Senior Director Principal Architect

Facilities Sr. Director-Principal Architect

Shape the future of healthcare environments at one of the nation's leading academic medical centers. As the Facilities Sr. Director-Principal Architect, you will set the architectural vision for complex campuses, transforming strategic priorities into innovative, patient-centered spaces that support care, research, and growth.

In this senior leadership role, you will serve as Stanford Health Care's enterprise architectural authority, shaping design strategy, standards, and capital programs across multiple campuses while leading a growing team of architectural professionals. You'll partner with executives, planners, project managers, and clinical stakeholders to deliver complex healthcare environments that advance organizational goals and patient care.

The Facilities Services division enhances health through leadership, collaboration, and innovation. Our team offers essential non-clinical support 24/7, ensuring safe operations and planning for future needs. We represent the intersection of planning, construction, general services, and facilities operations.

If you are interested in joining Stanford Health Care, please read the job description below and apply online.

The Senior Director – Principal Facilities Architect leads enterprise-wide architectural design strategy, governance, and oversight for complex healthcare capital projects and planning initiatives across Stanford Health Care. Serves as the organization's senior architectural authority, ensuring alignment of design solutions with clinical operations, patient experience, regulatory requirements, and long-term system goals.

This role provides executive-level leadership across programming, planning, and design phases; directs external consultant teams; and partners with Facilities Planning & Design leadership, clinical stakeholders, and executive governance bodies to deliver high-performing, code-compliant, and future-ready healthcare environments.

This role is expected to operate as an enterprise leader with the ability to lead complex operational environments beyond the primary discipline. This includes the capacity to oversee and stabilize additional Facilities Services functional areas when needed, partner effectively across diverse operational domains, and make sound decisions that balance safety, service, financial stewardship, and organizational priorities. This role may be required to provide senior-level representation of the Business Unit or division in internal and external forums to ensure continuity of leadership when Facilities Services senior leadership is not in attendance.

This role will be hybrid minimum 2 days a week. Regardless, the expectation will be for this role to be able to be on-site any day of the week as needed during regular work hours.

Locations Stanford Health Care What you will do

• Establish and uphold enterprise architectural design standards, guidelines, and best practices across all healthcare projects
• Provide oversight for programming, planning, and design from concept through construction
• Ensure alignment with clinical workflows, patient safety, infection prevention, and evidence-based design principles
• Approve key design deliverables (programs, test fits, design packages) and manage design risk
• Serve as the primary architectural representative for SHC with external architects, engineers, and consultants
• Define scope, expectations, and performance standards for design teams
• Lead design reviews, quality assurance (QA)/quality control (QC) processes, and ensure consistency across projects and campuses
• Resolve complex design, coordination, and constructability issues
• Support system-wide master planning, campus planning, and capital programming initiatives
• Translate enterprise growth, operational, and financial goals into facility and design strategies
• Partner with Finance, Operations, and Capital Projects to align scope, phasing, budgets, and delivery
• Facilitate alignment across clinical, operational, and executive stakeholders
• Present planning and design strategies, options, and recommendations to leadership and governance bodies
• Drive consensus and decision-making within…