Sr. AEM Architect - Taylor, TX

Position: Urgent Need - Sr. AEM Architect - Taylor, TX, 76574
Job Title:
Sr. AEM Architect

Location:
Taylor, TX, 76574

Duration: 12 Months

Role Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced and strategic Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Architect to lead the design, implementation, and governance of enterprise-scale digital experience platforms. This role requires deep technical expertise across AEM Sites, Assets, Forms, and AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS), combined with the architectural vision to build scalable, secure, and high-performing solutions aligned with business objectives.

The ideal candidate will act as the technical authority for AEM, bridging business requirements with platform capabilities, driving engineering excellence, and mentoring development teams while establishing best practices across the organization.

Core Technology Stack

AEM Capabilities

• AEM Sites | AEM Assets | AEM Forms | AEM as a Cloud Service

Frameworks & Foundations

• OSGi (Apache Felix) | Apache Sling | JCR (Oak) | HTL (Sightly)

Infrastructure & Integration

• Adobe IMS | Dispatcher | CI/CD Pipelines | CDN (Fastly/Akamai)

Key Responsibilities

1. Architecture & System Design

• Design end-to-end AEM architectures for multi-site, multi-tenant, and multi-lingual implementations.
• Define author/publish topology, dispatcher configuration, and CDN integration strategies.
• Establish content architecture, including:
  • JCR repository design
  • Taxonomy and tagging models
  • Metadata schemas
• Architect reusable component libraries, templates, and design systems using Core Components and Style Systems.
• Lead AEM Cloud Service migrations, including discovery, code refactoring, content migration, and go-live strategy.
• Design integrations with Adobe Experience Cloud (Analytics, Target, Campaign, Tags) and third-party systems via APIs and event-driven patterns.

2. Implementation & Development Governance

• Own and govern the AEM codebase, including:
  • OSGi bundles
  • Sling Models
  • Servlets, Workflows, and Schedulers
• Define and enforce engineering standards, including:
  • Code quality and PR practices
  • Unit and integration testing
  • Documentation guidelines
• Design and implement Cloud Manager CI/CD pipelines (Full Stack, Frontend, Config).
• Build and maintain Dispatcher configurations for caching, routing, and security.
• Implement DAM strategies:
  • Asset workflows
  • Rendition pipelines
  • Smart tagging and metadata governance

3. Performance, Security & Governance

• Optimize AEM performance through:
  • Query optimization and Oak index tuning
  • Component rendering improvements
  • Cache and CDN strategies
• Enforce security best practices, including:
  • Service users and ACLs
  • CSRF protection and Sling security
  • Adobe IMS integration
• Manage content distribution strategies:
  • Replication topology
  • Sling Content Distribution
  • MSM / Live Copy models
• Monitor system health using Cloud Manager, New Relic, and Splunk, and define alerting/runbooks.

4. Stakeholder Collaboration & Leadership

• Collaborate with Product Owners, UX teams, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable solutions.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship for AEM developers.
• Conduct architecture reviews, design workshops, and knowledge-sharing sessions.
• Create and maintain:
  • Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
  • Technical design documents
  • Runbooks and onboarding materials
• Evaluate and recommend third-party tools and Adobe ecosystem enhancements.

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in AEM (CQ5/CRX).
• Proven track record of delivering enterprise-scale AEM implementations end-to-end.
• Hands-on experience with AEMaaCS, including Cloud Manager and migration tooling.

Technical Expertise

AEM Platform

• AEM Sites, Assets, Forms, Screens, Commerce
• OSGi (Apache Felix), Sling framework
• JCR (Jackrabbit Oak), query optimization
• HTL, Sling Models, Core Components
• Workflows, Event Handlers, Launchers

Dev Ops & Engineering

• Java, Maven multi-module architecture
• Git-based workflows (trunk-based preferred)
• CI/CD (Cloud Manager, Jenkins, Git Hub Actions, Azure Dev Ops)
• Docker, Kubernetes
• API design (REST, Graph
  
  QL, Adobe I/O Runtime)
• Observability tools (New Relic, Datadog, Splunk)

Preferred Qualifications

• Adobe Certified Expert (AEM Sites Developer/Architect)
• 
  
  Experience with Headless AEM (Content Fragments, Graph
  
  QL, SPA frameworks)
• Knowledge of identity protocols (SAML, OAuth, OIDC, Adobe IMS)
• Experience with Adobe Target and personalization strategies
• Integration experience with Adobe Commerce (Magento)
• Familiarity with CDN platforms:
  Fastly, Akamai, Cloud Front
• Exposure to MACH architecture, composable DXP, or hybrid CMS patterns

Architecture Competencies

Competency

Expected Expertise

Content Architecture

MSM, multi-site management, language copies, content fragments

Component Architecture

Core Component extension, dialogs, Style System

Repository Design

Oak indexing, JCR optimization, storage trade-offs

Security Model

CUGs, ACLs, Sling security, secure replication

Cloud-Native AEM

Immutable repos, pipelines, RDEs, Cloud constraints

Integration Patterns

Event-driven, APIs, Adobe I/O Events

Dispatcher & CDN

Caching rules, filters, flush strategies