Principal Software Architect (San Diego)

Carlsmed•Carlsbad, CA

35d

About The Position

The Principal Software Architect will work on software projects supporting Carlsmed’s proprietary implants, instrumentation, and design automation systems for personalized surgery. In this role, you will provide technical leadership and define scalable architectures that support both current needs and future growth. You will collaborate with engineering teams and senior leadership to align technical strategy with business objectives, guide key architectural decisions, establish best practices, and mentor engineers across the organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field
10–15 years of experience building software systems, including 5+ years of experience leading development teams, required
Excellent verbal and written communication
Ability to perform high quality work with speed
Willingness to wear multiple hats when needed to enable excellent patient outcomes
Deep expertise in Node.js ecosystem and distributed systems
Advanced knowledge of GraphQL, including federation and gateway patterns
Expert-level understanding of React architecture and performance optimization
Extensive experience with PostgreSQL at scale, including sharding and replication
Proven track record of leading large-scale technical initiatives
Strong understanding of system design, scalability, and performance
Experience with high-traffic, distributed systems
Excellence in technical communication and documentation
Track record of mentoring senior engineers and technical leads

Nice To Haves

Experience with spine or orthopedics highly desired
Experience with Prisma in large-scale applications preferred
Knowledge of modern application frameworks like Remix preferred
iOS architecture experience for enterprise applications preferred
Experience with multiple cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) preferred
Background in API gateway and service mesh technologies preferred
Experience with event-driven architectures and message queuing preferred
Knowledge of security best practices and compliance requirements preferred

Responsibilities

Define and drive the technical vision and roadmap for our entire platform
Design scalable, maintainable architectures for complex distributed systems
Establish technical standards and best practices across the organization
Lead architectural reviews and provide technical governance
Make critical technology choices that impact the entire organization
Mentor senior engineers and technical leads in architectural thinking
Drive innovation and keep our technology stack modern and competitive
Collaborate with senior leadership to align technical strategy with business goals
Identify and mitigate technical risks across the organization
Guide teams in implementing Node.js-based microservices architecture
Design and govern GraphQL schema architecture across multiple services
Establish patterns for scalable React applications and component libraries
Architect database solutions using PostgreSQL for high-scale applications
Define API standards and integration patterns across the platform
Lead proof-of-concept initiatives for new technologies
Drive technical spikes to validate architectural decisions