Hands-On Senior Systems Architect — AI & Digital Twin Platform

SmartAvatar BV; Delft; Remote; EUR 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

SmartAvatar BV in Delft is seeking a hands-on Senior Systems Architect to design and build the technical backbone of AI, Digital Twin and distributed software platforms. You will own architecture interfaces connecting customers and research partners.

This is not traditional EA: ~75% of time is hands-on—prototyping services, reviewing code and solving complex integration problems. You lead through engineering, not slides.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in software engineering, systems architecture or platform engineering.
• Strong backend and systems engineering skills.
• Experience with REST APIs, OpenAPI/Swagger and data models.
• Experience with microservices, distributed state and cloud-native tools.
• Ability to integrate systems across organisations.

Responsibilities

• Design distributed systems across cloud, edge, backend and APIs.
• Prototype critical services, review code and resolve integration challenges.
• Define technical interfaces between SmartAvatar systems, customers and partners.
• Create reusable architecture patterns for customer and EU-funded R&D work.
• Define API contracts, data models, service boundaries and criteria.
• Help avoid project-specific engineering and silos.
• Represent SmartAvatar in technical discussions with customers/partners.
• Coordinate dependencies across teams and external providers.
• Support secure-by-design architecture with cybersecurity specialists.

Skills

REST APIs

OpenAPI/Swagger

JSON data models

System integrations

Microservices/SOA

Docker

Kubernetes

OAuth/OIDC IAM

Digital Twins/IoT

Edge computing

Observability/Tracing

AI/ML infra

Security interoperability

Education

BSc or MSc in CS/EE/Industrial Eng/Robotics

Equivalent industry experience

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

SmartAvatar BV in Delft is seeking a hands-on Senior Systems Architect to design and build the technical backbone of AI, Digital Twin and distributed software platforms. You will own architecture interfaces connecting customers and research partners.

This is not traditional EA: ~75% of time is hands-on—prototyping services, reviewing code and solving complex integration problems. You lead through engineering, not slides.