Principal Engineer - AI Platform Architecture

Chain IQ Group AG; Portugal; On-site; EUR 75,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Chain IQ Group AG is building an AI-native procurement platform, defining architectural direction and reusable patterns across product and engineering teams. This hands-on technical leadership role focuses on architecture, engineering standards, and platform evolution rather than people management.

You will collaborate with Product Engineering, Platform Engineering, Data, Security, and Product Management to scale the platform while maintaining reliability and security.

Qualifications

• Design large-scale software platforms and distributed systems.
• Cloud-native architecture and modern engineering practices.
• Mentor senior engineers through technical leadership.
• Establish technical standards across multiple teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the architecture for the AI platform supporting intelligent procurement products.
• Establish reusable architectural patterns for agent orchestration, workflow execution, tool integration, memory, context management, and platform services.
• Define engineering standards covering APIs, distributed systems, observability, testing, deployment, documentation, and operational excellence.
• Guide architectural decisions across Product Engineering, Platform Engineering, Data, Security, and Product teams.
• Drive the evolution of the ASDLC, leveraging automation and autonomous agents.
• Identify reusable platform capabilities to reduce duplication and speed delivery.
• Review technical designs and provide architectural guidance for major initiatives.
• Partner with engineering teams to balance long-term platform evolution with product delivery.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and frameworks, adopting them where value is created, avoiding unnecessary complexity.
• Mentor senior engineers through design reviews and architectural leadership.
• Champion engineering practices that improve developer experience, platform reliability, and scalability.

Skills

Large-scale platforms

Distributed systems

Cloud-native

Microservices

APIs

Event-driven

Tech leadership

Mentoring seniors

Communication

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

CI/CD

AWS

Job description

At Chain IQ, your ideas move fast. Chain IQ is a global AI-driven Procurement Service Partner, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, with operations across main centers and 16 offices worldwide. We provide tailored, end-to-end procurement solutions that enable transformation, drive scalability, and deliver substantial reductions in our clients' indirect spend. Our culture is built on innovation, entrepreneurship, ownership, and impact. Here, your voice matters - bold thinking is encouraged, and action follows ambition.

Role purpose

We are building an AI-native procurement platform where intelligent applications, autonomous agents, and reusable platform capabilities evolve together. This role defines the technical architecture that enables that platform to scale reliably across products, engineering teams, and future AI capabilities.

At Chain IQ, your ideas move fast. Chain IQ is a global AI-driven Procurement Service Partner, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, with operations across main centers and 16 offices worldwide. We provide tailored, end-to-end procurement solutions that enable transformation, drive scalability, and deliver substantial reductions in our clients' indirect spend. Our culture is built on innovation, entrepreneurship, ownership, and impact. Here, your voice matters - bold thinking is encouraged, and action follows ambition.

Role purpose

We are building an AI-native procurement platform where intelligent applications, autonomous agents, and reusable platform capabilities evolve together. This role defines the technical architecture that enables that platform to scale reliably across products, engineering teams, and future AI capabilities.

You will establish the architectural direction for the platform, defining how agent runtimes, orchestration, APIs, platform services, observability, developer tooling, and engineering standards fit together. Working across Product Engineering, Platform Engineering, Data, Security, and Product Management, you will ensure teams build consistently on shared foundations while continuously improving the engineering system itself.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role focused on architecture, engineering standards, and platform evolution rather than people management.

Why this role matters

The platform is the foundation on which every intelligent procurement capability will be built. As products, AI agents, workflows, and engineering automation continue to expand, consistent architecture becomes increasingly important. This role ensures teams build on shared capabilities rather than fragmented solutions, allowing the platform to scale while remaining maintainable, secure, observable, and adaptable as AI technologies continue to evolve.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the architecture for the AI platform supporting intelligent procurement products.
• Establish reusable architectural patterns for agent orchestration, workflow execution, tool integration, memory, context management, and platform services.
• Define engineering standards covering APIs, distributed systems, observability, testing, deployment, documentation, and operational excellence.
• Guide architectural decisions across Product Engineering, Platform Engineering, Data, Security, and Product teams.
• Drive the evolution of the Agentic Software Development Lifecycle (ASDLC), ensuring engineering processes increasingly leverage automation and autonomous agents.
• Identify reusable platform capabilities that reduce duplication and accelerate product delivery.
• Review technical designs and provide architectural guidance for major initiatives.
• Partner with engineering teams to balance long-term platform evolution with pragmatic product delivery.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and frameworks, adopting them where they create measurable value while avoiding unnecessary complexity.
• Mentor senior engineers through design reviews, technical coaching, and architectural leadership.
• Champion engineering practices that improve developer experience, platform reliability, scalability, and operational efficiency.

Requirements

• Experience designing large-scale software platforms and distributed systems.
• Strong understanding of cloud-native application architecture and modern engineering practices.
• Demonstrated success establishing technical standards across multiple engineering teams.
• Solid software engineering background with experience building reusable platform capabilities.
• Hands-on expertise with microservices, APIs, asynchronous systems, and event-driven architectures.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers through technical leadership rather than line management.
• Comfortable working across infrastructure, applications, AI systems, and product engineering.
• Ability to simplify complex technical problems into scalable architectural patterns.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence technical direction across multiple disciplines.

Join a truly global team.

We offer a dynamic and international environment where high performance meets real purpose. We're proud to be Great Place to Work-certified and even prouder of the people who make that possible. Let us shape the future of procurement - together.

Chain IQ - Create. Lead. Make an impact.