Lead / Architect (PHP)

Role Overview

Lead Software Architect (PHP)

• Serve as the technical visionary and architectural authority for the platform.
• Lead re-architecture and evolution of systems to ensure scalability, security, compliance, and long-term maintainability.
• Combine hands-on architecture leadership with strategic influence across engineering and product teams.

Responsibilities

Architecture & Technical Strategy

• Own and define overall system architecture for the core platform.
• Translate business objectives and product requirements into long-term architectural strategy and roadmaps.
• Lead complex system design efforts (architecture diagrams, models, and technical documentation).
• Drive architectural decisions across backend services, APIs, data systems, integrations, and frontend applications.
• Evaluate and select technologies, frameworks, tools, and platforms.
• Lead proof-of-concepts to validate new technologies and approaches.

Engineering Leadership & Governance

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across multiple engineering teams.
• Conduct architecture reviews and guide teams through complex design decisions.
• Establish and enforce coding standards, architectural principles, and engineering best practices.
• Drive org-wide code review standards and promote software quality.
• Facilitate technical design reviews and cross-functional architectural discussions.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Software Development & Platform Engineering

• Provide hands-on leadership for major architectural initiatives and critical implementations.
• Help decompose large initiatives into scalable, maintainable components.
• Design distributed systems, microservices, API ecosystems, and domain-driven solutions.
• Ensure performance, observability, reliability, accessibility, and security requirements are met.
• Identify and address technical debt, architectural risks, and bottlenecks.

Data & AI Architecture

• Define data architecture strategy (database design, data modeling, ETL, and pipeline architecture).
• Provide guidance across relational and non-relational platforms, including MongoDB.
• Evaluate and implement AI/ML integration opportunities delivering measurable business value.

Cloud, DevOps & Infrastructure

• Lead architectural decisions for AWS cloud infrastructure.
• Collaborate with DevOps and SRE teams on deployments and operational practices.

Requirements

• Extensive experience leading large-scale product development initiatives.
• Deep hands-on architectural expertise across backend services, APIs, integrations, and distributed systems.
• Experience conducting architecture reviews and guiding complex design decisions.
• Ability to translate business goals into scalable technical solutions.
• Must be a US Citizen or Green Card holder (no visa transfer or sponsorship).
• Must currently reside in one of the listed states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Nice to Haves (implied by scope)

• Experience with microservices, domain-driven design, and API ecosystems.
• Experience with data/ETL/pipelines and AI/ML integration.
• Experience with AWS architecture and working with DevOps/SRE teams.