Principal Architect

Tenna; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote - nationwide

Travel 8-10%

401k match

PTO

Volunteer Time Off

Job summary

Tenna is seeking a Principal Architect to set the long-term technical direction for its platform. You’ll lead design reviews, establish standards, and guide cross‑team efforts to build scalable microservices on AWS (EKS, Aurora PostgreSQL) with Node.js.

You’ll partner with engineering leadership to translate vision into executable roadmaps, drive reliability, and mentor teams while solving real-world data and IoT challenges for our nationwide remote workforce.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 4+ years in architectural leadership role.
• Experience turning high-level concepts into clear, documented patterns and designs.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems and microservices architecture.
• Strong hands-on experience with JavaScript/Node.js in service-based architectures (RabbitMQ, HTTP) on AWS.

Responsibilities

• Own the execution of the Executive Team’s technical strategy, turning high-level goals into actionable milestones and scalable system designs.
• Lead by example by personally building prototypes, core libraries, and foundational projects that set the standard for how the rest of the team builds.
• Set and enforce technical standards, ensuring every design choice handles failure modes, scalability, and performance in our production environment.
• Run a rigorous design review process that prioritizes backward compatibility and solid verification for our data-heavy systems.
• Evolve our microservices (Node.js/EKS/AWS), focused on reducing technical debt and making the system run more efficiently as we scale.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to make sure requirements are crystal clear and that what actually gets built stays true to the original vision.
• Master the data lifecycle, from IoT ingestion to storage and processing, building the foundations that our teams will eventually own.
• Roll up your sleeves to implement observability and monitoring standards, ensuring our platform hits the highest possible bar for uptime.

Skills

Distributed systems

Microservices architecture

Technical leadership

Communication

API design

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science

Tools

Node.js

RabbitMQ

AWS (EKS, Aurora PostgreSQL)

Job description

WhyTenna?

We take pride that ourroots arein the construction industry. With this experience and knowledge, we have built a platform that revolutionizes construction equipment fleet operations. We provide innovative solutions to customers looking for competitive ways to better manage and track their assets, such as heavy and light equipment, large fleets, tools, and materials.

At Tenna, we believe the best is right in front of all of us and that each day holds more potential than the one before. We believe that every new discovery can lead to something better than we thought possible. When we boil it down, the top five qualities that define the Tenna Team are quality-obsessed, gritty, continuous learners, collaborative problem solvers, andjust plainawesome.Soundlike you? Join us as we empower our customers to control their mixed assets on one comprehensive platform anytime, anywhere.

Position Description

We are looking for a Principal Architect to execute on the long-term technical direction of Tenna’s platform. As a Principal Architect, you’ll operate across teams to design scalable systems, guide architectural decisions, and ensure we’re building for both current needs and future growth. You’ll establish standards, lead design reviews, and ensure a high bar for technical quality across the organization, while providing hands‑on guidance to solve complex challenges.Reporting to the CTO, you’ll partner closely with engineering leadership to ensure designs translate cleanly into what gets built and that those designs reflect real world constraints. You’ll play a central role in improving how reliably and efficiently we deliver software. We need a world class doer for this role, someone who can listen to a vision and personally drive the execution to make it a reality.

Responsibilities

• Own the execution of the Executive Team’s technical strategy, turning high-level goals into actionable milestones and scalable system designs.


• Lead by example by personally building prototypes, core libraries, and foundational projects that set the standard for how the rest of the team builds.


• Set and enforce technical standards, ensuring every design choice handles failure modes, scalability, and performance in our production environment.


• Run a rigorous design review process that prioritizes backward compatibility and solid verification for our data-heavy systems.


• Evolve our microservices (Node.js/EKS/AWS), focused on reducing technical debt and making the system run more efficiently as we scale.


• Partner with Product and Engineering to make sure requirements are crystal clear and that what actually gets built stays true to the original vision.


• Master the data lifecycle, from IoT ingestion to storage and processing, building the foundations that our teams will eventually own.


• Roll up your sleeves to implement observability and monitoring standards, ensuring our platform hits the highest possible bar for uptime.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience.


• 4+ years of experience in an architectural leadership role (Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, or equivalent) where you owned technical standards and design quality across multiple engineering teams.


• Experience turning high-level concepts into clear, documented patterns and designs that teams can implement independently—not just designing systems yourself, but enabling others to build them well.


• Deep expertise in distributed systems and microservices architecture, including operating and evolving a mature microservices environment (not just greenfield design).


• Strong hands‑on experience with JavaScript and Node.js in service-based architectures. Our backend is built on Node.js microservices communicating via RabbitMQ and HTTP, running on AWS (EKS, Aurora PostgreSQL). You should be comfortable and opinionated in this stack, including API design, service boundaries, and asynchronous communication patterns.


• Strong data architecture experience, including designing systems that handle high-volume, real‑time data (e.g., IoT or event‑driven systems), and making tradeoffs across storage, processing, and access patterns


• Experience improving system reliability and performance at scale, including observability, monitoring, and fault tolerance.


• Demonstrated ability to influence across teams, driving alignment without relying solely on authority.


• Strong communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.


• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent industry experience.

Benefits, Perks, & Additional Information:

• Full-time opportunity.


• Location: Remote - nationwide.


• Travel is required, 8 - 10%.


• Opportunities for growth and personal development within a highly dynamic team.


• Robust, low-cost benefit packages offered.


• Benefit coverage begins on the first date of employment.


• Paid Time Off and Volunteer Time Off offered.


• 401k match.


• Dependent Care offered.


• Employee referral bonuses.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Tenna is committed to building a diverse team. We welcome different perspectives and opinions to foster innovation, authenticity, and excellence across all parts of our company, and are committed to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment.