Principal Architect, Security & Performance

Who We Are

We’re Dealer Tire, a family-owned, international distributor of tires and parts established in 1918 in Cleveland, OH. We’re laser focused on helping the world’s largest and most trusted auto manufacturers grow their tire business—in fact, we’ve sold more than 60 million tires to date. We’re a thriving company, and we’re looking for driven individuals to join our team. That’s where you come in!

Base Pay Range:

$150,000 - $160,000

The Principal Architect, Security & Performance serves as a technical authority and individual contributor across the Dealer Tire Consumer eCommerce Group (CEG), spanning both the Dealer Tire and SimpleTire platforms. This role is primarily focused on designing a bulletproof security posture to satisfy strict OEM contractual data obligations, architecting resilient cloud environments, and driving code-level application performance and database stability that adhere to established enterprise standards.

As a Principal Architect, Security & Performance, your essential job functions will include the following:

• Partner with the broader enterprise Dealer Tire security teams to continuously monitor, evaluate, and harden the collective security posture across all consumer-facing digital applications.
• Serve as the principal subject matter expert (SME) for all cloud installations, consumer data privacy safeguards, PII protection, and PCI compliance requirements and provide high-level technical blueprinting and structural signoffs for annual SOC 2 and PCI security lifecycles.
• Review complex pull requests, infrastructure scripts, and third-party vendor integrations to ensure alignment with master architecture guidelines.
• Identify, prototype, and champion the introduction of cutting-edge tech stacks, edge-computing practices, and optimization methods that drive organizational value.
• Function as an elite advisory consultant to the SRE, Core Systems, and DevOps management layers as needed for Infrastructure.

Security Architecture

• Design, deploy, and maintain advanced edge security configurations within Akamai, directly owning the architecture for Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule sets, Bot Management defense strategies, and comprehensive DDoS/DoS mitigation layers.
• Proactively analyze edge security logs and threat intelligence to build real-time protective policies against credential stuffing, malicious scraping, API abuse, and application-layer exploits across all digital touchpoints.
• In coordination with the Enterprise Security team, Architect and enforce security protocols for the isolated Dealer Tire and SimpleTire AWS environments to fulfill data privacy mandates with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
• Implement a thorough Security Management process to keep the CEG environments secure from potential harm.

Application Performance & Database Optimization

• Take full technical ownership of cross-platform application speed, server response times, and database query optimization.
• Partner closely with engineering teams to refactor, tune, and optimize applications and data functions to eliminate systemic application bottlenecks.
• Leverage next-generation enterprise AI orchestration tools (such as Claude Code) to rapidly accelerate technical designs, generate documentation, and perform high-level code architecture reviews.
• Act as an architectural bridge between the application development layer and the underlying systems layer to champion holistic performance excellence.

Other Duties as assigned

Position Qualifications

• Cloud & Networking Expertise: Deep hands-on experience in architectural design within Amazon Web Services (AWS) and advanced Content Delivery Networks, specifically focusing on enterprise Akamai/Cloudflare implementations including WAF tuning, Bot Manager engineering, and DDoS threat-shield deployment.
• Performance Engineering: Proven capability to read, write, and optimize application components utilizing modern frameworks and languages (e.g., PHP, Python, React, Next.js).
• Data Systems: Advanced familiarity with optimizing high-volume relational databases (Aurora AWS, MySQL, PostgreSQL) and search optimization clusters (Elasticsearch).
• Systems Intelligence: Ability to synthesize complex application code logic with underlying cloud network configurations to diagnose and resolve performance issues quickly.
• Security Advocacy: A proactive mindset focused on shifting security left, actively leveraging edge computing safeguards (WAF, Bot Management, and DoS countermeasures) to balance fast-paced e-commerce agility with rigorous corporate and OEM data privacy compliance standards.
• Adaptability and Continuous Improvement: Comfortable in a fast-paced, evolving environment; champions innovation and process improvements to enhance performance and security.

Physical Job Requirements

• Continuous viewing from and inputting data to a computer screen
• Talking through the computer for meetings and one-to-one conversations
• Sitting for long periods of time
• This role functions asynchronously to a standard 9-5 working schedule and may require work to be performed during early mornings, evenings and weekends (off-hours).
• Continuous viewing of a computer monitor and data entry.
• Travel required (<10%)

Drug Policy

Dealer Tire is a drug-free environment.  All applicants being considered for employment must pass a pre-employment drug screening before beginning work.

This position is targeted to be closed on:

2026-09-03

Why Dealer Tire: An amazing opportunity to join a growing organization, built on the efforts of hard working, innovative, and team-oriented people. The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and geographic location. The total compensation package may also include commission, bonus or profit sharing. We offer a competitive & comprehensive benefit package including: paid time off, medical, dental, vision, and 401k match (50% on the dollar up to 7% of employee contribution). For more information on our benefit offerings, please visit our Dealer Tire Family of Companies Benefits Highlights Booklet.

EOE Statement: Dealer Tire is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, veteran status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status or disability (in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act*), or any other legally protected status, with respect to employment opportunities. 

*ADA Disclosure: Any candidate who feels that they may need an accommodation to complete this application, or any portions of same, based on the impact of a disability should contact Dealer Tire’s Human Resources Department to discuss your specific needs. Please feel free to contact us at 1-800-933-2537 x6550.