Principal Software Architect

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Principal Software Architect based in Portugal.

This is a high-impact technical leadership role where you will shape the architecture of large-scale, distributed systems powering next-generation intelligent testing platforms. You will operate as a senior individual contributor, driving critical decisions that influence system design, scalability, and long-term technical direction. The role blends deep hands-on engineering with strategic architectural thinking, requiring close collaboration with engineering, product, and executive stakeholders. You will play a key part in modernizing core systems, evolving monolithic components into modular, cloud-native services. With strong emphasis on AI-driven innovation, you will also help define how intelligent automation and LLM-based capabilities are safely embedded into production systems. This position is ideal for an experienced architect who thrives in high-autonomy environments and enjoys solving complex, large-scale engineering challenges.

• Design and evolve scalable, production-grade distributed systems across core platform services, ensuring high performance, reliability, and maintainability.
• Define architectural standards, domain boundaries, and reference patterns to guide the transition from monolithic systems to modular, service-oriented architectures.
• Partner with engineering leadership to drive modernization initiatives, including frontend and backend restructuring for improved scalability and observability.
• Lead technical decision-making across major system components, balancing short-term delivery needs with long-term architectural strategy.
• Integrate AI/LLM capabilities into production environments, ensuring safe, observable, and controlled implementation of intelligent features.
• Establish best practices for cloud infrastructure design in AWS, focusing on security, cost efficiency, and compliance requirements.
• Advise senior stakeholders on complex technical trade-offs, translating business needs into scalable engineering solutions.
• Support the design of CI/CD pipelines, data models, and event-driven architectures for high-throughput systems.

Requirements

• 15+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building large-scale, cloud-native, distributed systems.
• Proven experience leading monolith-to-microservices migrations, including domain decomposition and data consistency strategies.
• Strong expertise in distributed system design, event-driven architectures, database technologies (SQL and NoSQL), and system scalability patterns.
• Deep experience with AWS cloud infrastructure, including high availability, security architecture, and cost optimization practices.
• Strong background in modern software development stacks, including backend and frontend technologies, APIs, and CI/CD systems.
• Practical experience deploying AI/ML or LLM-based systems in production with attention to safety, observability, and governance.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex architectural concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a balance of long-term vision and pragmatic execution.
• Experience thriving as an individual contributor in fast-paced, ambiguous, and remote-first environments.
• High level of autonomy, ownership, and ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.

Benefits

• Annual compensation package aligned with senior-level, global market standards in the United States.
• Fully remote role with flexibility to work from anywhere within the EST time zone.
• Flexible working hours within a fully asynchronous, remote-first culture.
• Equity participation through stock options.
• Comprehensive healthcare and medical benefits (where applicable by region).
• Flexible paid time off, including holidays, personal days, and sick leave.
• Annual learning and development stipend to support continuous growth.
• Home office support and equipment provided.
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI-driven and distributed systems at global scale.
• Inclusive, diverse, and globally distributed engineering culture.