Engineering Architect

Critical Propulsion

33d•Remote

About The Position

This role is for an Engineering Architect who will provide technical direction for a swarm that ships working software every 5 days. Responsibilities include system design, integration strategy, data architecture, and infrastructure decisions. The goal is to maintain clean pulse cycles and prevent rework. The team operates using a swarm model, pairing senior operators with AI agents to improve cycle times and capacity. This model emphasizes zero handoffs, single timezone operation, no offshore blended teams, and no sprint theater. The first week is focused on productive delivery, with outcomes defined and trust placed in operators to achieve them.

Requirements

Experience building systems to understand potential pitfalls and guide the team away from them.
Ability to make architecture decisions that withstand the pressure of 5-day delivery.
Cross-functional capability awareness across data engineering, cloud infrastructure, and application architecture.
Embrace agentic development and treat AI as more than just autocomplete.
Work effectively with AI agents as part of your workflow, knowing which decisions to delegate.
Communicate directly and offer solutions.
Contribute as an architect by setting technical direction and building.
Ship working software every cycle.
Operate autonomously.
Demonstrated ability to design systems that work under real load.

Nice To Haves

Deep experience with Azure cloud services, including infrastructure-as-code, networking, and platform services in production.
Experience designing and building data platforms, pipelines, or analytics infrastructure using tools like Azure Data Factory, Synapse, Databricks, dbt, or equivalent.
Fluency in Python, Node.js, or TypeScript at a systems level.
Hands-on experience with agentic AI tooling: Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot Workspace, or similar.
Experience shaping how a team uses AI tools.
Experience building or consuming AI APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI, or equivalent).
Comfort with spec-driven design.
Background in consulting or client-facing delivery.
Prior experience on small, autonomous teams (3-4 person crew).

Responsibilities

Provide technical direction for a swarm that ships working software every 5 days.
Make system design, integration strategy, data architecture, and infrastructure decisions.
Ensure clean pulse cycles and prevent rework.
Build production code alongside the swarm.
Delegate real work to AI agents, critically review their output, and iterate fast.
Communicate technical direction directly and provide better options when a direction is wrong.
Operate autonomously, avoiding unnecessary status meetings and presentations.
Write specs that operators can build from in a single pulse cycle without ambiguity or rework loops.
Design systems where AI is a first-class component.