Software Architect

Destify•Chicago, IL

4d•$150 - $170•Remote

About The Position

We are Destify! We focus on our people, our culture, and our technology. We're reimagining the destination wedding experience, simplifying the complex, celebrating the meaningful, and building technology that connects thousands of couples to their dream celebrations. The Software Architect is the technical visionary and guardian of Destify’s digital infrastructure. You don’t just write code — you design patterns, guide data and infrastructure decisions, and shape cloud environments that enable our engineering team to ship high-quality software at speed. You think beyond individual features and focus on building systems that scale with the business. You bring clarity to complexity, elevate the team around you, and help us move fast without breaking what matters. The Builder: You think in systems, not just features. You care deeply about how a database change today affects the platform three years from now. The Automation and AI Obsessive: If a task has to be done twice, you believe it should be automated. You view manual infrastructure management as a bug. The Pragmatic Perfectionist: You know when to push for the right solution and when to move forward to meet the business need. You make thoughtful tradeoffs, and you always document what matters so the team can build on it.

Requirements

Engineering Experience: 8–10+ years of backend or full-stack development, with 3+ years in a Lead or Architect role, designing and guiding system-level decisions
Architecture & Systems Thinking: Proven ability to design scalable, reliable systems and make clear tradeoffs across performance, cost, and complexity
Infrastructure & DevOps: Experience designing and operating cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform) and modern CI/CD practices
Data Architecture: Strong experience with relational and non-relational databases, including schema design, performance optimization, and data modeling for scale
Scalable Systems (B2C or High-Concurrency Environments): Experience building systems that support performance, reliability, and growth in user demand
System Reliability & Observability: Experience with monitoring, alerting, and maintaining system health (e.g., uptime, performance, incident response)
Security & Best Practices: Working knowledge of application and data security practices, including authentication patterns and secure system design
Technical Communication & Influence: Ability to clearly communicate technical concepts, tradeoffs, and decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Experience working closely with Product and Design in discovery and delivery, contributing to solution design without owning product decisions
AI / Automation Experience: Experience integrating AI/LLMs or leveraging automation to improve development workflows or system quality

Nice To Haves

Operating Model Familiarity (Nice to Have): Experience working within EOS or similar product operating models
Preferred Technical Environment Experience (Nice to Have): Experience with modern cloud-native stacks (e.g., Kubernetes, AWS, TypeScript/Node, Trigger.dev). Ability to ramp quickly and lead in a similar environment.

Responsibilities

Architectural Blueprint: Own and evolve the core architecture of our platforms to ensure scalability, security, and performance. Ensure that architectural decisions, patterns, and standards are clearly documented and adopted across the team to enable consistent, independent implementation.
Standards & Best Practices: Define and evolve the "Destify Way" of coding. You set the bar for what "good" looks like through linting rules, design patterns, and systemic constraints. Accountable for ensuring AI-generated code meets security and architectural patterns before it hits production.
Documentation Authority: Accountable for the consistency and clarity of all technical documentation across backend services, ensuring the "map" matches the "territory."
Cloud Service Management: Define and guide the strategy for our cloud environments (AWS/Azure/GCP), ensuring cost efficiency, reliability, and stability. Partner with engineering to enable scalable, maintainable operations.
Database Governance: Own the design and governance of data systems, ensuring clear patterns, documentation, and shared understanding that enable consistent and scalable use.
CI/CD Pipeline: Design and evolve the automated pipelines that move code from development to production with speed and confidence. Leverage tooling and AI-driven analysis to proactively identify technical debt and security risks.
System Enablement: Ensure infrastructure and systems are documented, accessible, and operable by the broader engineering team, supporting shared ownership and long-term scalability.
Product Discovery: Serve as the technical voice during product ideation, identifying technical risks, dependencies, and "build vs. buy" opportunities. Evaluate the "Build vs. Buy" for internal AI tooling to ensure developer data remains private and IP is protected. Ensure technical decisions and tradeoffs are clearly communicated and understood across Engineering, Product, and Design to enable aligned, independent execution.
Checks & Balances: Partner with the Engineering Manager to ensure technical debt is managed and that the team has the right tools to stay efficient and productive.
System Enablement & Knowledge Distribution: Ensure technical systems, decisions, and dependencies are documented, visible, and understandable across the team. Promote a shared understanding through clear communication, documentation, and collaboration, enabling engineers to work confidently across core systems.
Elite Problem Solving: Provide guidance on complex technical challenges, ensuring solutions are well-understood, documented, and transferable across the team rather than solved in isolation. Step in when needed to unblock critical issues, while reinforcing patterns that prevent recurring dependency on a single individual.