Architect - United States

Photon•United States,

1d•$56,000 - $196,000•Remote

About The Position

We are seeking an exceptional Principal Software Engineer to provide high-level technical leadership, drive architectural vision, and design robust, scalable distributed systems. In this role, you will take ambiguous business challenges and turn them into resilient, production-grade cloud platforms. You will champion modern engineering practices by leveraging an AI-native engineering approach—utilizing agent skills, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and spec-driven development to accelerate development lifecycles while maintaining high standards for performance, security, and maintainability.

Requirements

15+ years of hands-on software development experience building, scaling, and operating high-performance backend platforms.
Deep expertise in Java and Python, with strong command over algorithms, multithreading, concurrent programming, and JVM tuning/profiling.
AWS: Deep hands-on experience with Lambda, DynamoDB, SNS, SQS, S3, EC2/ASG, EKS, VPC, ElastiCache, RDS, Redshift, CloudWatch, and IAM/cross-account security.
GCP: Practical knowledge of BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud Monitoring, and OpenTelemetry.
Extensive experience with relational and NoSQL databases, data warehouses, and analytics pipelines (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB, Redis, Athena, Palantir Foundry, ETL workflows).
Strong proficiency with Terraform, Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes, Git, CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Screwdriver/GitHub Actions/GitLab), and CloudTrail.
Demonstrated experience applying AI-assisted workflows (Cursor, Claude, MCP tools, agentic skills) to enhance software delivery.
Outstanding communication skills with proven ability to align diverse stakeholders and mentor senior engineering peers.

Responsibilities

System Architecture & Design: Architect high-throughput, fault-tolerant backend services, distributed systems, and cloud-native solutions across AWS and GCP environments.
Technical Leadership: Guide cross-functional teams through complex technical decisions, set best practices for code quality, testing (TDD), and system reliability, and mentor senior engineering talent.
AI-Native Delivery: Integrate next-generation developer tooling (Cursor, Claude, autonomous agents, MCP workflows, and spec-driven design) to elevate team productivity and system delivery.
Data Engineering & APIs: Design high-performance REST APIs and scalable data/ETL pipelines across relational, document, and columnar data stores.
Production Ownership & DevOps: Drive end-to-end operational excellence, establishing robust CI/CD automation, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), container orchestration, JVM profiling, and real-time observability.
Stakeholder Alignment: Partner closely with product management, engineering leaders, and key stakeholders to translate business goals into clear technical roadmaps.