About the role
At GMS, we've been helping Canadians for more than 75 years to get the health and travel insurance they want and need. The same pioneering spirit that started our story is what drives us to do things differently today. Insurance, honestly, is our promise, and it's what we do at GMS. We care about our customers, our community and each other. As a non-profit organization, we're proud to reinvest our profits into the health of the communities we serve and that have supported us since 1949.
We want our employees to feel good about coming to work and being in a workplace that promotes flexibility, growth and a healthy work-life balance. If you'd like to be part of a team that truly takes care of our customers, our communities, and each other, this could be your chance.
Here's the role
The Principal IT Architect is a strategic and technical leader responsible for defining and advancing the organization's enterprise architecture vision while providing hands-on solution design for key initiatives. This role bridges long-term business strategy with practical technology execution, ensuring scalable, secure, and innovative solutions across the organization. The Principal IT Architect plays a pivotal role in enabling the delivery of integrated products and services aligned with GMS's strategic objectives, embedding architectural frameworks and best practices throughout all technology development activities.
Position Responsibilities
- Define and maintain the organization's enterprise architecture strategy, ensuring technology direction and investments are aligned with long-term business goals and priorities.
- Establish and maintain architecture principles, standards, and governance frameworks that promote scalability, security, and operational excellence.
- Translate business requirements into scalable, secure, and maintainable technical solutions, ensuring consistency with enterprise architecture and best practices.
- Develop and maintain reference architectures, solution blueprints, and reusable design patterns to guide consistent solution delivery across the organization.
- Guide development teams through solution implementation, ensuring architectural integrity, performance, and alignment with strategic objectives, providing hands on support as needed.
- Evaluate and recommend technology platforms, frameworks, and solutions to drive modernization, cloud adoption, and data-driven innovation across the organization.
- Collaborate with business and IT Leaders to align technology strategies and capabilities with organizational priorities and strategic objectives.
- Serve as a senior-level technical expert in planning and implementing new technology solutions, ensuring integration and alignment with enterprise architecture.
- Champion innovation by identifying and assessing emerging technologies, including opportunities in AI, automation, and advanced data platforms, to enhance organizational agility and performance.
- Foster a culture of architectural excellence by mentoring architects, developers, and engineers, and by promoting collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professional growth.
- Partner with IT and business leadership to support strategic planning, resource prioritization, and performance outcomes that strengthen enterprise delivery and technology capability.
- Provide architectural leadership in the design and optimization of enterprise reporting and analytics capabilities, ensuring alignment with business intelligence and performance measurement needs.
Competencies
- Critical ThinkingJudgement: Applies sound judgment in complex or uncertain situations. Builds context and weighs risks, benefits, past experience and diverse perspectives to guide decisions. Identifies connections between actions and consequences to help inform choices and drive meaningful results. Provides thoughtful, strategic recommendations that balance competing priorities and advance organizational goals.
- Communication: Adapts communication style for different audiences. Effectively conveys complex or challenging information, ensuring understanding across diverse perspectives. Able to consume various forms and sources of information and communicate complex information in accessible terms.
- ImpactInfluence: Establishes credibility with diverse audiences and uses thoughtful, sophisticated techniques to gain support for organizational priorities. Contributes and encourages original ideas that challenge the status quo and drive improved outcomes. Share expertise to elevate team thinking and shape direction. Actively scans trends, insights, and data to inform viewpoints and decisions.
- Results Orientation: Drives others to deliver high-impact, outcome-focused results - even in high-pressure or challenging situations. Sets clear expectations, keeps efforts aligned with priorities and maintains momentum through accountability. Removes obstacles, remains agile and ensures results meet or exceed expectations.
EducationExperience
- Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering or an equivalent combination of experience and education.
- 8+ years of experience in IT architecture, including 4+ years in enterprise or solution architecture roles.
- Demonstrated expertise in cloud architecture, data platforms, system integration, and emerging technologies (expertise with Microsoft's Azure Cloud strongly preferred).
- Strong understanding of enterprise IT governance and risk management principles.
- Experience leading digital transformation initiatives is preferred.
- Familiarity with DevOps, Agile, and CI/CD practices.
- Experience with AI/ML frameworks and tools to support real time data automation.
- Certifications in architecture frameworks or cloud technologies are considered an asset.
- Experience working in an insurance or financial industry is considered an asset.
Are we a fit?
If you think so, please apply by November 12, 2025. We'd love to reach out to everyone who applies, but we just don't have enough hands! If you're selected for an interview, we'll be in touch. If not, please consider us again in the future.
About the role
At GMS, we've been helping Canadians for more than 75 years to get the health and travel insurance they want and need. The same pioneering spirit that started our story is what drives us to do things differently today. Insurance, honestly, is our promise, and it's what we do at GMS. We care about our customers, our community and each other. As a non-profit organization, we're proud to reinvest our profits into the health of the communities we serve and that have supported us since 1949.
We want our employees to feel good about coming to work and being in a workplace that promotes flexibility, growth and a healthy work-life balance. If you'd like to be part of a team that truly takes care of our customers, our communities, and each other, this could be your chance.
Here's the role
The Principal IT Architect is a strategic and technical leader responsible for defining and advancing the organization's enterprise architecture vision while providing hands-on solution design for key initiatives. This role bridges long-term business strategy with practical technology execution, ensuring scalable, secure, and innovative solutions across the organization. The Principal IT Architect plays a pivotal role in enabling the delivery of integrated products and services aligned with GMS's strategic objectives, embedding architectural frameworks and best practices throughout all technology development activities.
Position Responsibilities
- Define and maintain the organization's enterprise architecture strategy, ensuring technology direction and investments are aligned with long-term business goals and priorities.
- Establish and maintain architecture principles, standards, and governance frameworks that promote scalability, security, and operational excellence.
- Translate business requirements into scalable, secure, and maintainable technical solutions, ensuring consistency with enterprise architecture and best practices.
- Develop and maintain reference architectures, solution blueprints, and reusable design patterns to guide consistent solution delivery across the organization.
- Guide development teams through solution implementation, ensuring architectural integrity, performance, and alignment with strategic objectives, providing hands on support as needed.
- Evaluate and recommend technology platforms, frameworks, and solutions to drive modernization, cloud adoption, and data-driven innovation across the organization.
- Collaborate with business and IT Leaders to align technology strategies and capabilities with organizational priorities and strategic objectives.
- Serve as a senior-level technical expert in planning and implementing new technology solutions, ensuring integration and alignment with enterprise architecture.
- Champion innovation by identifying and assessing emerging technologies, including opportunities in AI, automation, and advanced data platforms, to enhance organizational agility and performance.
- Foster a culture of architectural excellence by mentoring architects, developers, and engineers, and by promoting collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professional growth.
- Partner with IT and business leadership to support strategic planning, resource prioritization, and performance outcomes that strengthen enterprise delivery and technology capability.
- Provide architectural leadership in the design and optimization of enterprise reporting and analytics capabilities, ensuring alignment with business intelligence and performance measurement needs.
Competencies
- Critical ThinkingJudgement: Applies sound judgment in complex or uncertain situations. Builds context and weighs risks, benefits, past experience and diverse perspectives to guide decisions. Identifies connections between actions and consequences to help inform choices and drive meaningful results. Provides thoughtful, strategic recommendations that balance competing priorities and advance organizational goals.
- Communication: Adapts communication style for different audiences. Effectively conveys complex or challenging information, ensuring understanding across diverse perspectives. Able to consume various forms and sources of information and communicate complex information in accessible terms.
- ImpactInfluence: Establishes credibility with diverse audiences and uses thoughtful, sophisticated techniques to gain support for organizational priorities. Contributes and encourages original ideas that challenge the status quo and drive improved outcomes. Share expertise to elevate team thinking and shape direction. Actively scans trends, insights, and data to inform viewpoints and decisions.
- Results Orientation: Drives others to deliver high-impact, outcome-focused results - even in high-pressure or challenging situations. Sets clear expectations, keeps efforts aligned with priorities and maintains momentum through accountability. Removes obstacles, remains agile and ensures results meet or exceed expectations.
EducationExperience
- Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering or an equivalent combination of experience and education.
- 8+ years of experience in IT architecture, including 4+ years in enterprise or solution architecture roles.
- Demonstrated expertise in cloud architecture, data platforms, system integration, and emerging technologies (expertise with Microsoft's Azure Cloud strongly preferred).
- Strong understanding of enterprise IT governance and risk management principles.
- Experience leading digital transformation initiatives is preferred.
- Familiarity with DevOps, Agile, and CI/CD practices.
- Experience with AI/ML frameworks and tools to support real time data automation.
- Certifications in architecture frameworks or cloud technologies are considered an asset.
- Experience working in an insurance or financial industry is considered an asset.
Are we a fit?
If you think so, please apply by November 12, 2025. We'd love to reach out to everyone who applies, but we just don't have enough hands! If you're selected for an interview, we'll be in touch. If not, please consider us again in the future.