Job Description

Graco manufactures and markets premium equipment to move, measure, control, dispense and spray a wide variety of fluid and powder materials. What does that mean? Well, we pump peanut butter into your jar, and the oil in your car. We glue the soles of your shoes, the glass in your windows and the screen on your phone. We spray the finish on your vehicle, coatings on your pills, the paint on your house and texture on your walls. Graco is part of your daily life.

This role is currently based at our Minneapolis office and will transition to our new headquarters in Dayton, MN, in 2027.

The Principal Domain Architect provides enterprise-wide technical leadership by defining and driving architectural strategies that enable scalability, innovation, and long-term success. This position partners closely with senior engineering, product, and business leaders to align technology roadmaps with strategic objectives, while ensuring that systems are secure, reliable, and future-ready. The Principal Architect leads architectural governance, fosters engineering excellence, and steers major technology initiatives across domains and platforms.

What You Will Do at Graco:

Domain Expertise

• Lead architecture for large-scale, cross-domain programs spanning cloud platforms, data ecosystems, microservices, and enterprise applications.
• Develop and govern reference architectures, architectural standards, and best practices to promote reusability, scalability, and system integrity.
• Evaluate, select, and evangelize emerging technologies, frameworks, and platforms to support modernization and innovation (e.g., cloud-native, AI/ML, event-driven architecture) with knowledge of emerging trends across the tech industry.
• Mentor senior engineers and architects, cultivating architectural thinking and leadership across the engineering organization.
• Drive technical due diligence, system audits, and efforts to reduce technical debt while enhancing performance, reliability, and maintainability.
• Champion technical excellence and advocate for best practices throughout the IT organization.
• Represent Graco's engineering capabilities in industry discussions, conferences, and partnerships.

Stakeholder Management

• Define and evolve the architecture vision for one or multiple domains, ensuring alignment with long-term business and technology strategies.
• Collaborate with executive stakeholders to define technology roadmaps, assess risks, and support strategic planning and digital transformation efforts.
• Facilitate technical planning, architecture reviews, and trade-off discussions to guide design decisions and manage complexity across teams.
• Build and maintain relationships with business and IT teams to foster collaboration.

What You Will Bring to Graco:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years of overall IT experience with strong domain expertise in architecture.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management and problem-solving skills.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage moderately complex, medium to large-scale technology initiatives with global teams and system integrators.

Accelerators:

• Master’s degree in a relevant field.
• Experience in the manufacturing industry or other complex, process-driven environments.
• Experience with cloud modernization and digital transformation initiatives.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This role is not eligible for immigration sponsorship now or in the future (e.g., H-1B, TN, F-1 OPT).

At Graco, you truly make a difference. Your unique talents contribute to our organizational growth and future. Not only do you make a difference, but Graco’s culture empowers employees to create their own career path. Whether you choose to advance within your current department or explore new opportunities in different divisions, you have the ability to build your future. Our managers are here to provide support and guidance as you continue to grow within your career.

Graco has excellent opportunities available to individuals who want to be part of a fast-moving, growing company that is committed to quality, innovation and solving fluid handling problems for our customers. Graco is proud to be named a Best Place to Work by Fortune Magazine in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 & 2022. Graco offers attractive compensation, benefits and career development opportunities. Graco’s comprehensive benefits include medical, dental, stock purchase plan, 401(k), tuition reimbursement and more.

Our company uses E-Verify to confirm the employment and eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.dhs.gov/E-Verify

The base pay range for this position is listed below, exclusive of fringe benefits or other compensation. If you are hired, your final base hourly rate will be determined based on factors such as geographic location, skills, competencies, education, and/or experience. In addition to those factors, we will also consider internal equity of our current employees. Please keep in mind that the range provided is the full base salary range for the role. Hiring at or near the maximum of the range would not be typical to allow for future and continued salary growth.

$111,100.00 - $194,400.00