Software Architect Job Description Template

Software Architect Location: [City, State / Remote / Hybrid] Department: Engineering Reports to: VP of Engineering / CTO Salary range: $[XX,000] – $[XX,000] About [Company] [Company] is a [industry/stage] company building [brief product description]. Our engineering organization is scaling from [current team size] to [target size], and we need a Software Architect who can establish the technical foundation for the next phase of our platform's growth. Role overview As Software Architect at [Company], you will own the technical architecture of [describe system scope: our core platform / our microservices migration / our data infrastructure]. You will define and communicate architectural patterns, evaluate major technology decisions, establish engineering standards, and work directly with engineering leads and product leadership to ensure our systems are built for scale, reliability, and long-term maintainability. This is a [hands-on / advisory / balanced] role — you will spend approximately [X]% of your time writing and reviewing code and [Y]% on design, architecture documentation, and cross-team technical leadership. Responsibilities • Define and maintain the overall system architecture for [product/platform scope], including service boundaries, data flows, integration patterns, and deployment topology • Lead architecture design reviews for significant new features, major refactors, and third-party integrations — documenting decisions in Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) • Establish and enforce engineering standards: coding conventions, API design guidelines, security patterns, observability requirements, and testing strategies • Evaluate and recommend technology choices — frameworks, databases, messaging systems, cloud services — with clear tradeoff analysis for stakeholders • Partner with engineering managers and tech leads to translate roadmap requirements into executable technical designs • Identify and proactively address technical debt, scalability constraints, and architectural risks before they become production incidents • Mentor senior engineers on architectural thinking, system design principles, and tradeoff analysis • Collaborate with security, infrastructure, and data teams to ensure architectural consistency across the organization • [Hands-on] Contribute to critical platform components, proof-of-concept implementations, and foundational libraries Qualifications • 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 3–5 years in architecture or principal-level technical roles • Deep expertise in [primary language/ecosystem: Java, Go, Python, .NET, Node.js] and experience with multiple paradigms (OOP, functional, event-driven) • Demonstrated experience designing and operating distributed systems at scale (microservices, event-driven architecture, CQRS, saga patterns) • Strong command of cloud-native architecture on [AWS / GCP / Azure] — including compute, managed databases, messaging (SQS/Pub-Sub/Kafka), and API gateways • Experience defining and documenting architecture standards: ADRs, C4 diagrams, RFC processes • Track record of driving large-scale technical migrations with minimal disruption to product delivery • Excellent communication skills — you can explain complex architectural tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders and build consensus across engineering teams Nice to have • Experience with event sourcing, CQRS, or data mesh architectures • Background in [specific domain: fintech, healthtech, e-commerce, SaaS infrastructure] • Familiarity with [specific compliance standards: SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS] and how they shape architectural decisions • Contributions to open-source projects or public architecture case studies What we offer • Competitive salary: $[XX,000] – $[XX,000] • [Equity / bonus structure] • [Health / dental / vision insurance] • [Remote / flexible work policy] • Engineering conference budget and professional development stipend • Genuine architectural authority — your decisions shape the platform How to apply Submit your application at [link] with your resume and a brief description of a significant architectural decision you made, including the context, options considered, and outcome.