Senior Backend Architect & Tech Lead (Cloud‑Native)

Pearson; Bismarck (ND); On-site; USD 125,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Pearson is seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineer to own architecture and delivery of scalable backend systems. You will lead design, development, and production support for cloud-native services, emphasizing reliability, performance, and modernizing legacy components.

Collaboration with product managers and architects across domains is essential. The role demands autonomous leadership, strong communication, and hands-on execution from discovery to production, with a focus on delivering

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience designing, developing, and operating backend systems.
• Demonstrated experience as a technical lead or senior engineer on complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Deep knowledge of backend engineering concepts including distributed systems, concurrency, scalability, fault tolerance, resiliency, and performance.
• Strong experience with AWS and cloud-native engineering across multiple services.
• Experience designing systems using microservices, RESTful APIs, event-driven architectures, and streaming technologies.
• Experience with automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and production reliability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with the ability to document decisions clearly.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, design, implementation, testing, deployment, and production support of complex software systems.
• Build scalable backend services, distributed systems, event-driven apps, and streaming solutions.
• Own major initiatives from discovery through delivery and production rollout.
• Balance new features with modernization, debt reduction, reliability improvements, and maintenance.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance across onshore and offshore teams.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, troubleshooting, and best practices.
• Produce clear architecture decisions, runbooks, and engineering standards.
• Drive continuous improvement in development, delivery, and operational practices.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

APIs design

Microservices

Cloud-native

Programming languages

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree (plus)

Tools

Java

Kotlin

TypeScript

Go

Job description

Pearson is seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineer to own architecture and delivery of scalable backend systems. You will lead design, development, and production support for cloud-native services, emphasizing reliability, performance, and modernizing legacy components.

Collaboration with product managers and architects across domains is essential. The role demands autonomous leadership, strong communication, and hands-on execution from discovery to production, with a focus on delivering