership, product managers, and executive stakeholders.

• Mentor senior engineers and architects, cultivating a culture of system thinking and technical excellence.

• Drive architectural governance, setting standards, conducting reviews, and managing risk across projects.

Modernization & Innovation

• Lead modernization initiatives, including migration from monolithic to service-oriented or event-driven architectures.

• Evaluate and introduce emerging technologies that improve developer productivity and system resilience.

• Partner with AI/ML teams to ensure scalable integration of intelligent services and real-time analytics.

Execution & Hands-on Guidance

• Work closely with teams to guide solution design, decomposition, and trade-off decisions.

• Support high-priority projects through planning, hands-on design sessions, and technical troubleshooting.

• Maintain a system-level view of infrastructure, services, and data flows to anticipate bottlenecks and scale risks.

Qualifications

Required

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 6+ years in a senior architectural leadership role.

• Deep experience designing and scaling enterprise software systems, particularly in cloud-native environments (AWS preferred).

• Proven success with architectural transformation initiatives (e.g., service decomposition, domain-driven design, platform re-architecture).

• Strong understanding of architectural trade-offs in system design (performance, resilience, cost, etc.).

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Preferred

• Experience with scientific, healthcare, or lab operations domains.

• Familiarity with LIMS/LES systems, AI integration patterns, or regulated software environments.

What You’ll Bring

• Strategic thinking with a deep technical foundation.

• Passion for systems architecture and continuous improvement.

• Leadership grounded in empathy, curiosity, and impact.

Compensation & Total Rewards

This range reflects a good-faith estimate of the base pay we reasonably expect to offer at the time of hire. Final compensation will vary based on experience, qualifications, and internal equity considerations.

This position is also eligible for additional compensation and benefits through Natera’s robust Total Rewards program, including:

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Annual performance incentive bonus

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Long-term equity awards

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Comprehensive health benefits (medical, dental, vision)

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401(k) with company match

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Generous paid time off and company holidays

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Additional wellness and work-life benefits

Compensation Range
$204,900—$256,100 USD

OUR OPPORTUNITY

Natera™ is a global leader in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing, dedicated to oncology, women’s health, and organ health. Our aim is to make personalized genetic testing and diagnostics part of the standard of care to protect health and enable earlier and more targeted interventions that lead to longer, healthier lives.

The Natera team consists of highly dedicated statisticians, geneticists, doctors, laboratory scientists, business professionals, software engineers and many other professionals from world-class institutions, who care deeply for our work and each other. When you join Natera, you’ll work hard and grow quickly. Working alongside the elite of the industry, you’ll be stretched and challenged, and take pride in being part of a company that is changing the landscape of genetic disease management.

WHAT WE OFFER

Competitive Benefits - Employee benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life and disability plans for eligible employees and their dependents. Additionally, Natera employees and their immediate families receive free testing in addition to fertility care benefits. Other benefits include pregnancy and baby bonding leave, 401k benefits, commuter benefits and much more. We also offer a generous employee referral program!

For more information, visit www.natera.com.

Natera is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace environment, and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. Inclusive collaboration benefits our employees, our community and our patients, and is critical to our mission of changing the management of disease worldwide.

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply, and will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable laws.

If you are based in California, we encourage you to read this important information for California residents.

Link: https://www.natera.com/notice-of-data-collection-california-residents/

Please be advised that Natera will reach out to candidates with a @natera.com email domain ONLY. Email communications from all other domain names are not from Natera or its employees and are fraudulent. Natera does not request interviews via text messages and does not ask for personal information until a candidate has engaged with the company and has spoken to a recruiter and the hiring team. Natera takes cyber crimes seriously, and will collaborate with law enforcement authorities to prosecute any related cyber crimes.

For more information:
- BBB announcement on job scams
- FBI Cyber Crime resource page