Lead Technical Architect

ELEK Software - Electrical Power Systems Design; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Hybrid Sydney office

Ownership of tech & teams

Shape AI-native software

Job summary

ELEK Software in Sydney is seeking a Lead Technical Architect to own the architecture and technical direction of our AI-native electrical power engineering software. You will stay hands-on, design scalable cloud architectures on AWS, and lead engineering teams across multiple products.

This senior leadership role offers ownership of technology and minimal bureaucracy, with the chance to shape the future of AI-enabled engineering software while delivering high-impact solutions for engineers

Qualifications

• Proven architect of commercial software end-to-end.
• Extensive hands-on AWS experience with scalable deployment and cloud security.
• Experience building production web APIs and backend services.
• Experience building real AI systems in production (LLM, agents, orchestration).
• Experience leading engineering teams and delivering multiple products.
• Hiring, mentoring and developing engineers.
• Comfortable building deep-domain products with SME input.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the software architecture and long-term technical direction across our product portfolio.
• Architect and build AI-native applications and platform capabilities, including web APIs, LLM orchestration, retrieval, inference and evaluation in production.
• Design and operate our cloud architecture on AWS, including scalable deployment, CI/CD, security, and cost control.
• Stay hands-on and code, not just direct.
• Lead and grow the engineering teams and own delivery across multiple products.
• Recruit, onboard, mentor, and develop engineers as teams scale.
• Establish and uphold engineering standards, code quality, testing, security, and delivery practices.
• Balance product roadmaps with shared platform and architectural investment.
• Partner with Product to translate domain requirements into well-architected software.
• Make technology/build-vs-buy decisions and manage technical debt.

Skills

Proven software architect

AWS expertise

AI in production

Lead engineering teams

Hiring & mentoring

Communication & stakeholder mgmt

Hands-on coding

Deep-domain product understanding

Tools

AWS

Job description

ELEK Software is hiring a Lead Technical Architect to own the architecture and technical direction of our world-leading electrical power engineering software - http://www.elek.com

Our mission for this role: build AI-native electrical engineering applications. Not AI bolted onto existing products, but engineering software designed from the ground up around AI, used by engineers in 50+ countries.

You are an architect first. You will design the systems, stay hands-on building with AI, and lead the engineering teams delivering across multiple products. Our electrical engineering and product teams bring the power-engineering domain, so you can focus on architecture and building brilliantly. An electrical engineering background is not required.

This is a senior leadership role. You will own the technical decisions and the teams that deliver them.

Duties/responsibilities

• Own the software architecture and long-term technical direction across our product portfolio.
• Architect and build AI-native applications and platform capabilities, including advanced web APIs, LLM and agent orchestration, retrieval, inference, and evaluation in production.
• Design and operate our cloud architecture on AWS, including scalable deployment, CI/CD, security, and cost control.
• Stay hands-on. You will be building, not only directing.
• Lead and grow the engineering teams. You own delivery, priorities, and technical performance across multiple products in parallel.
• Recruit, onboard, mentor, and develop engineers as the teams scale.
• Establish and uphold engineering standards, code quality, testing, security, and delivery practices.
• Balance competing product roadmaps against shared platform and architectural investment.
• Partner with Product and the engineering leads to translate domain requirements into well-architected software.
• Make technology and build/buy decisions and manage technical debt deliberately.
• Introduce and govern AI tooling across the software development lifecycle.

Required Skills

• Proven software architect: you have designed and owned the architecture of commercial software products end to end.
• Extensive hands-on AWS experience is essential, including scalable deployment, CI/CD, and cloud security.
• Deep, hands-on expertise building production web APIs and backend services, covering API design, authentication, versioning, performance, and scale.
• Demonstrated experience building real AI systems in production: LLM integration, agents or agentic workflows, retrieval, and orchestration.
• Experience leading engineering teams and delivering across more than one product or product line at a time.
• A track record of hiring, mentoring, and developing engineers, and the appetite to keep doing it.
• Comfortable building deep-domain products where subject-matter experts define the requirements.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder skills, and the judgement to decide what not to build.
• Still writes code, and wants to.

What we offer

• Competitive salary, reflective of experience and seniority.
• Hybrid working from our Sydney CBD office, inside the Centre for Innovation.
• Ownership of the technology, the architecture, and the teams, with minimal bureaucracy.
• The chance to define what AI-native engineering software looks like in our industry.

About the company

ELEK Software is an established (2009) engineering software company respected for its market-leading products and technical expertise. We have many customers within Australia and throughout the globe (50+ countries).

Our software products are specifically for electrical power engineering applications, LV electrical design and protection systems, power cables, and electrical earthing.

This is a truly exciting opportunity to be part of the growth of a world-class company!

Check out our website: http://www.elek.com

Culture and benefits

If you thrive on technically challenging engineering and are serious about learning, contributing, being creative, and succeeding, then this is where you want to work. We will nurture that in you!

• The head office is in Sydney CBD, inside the Centre for Innovation.