Principal Technical Architect We’re hiring a Principal Technical Architect for a high-stakes program. You will be the client CTO’s trusted technical partner and an active builder—driving architecture, prototyping critical paths, guiding implementation, and jumping into the code/infrastructure when needed to de-risk delivery. This is a “lead from the front” role: design, build, validate, and ship—while keeping stakeholders aligned and confident. What You’ll Do 1) Architect and implement critical foundations * Define target architecture (services, data flows, security boundaries, observability) and produce working reference implementations for the highest-risk components. * Build/ship “thin vertical slices” to validate end-to-end workflows early (auth → API → data → UI → monitoring). * Establish performance/reliability baselines (SLIs/SLOs), logging/metrics/tracing, and practical runbooks.
2) Be a player-coach to the engineering team * Pair with engineers to unblock delivery: debugging, design reviews, refactors, and “hands dirty” problem solving. * Set engineering standards: coding patterns, API conventions, integration contracts, branching/release hygiene, and quality gates. * Improve release/demo readiness: acceptance criteria, readiness checks, rollback plans, and incident response drills.
3) Own technical execution clarity (not just reporting) * Turn ambiguity into decision-ready artifacts plus implementation plans: architecture diagrams, ADRs, sequencing plans, dependency maps, and risk burn-downs. * Run weekly technical leadership syncs with the CTO/VP Eng and translate deep work into: tradeoffs, priorities, timelines, and risk containment. * Manage cross-team integration in distributed and multi-vendor environments, validating interfaces with real test traffic/data.
What Success Looks Like (30–90 Days) * A validated target architecture with working prototypes/reference services for the top risks. * Predictable demos/releases with fewer surprises, clear “go/no-go” criteria, and improved observability. * A visible reduction in technical risk and debt through measurable milestones (latency, failure rates, deployment frequency, MTTR). * Stakeholder trust strengthened via crisp updates backed by shipped artifacts and evidence.
Required * 10+ years in software engineering + architecture roles with meaningful hands-on delivery ownership. * Demonstrated ability to code and ship in at least one modern stack (e.g., Python/Node/Java) and comfortably work across repo/tooling. * Strong cloud/platform fundamentals (Azure in the original JD) including networking, identity, security controls, deployment patterns, and observability. * Proven experience designing and implementing APIs, services, and data pipelines (batch + event-driven patterns). * Strong written + verbal communication: able to produce crisp 1–2 page updates and concrete technical artifacts (ADRs, diagrams, RFCs). * Calm under pressure, structured thinker, low-ego leader, bias for evidence.
Nice to Have * Regulated environments (healthcare/life sciences/security-focused SaaS). * Experience with security reviews, threat modeling, and compliance-minded architecture. * Familiarity with ML/AI delivery considerations (data lineage, model deployment/monitoring, HITL workflows). * Track record in stabilization/rescue engagements after failed demos/releases
To qualify for this role, we ask that you provide a written response to the following question as part of your application:
Walk us through one system where you personally (a) designed the target architecture and (b) built the reference implementation for the riskiest component. What did you code or configure yourself (repository/infrastructure), what key tradeoffs did you document (ADRs), how did you validate it end-to-end (testing/observability), and what changed in release or demo predictability in the following 30–90 days?
