INTERNAL - Principal System Architect (all genders) - Berlin

Your Mission

As Principal System Architect for SoftwareFactory, you will define and own the technical vision and architectural direction of one of Mercedes Benz's most critical developer platforms, serving over 14,000 users across multiple organizations worldwide.
 
SoftwareFactory is the foundation of MB.OS, enabling developer productivity across multiple Mercedes Benz organizations. As one of only two System Architects in an ART of over 120 engineers, you carry significant responsibility — your decisions shape how teams build, operate, and evolve the platform.
 
Beyond the ART, you will collaborate with System Architects from other ARTs and Solution Management to harmonize the broader MB.OS technical landscape, ensuring that the choices made in SoftwareFactory are coherent with the direction of the entire Mercedes Benz software ecosystem.

Sneak preview of your future tasks

• Define and own the technical architecture of the SoftwareFactory ART, ensuring coherence, scalability, and reliability across all teams and services.
• Collaborate with System Architects from other ARTs and Solution Management to align and harmonize the technical landscape across MB.OS.
• Identify and resolve architectural risks, cross-team technical dependencies, and areas of structural technical debt.
• Guide and review architectural decisions made by engineering teams, providing clear guardrails and actionable direction.
• Drive technical governance and standards across the ART, covering areas such as security, scalability, observability, and operational reliability.
• Support PI Planning by defining architectural guardrails, surfacing cross-team dependencies, and enabling teams to plan with confidence.
• Foster transparency and technical alignment across teams, stakeholders, and leadership through clear communication of architectural direction and trade-offs.
• Mentor engineers and engineering leads, elevating the overall technical quality and architectural thinking across the ART.

Your Profile

• Deep expert-level knowledge in cloud architecture, distributed systems, and platform engineering at scale.
• Proven track record of making and owning architectural decisions in large engineering organizations (100+ engineers or equivalent scale).
• Strong experience working across organizational boundaries to align and harmonize technical landscapes in complex corporate environments.
• Solid understanding of SRE principles and operational reliability in large-scale, always-on systems.
• Familiarity with SAFe or other large-scale Agile frameworks, specifically in the System Architect role or equivalent.
• Experience handling architectural dependencies across teams in different layers and with partner companies or vendors.
• Strong critical thinking skills: able to cut through complexity, identify what truly matters, and drive decisions with clarity.
• Excellent stakeholder communication skills ‚Äî able to articulate technical direction to both engineers and non-technical leadership.

 
Nice to have 

• Experience with self-hosted GitLab and/or Artifactory at scale.
• Multicloud architecture experience, including EU sovereign cloud concepts.
• Background in large software delivery companies (not only in manufacturing).
• Familiarity with developer productivity platforms and internal developer experience (DevEx) thinking.

 
Personal skills 

• Naturally systems-level thinker: you see the big picture while remaining grounded in technical reality.
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity and incomplete information, making sound decisions and iterating as clarity emerges.
• Collaborative and influential: you build trust across disciplines and organizational levels without relying on authority.
• Strong communicator: you translate complex architectural concepts into clear narratives for diverse audiences.
• High initiative and resilience: you take ownership of hard problems and stay focused under pressure.
• Skilled in constructive conflict resolution ‚Äî able to align strong technical voices around a shared direction.
• Genuine belief in Agile values and principles as an enabler of good architecture, not a constraint.

 
Education 

• Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a comparable technical discipline.

 

• Proficient in English.
• German is a plus, not a must.

Why us?

• A chance to work on a new generation of Infotainment Systems, which will power millions of cars
• An international, interdisciplinary innovation lab, which is part of the Mercedes-Benz AG
• Great company values that we are passionate about and live by every day at work. 
• Agile working methods and open feedback culture
• A brand new modern and fully accessible office facing the Spree
• Flexible working hours
• Transportation and health benefits, discounts on cars, free coffee, fruits and more

Interested?

We look forward to receiving your complete application, including CV (in English or German) and relevant references with the following information:

• Job title and reference number
•  Salary expectations
•  Earliest start date

We would like to encourage people with health impairments to apply to our jobs! Our building and work places offer the possibilities to adjust to different employee requirements. 

• Posting Date: 20.04.2026
• Supervisor: Gabriel Zaharia
• Dept: Software Factory
• Team: SwF Infra & SRE Cluster - 1
• Opening: 1 x Internal FTE