Solutions Architect

Gofer; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Gofer seeks a Principal Enterprise Solutions Architect – Data & Open Source in Seattle to modernize legacy data platforms into real-time architectures and champion AI-enabled engineering practices.

You will partner with customer leadership, drive architectural governance, and lead end-to-end delivery across cloud-native pipelines using Kafka, Airflow, and vector databases.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in CS/Software Engineering or related field.
• 12+ years in software/data platforms and enterprise systems.
• 5+ years as Principal/Lead Architect designing production-grade architectures.
• 3+ years while interfacing with Directors/VPs to translate requirements.
• 8+ years of development in Java, Python, and advanced SQL.
• 5+ years with streaming/messaging (Kafka) and data orchestration (Airflow).
• 5+ years on AWS with containerization (Kubernetes/Docker) and Terraform.
• 1–2 years integrating LLM patterns in SDLC.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary technical partner for customer engineering leads.
• Evaluate emerging open-source tech, cloud services, and AI frameworks.
• Lead large-scale data pipeline re-architecture to real-time architectures (CDC, Kafka Connect).
• Architect and optimize data lakes/pipelines using Airflow and cloud services.
• Enforce enterprise-wide schema cataloging and data governance practices.
• Design backend architectures in Java/Python and promote AI-enabled SDLC.
• Lead design reviews, automated testing, and release governance.

Skills

Java

Python

SQL

Data architecture

Leadership

Client-facing

APIs

Open Source

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science / Software Engineering

Tools

Kafka Connect

Kafka Schema Registry

Airflow

AWS EKS

Terraform

Kubernetes

Docker

LangChain

Job description

We are seeking a Principal Enterprise Solutions Architect – Data & Open Source to join our team in Seattle, WA. This high-impact, customer-facing architecture role is for a technical visionary who can partner with customer engineering leadership while staying hands-on with architecture, design, engineering standards, and delivery.

In this role, you will help modernize legacy batch-oriented data platforms into scalable, event-driven architectures, while introducing AI-enabled engineering practices to improve software development velocity, quality, and reliability. You will act as the primary technical liaison between our organization and client engineering leadership, aligning roadmaps and driving enterprise-wide architectural governance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership & Customer Vision: Serve as the primary technical partner for customer engineering leads, communicating architectural vision, aligning technical roadmaps, and leading the internal Architecture Community of Practice (CoP).


• Technology Evaluation: Continuously assess emerging open-source technologies, cloud services, and AI frameworks to recommend adoption strategies optimizing scalability, reliability, and cost.


• Data Architecture & Engineering: Lead large-scale pipeline re-architecture initiatives, converting traditional batch ETL processes into real-time, event-driven architectures using CDC and Kafka Connect. Architect and optimize data lakes and pipelines using Airflow, AWS EKS, PostgreSQL, and vector/search databases.


• Data Governance & Quality: Enforce enterprise-wide schema cataloging (e.g., Kafka Schema Registry) and ensure data quality, security, compliance, and governance are built natively into all pipelines.


• Cloud-Native & AI-Led SDLC: Design robust Java- and Python-based backend architectures; drive adoption of AI tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, LLM-driven test/review generation) to maximize team delivery speed and quality.


• Delivery Discipline & Operations: Implement strict design validation, rigorous code reviews, automated testing, and release governance. Lead agile ceremonies and proactively resolve high-priority production incidents.


• Platform Reliability & Cost Optimization: Support ongoing capacity planning and cloud infrastructure cost optimization across AWS environments.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a closely related technical field.


• 12+ years of hands-on experience in software engineering, data platform engineering, and enterprise systems.


• 5+ years in a Principal or Lead Architect role with a proven track record of designing and maintaining production-grade enterprise software architectures.


• 3+ years of direct customer-facing experience interacting with Directors, VPs, and Technical Leads to translate business requirements into technical specifications.


• 8+ years of deep hands-on development experience in Java, Python, and advanced SQL.


• 5+ years of hands-on experience with streaming/messaging systems (Apache Kafka) and data orchestration tools (Airflow, dbt).


• 5+ years architecting on public cloud environments (AWS strongly preferred), including containerization (Kubernetes, Docker, AWS EKS) and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).


• 1–2 years of practical experience integrating LLM patterns (e.g., LangChain, vector databases) and AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor) within the SDLC.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience modernizing legacy enterprise data platforms into event-driven, distributed architectures.


• Strong understanding of data lakes, streaming architectures, and cloud-native applications.


• Experience working with open-source technology ecosystems.


• Background in customer-facing consulting or technology advisory roles.


• Experience in large enterprise transformation programs.


• Experience with AI/GenAI adoption within enterprise engineering organizations.


• Strong presentation, communication, stakeholder management, and technical leadership skills.

Preferred Certifications:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional


• Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka


• Equivalent cloud, data engineering, or enterprise architecture certifications