Principal Architect

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Formulate technical strategies and oversee architectural designs across cloud, data, and AI/ML systems for comprehensive engagements.

• Develop scalable cloud-native solutions, incorporating multi-cloud and hybrid approaches (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes).

• Create data architectures including warehouses, data lakes, and pipelines for both batch and streaming workloads (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, Spark, Kafka).

• Design AI/ML systems encompassing model serving, MLOps pipelines, feature stores, and LLM-based applications (e.g., SageMaker, Vertex AI, MLflow, Hugging Face).

• Establish infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and DevOps standards across various engagements (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation, GitHub Actions).

• Enhance performance, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and reliability across deployed systems.

• Ensure architectural compliance with security, governance, and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2).

• Spearhead cloud migration and platform modernization projects.

• Adopt an AI-focused approach in daily tasks, leveraging tools like Claude, Cursor, and other contemporary AI assistants to deliver high-quality work efficiently.

• Collaborate with senior leadership and clients as the primary technical representative for strategy and direction.

• Clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both engineering and non-engineering stakeholders.

• Work closely with engineering, data, AI, and product teams to align architecture with broader business objectives.

• Create and maintain architecture documentation, standards, and guidelines.

• Define and advocate for architectural standards and best practices in the engagements you support.

• Mentor seasoned engineers and architects, fostering their technical acumen and influence.

• Tackle the most challenging architectural and integration issues, acting as the senior technical decision-maker.

• Assess emerging technologies and suggest tools, frameworks, and patterns that enhance architecture over time.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 8 years of experience in software engineering, with a minimum of 5 years in technical leadership positions.

• Extensive expertise in cloud platforms and cloud-native architectures (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).

• Strong background in microservices, serverless architectures, containers, and event-driven systems (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker, Lambda, EventBridge).

• Proficient with infrastructure as code and CI/CD practices (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation, Pulumi, GitHub Actions).

• Robust data architecture knowledge across relational, NoSQL, and big data systems (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Snowflake, BigQuery, Spark, Kafka).

• Practical experience with data modeling, ETL/ELT pipelines, and orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, Prefect, dbt).

• Significant experience in designing production-ready AI/ML systems, including LLMs, MLOps, and model serving (e.g., SageMaker, Vertex AI, MLflow, Hugging Face, PyTorch, TensorFlow).

• Comprehensive understanding of networking, security, identity, and access management within cloud environments.

• Familiarity with governance, compliance, and observability frameworks.

• Strong software engineering capabilities (Python, APIs, containerization).

• Proven track record in senior technical leadership and mentoring experienced engineers.

• Excellent stakeholder communication skills, capable of translating technical details for various audiences.

• Demonstrated use of AI-forward tools such as Claude and Cursor.

• Experience in multi-cloud architecture, AI ethics or responsible AI initiatives, or enterprise architecture certifications (e.g., TOGAF, AWS/Azure/GCP) is an advantage.

🏝️ Benefits

• At Robots & Pencils, we craft AI systems for a human-centric world.

• Each position here plays a crucial role in achieving that mission.