Staff System Architect

Heartflow•San Francisco, CA

2d•$200,000 - $275,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Heartflow is a medical technology company advancing the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease, the #1 cause of death worldwide, using cutting-edge technology. The flagship product—an AI-driven, non-invasive cardiac test supported by the ACC/AHA Chest Pain Guidelines called the Heartflow FFRCT Analysis—provides a color-coded, 3D model of a patient’s coronary arteries indicating the impact blockages have on blood flow to the heart. Heartflow is the first AI-driven non-invasive integrated heart care solution across the CCTA pathway that helps clinicians identify stenoses in the coronary arteries (RoadMap™Analysis), assess coronary blood flow (FFRCT Analysis), and characterize and quantify coronary atherosclerosis (Plaque Analysis). Our pipeline of products is growing and so is our team; join us in helping to revolutionize precision heartcare. Heartflow is a publicly traded company (HTFL) that has received international recognition for exceptional strides in healthcare innovation, is supported by medical societies around the world, cleared for use in the US, UK, Europe, Japan and Canada, and has been used for more than 500,000 patients worldwide. We are seeking a Staff System Architect who will define and drive system-wide architectural direction. In this role, you will own the technical strategy for the backend of our clinical platform, ensuring it is scalable, secure, and built to support HeartFlow’s mission for the long term. We aren’t just looking for an engineer; we are looking for a systems thinker who can shape architectural standards across teams, align technical direction with business strategy, and ensure our platform is built for the long term. You will work at the intersection of complex medical data and organizational scalability, ensuring our systems are robust, secure, and ready for growth

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent experience.
15+ years of relevant industry experience, including significant time in senior or staff-level roles with cross-team architectural responsibility
Deep expertise across system design, cloud-native architectures, and distributed systems; broad familiarity with backend technologies (e.g., Python, Java), database technologies (SQL, NoSQL), and cloud platforms (AWS)
Strong expertise in distributed systems and microservices architecture
Demonstrated experience designing and delivering large-scale, secure distributed systems and platform architectures with measurable cross-team impact
Proven experience setting technical vision and architectural standards; track record of mentoring senior engineers and influencing engineering culture organization-wide.
Experience with Agile development methodologies and project management tools.
Strong understanding of web and OWASP security best practices.
Experience with DevOps best practices (e.g., CI/CD pipelines).
Experience with or demonstrable experience with FDA regulations and compliance requirements for medical software.
Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Nice To Haves

Deep hands-on experience with AWS infrastructure and infrastructure-as-code tooling
Experience leading enterprise identity and security architecture, including OpenID, OAuth2, SAML, and zero-trust patterns
Experience as a technical leader in medical device software or other FDA/HIPAA-regulated environments

Responsibilities

Define and own the system architecture strategy impacting multiple engineering teams, establishing standards and patterns that scale across the HeartFlow platform
Technical Strategy: Partner with Product, Engineering, and executive leadership to translate organizational goals into multi-year architectural roadmaps and actionable work items.
Define, enforce, and evolve engineering best practices, tooling standards, and architecture patterns.
Establish and govern security architecture standards across the platform, including authentication, authorization, access control, and data integrity
Make cross-cutting architectural decisions spanning and services, balancing performance, security, scalability, and long-term maintainability
Identify technology risks and dependencies early to establish mitigation plans
Mentor and develop senior and staff engineers; serve as a technical multiplier by raising the architectural bar organization-wide
Lead and own security architecture reviews and compliance strategy, ensuring platform-wide adherence to regulatory and security standards
Define and oversee authentication and authorization architecture. Ensure all engineering practices across teams adhere to FDA regulations and HIPAA standards for medical software.
Represent engineering architecture in cross-functional leadership forums; communicate technical strategy and trade-offs clearly to executive and non-technical stakeholders across Product, Strategy, Operations, and Regulatory