Software Architect - Design Language System Modernization & Technical Debt Remediation

We’re seeking a Software Architect with a passion for modernization, design systems, and AI-assisted engineering.

Our goal is to unify fragmented frontend ecosystems, reduce technical debt, and accelerate product delivery through a modern, enterprise-grade Design Language System (DLS). Across our diverse product portfolio, multiple design system generations and technology stacks coexist.

This role will define and drive a modernization strategy—enabling teams to evolve toward a shared design language and architecture while maintaining business continuity and autonomy.

You’ll blend hands-on architecture with strategic leadership, applying practical modernization patterns and emerging AI tools to speed migration, improve developer experience, and deliver consistent user interfaces across our global product suite.

Your role:

Technical Debt Strategy & Modernization Planning

• Audit and prioritize frontend technical debt across products and generations.
• Define migration roadmaps that balance modernization with product stability.
• Design incremental migration and coexistence strategies.
• Establish measurable KPIs for modernization and technical debt reduction.

Design System Architecture

• Architect cross-product integration of our Design Language System (DLS).
• Develop scalable patterns for component integration, version management, and compatibility layers.
• Guide teams in adopting multiple frameworks (e.g. React, Angular, WPF) while maintaining legacy system stability.
• Collaborate with designers, engineers, and product owners to ensure cohesive UX and UI consistency.

AI-Enhanced Engineering Enablement

• Explore and integrate AI-assisted development tools (e.g. code refactoring assistants, dependency analyzers, natural language–to-code prototypes).
• Build internal capabilities for semi-automated code modernization and pattern recognition.
• Prototype workflows for intelligent mapping between legacy components/UI/UX and modern DLS equivalents.

Leadership & Cross-Team Enablement

• Act as an architecture ambassador—driving alignment across autonomous business units.
• Mentor teams in modernization best practices and scalable design system use.
• Communicate complex architecture decisions in clear business terms.
• Foster a culture of shared ownership, continuous learning, and modernization at scale.

You're the right fit if:

• 10+ years of experience in full-stack architecture, with a focus on modernization and legacy remediation.
• Proven success leading large-scale design system or UI modernization programs.
• Expertise in modern frontend frameworks (React, Angular, WPF).
• Experience balancing architectural consistency with local team autonomy.
• Strong ability to translate technical architecture into business value and ROI.
• Curiosity and hands-on exposure to AI-driven development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Sourcegraph Cody, WindSurf, custom LLM integrations, Model Context Protocol Servers).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with enterprise-scale design system migrations (multi-brand or multi-product).
• Knowledge of design-to-code integration tooling (e.g., Figma APIs, Storybook, Tokens Studio).
• Familiarity with code transformation frameworks or AST-based refactoring.
• Exposure to LLMs for code understanding or migration assistance.
• Understanding of backend APIs and data models that support frontend modernization.

Why This Role Matters

This is a rare opportunity to lead one of the most strategic modernization initiatives in our product ecosystem — one that:

• Reduces fragmentation and technical complexity across our portfolio.
• Delivers a unified, scalable design system for faster time-to-market.
• Enables AI-augmented engineering as a competitive advantage.
• Shapes the next decade of user experience and developer productivity across the organization.

Who You Are

You combine architectural depth with pragmatic delivery sense.
You’re as comfortable discussing ROI and business impact as you are debating component lifecycle management or build pipelines.You thrive on enabling others—seeing architecture not as control, but as empowerment.

How we work together
We believe that we are better together than apart. For our office-based teams, this means working in-person at least 3 days per week.

For this position we will only consider candidates already located in The Netherlands.

About Philips
We are a health technology company. We built our entire company around the belief that every human matters, and we won't stop until everybody everywhere has access to the quality healthcare that we all deserve. Do the work of your life to help the lives of others.