Staff System Architect

Heartflowinc; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus and equity potential

Supportive work environment

Job summary

Heartflowinc is seeking a Staff System Architect to drive technical strategy and system architecture. The role involves defining scalable solutions for their clinical platform while ensuring security and compliance with FDA standards. Candidates should have 15+ years in relevant fields and experience with cloud-native architectures.

Join Heartflowinc to revolutionize precision heart care with advanced medical technologies and make a significant impact in the industry.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of relevant industry experience, including senior roles.
• Deep expertise in system design and cloud architectures.
• Proven experience with FDA regulations for medical software.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the system architecture strategy.
• Establish security architecture standards.
• Mentor senior engineers and influence engineering culture.

Skills

System design

Cloud-native architectures

Distributed systems

Python and Java

SQL and NoSQL

AWS

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

Agile development methodologies

Job description

Heartflow is a medical technology company advancing the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease, the #1 cause of death worldwide, using cutting‑edge technology. The flagship product—an AI‑driven, non‑invasive cardiac test supported by the ACC/AHA Chest Pain Guidelines called the Heartflow FFRCT Analysis—provides a color‑coded, 3D model of a patient’s coronary arteries indicating the impact blockages have on blood flow to the heart. Heartflow is the first AI‑driven non‑invasive integrated heart care solution across the CCTA pathway that helps clinicians identify stenoses in the coronary arteries (RoadMap Analysis), assess coronary blood flow (FFRCT Analysis), and characterize and quantify coronary atherosclerosis (Plaque Analysis).

Our pipeline of products is growing and so is our team; join us in helping to revolutionize precision heartcare.

Heartflow is a publicly traded company (HTFL) that has received international recognition for exceptional strides in healthcare innovation, is supported by medical societies around the world, cleared for use in the US, UK, Europe, Japan and Canada, and has been used for more than 500,000 patients worldwide.

We are seeking a Staff System Architect who will define and drive system‑wide architectural direction. In this role, you will own the technical strategy for the backend of our clinical platform, ensuring it is scalable, secure, and built to support HeartFlow’s mission for the long term.

We aren’t just looking for an engineer; we are looking for a systems thinker who can shape architectural standards across teams, align technical direction with business strategy, and ensure our platform is built for the long term. You will work at the intersection of complex medical data and organizational scalability, ensuring our systems are robust, secure, and ready for growth.

Job Responsibilities

• Define and own the system architecture strategy impacting multiple engineering teams, establishing standards and patterns that scale across the HeartFlow platform
• Technical Strategy: Partner with Product, Engineering, and executive leadership to translate organizational goals into multi‑year architectural roadmaps and actionable work items
• Define, enforce, and evolve engineering best practices, tooling standards, and architecture patterns
• Establish and govern security architecture standards across the platform, including authentication, authorization, access control, and data integrity
• Make cross‑cutting architectural decisions spanning services, balancing performance, security, scalability, and long‑term maintainability
• Identify technology risks and dependencies early to establish mitigation plans
• Mentor and develop senior and staff engineers; serve as a technical multiplier by raising the architectural bar organization‑wide
• Lead and own security architecture reviews and compliance strategy, ensuring platform‑wide adherence to regulatory and security standards
• Define and oversee authentication and authorization architecture. Ensure all engineering practices across teams adhere to FDA regulations and HIPAA standards for medical software
• Represent engineering architecture in cross‑functional leadership forums; communicate technical strategy and trade‑offs clearly to executive and non‑technical stakeholders across Product, Strategy, Operations, and Regulatory

Qualifications required

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent experience
• Experience: 15+ years of relevant industry experience, including significant time in senior or staff‑level roles with cross‑team architectural responsibility
• Technical Proficiency:
  • Deep expertise across system design, cloud‑native architectures, and distributed systems; broad familiarity with backend technologies (e.g., Python, Java), database technologies (SQL, NoSQL), and cloud platforms (AWS)
• Project Experience:
  • Strong expertise in distributed systems and microservices architecture
  • Demonstrated experience designing and delivering large‑scale, secure distributed systems and platform architectures with measurable cross‑team impact
• Leadership Skills: Proven experience setting technical vision and architectural standards; track record of mentoring senior engineers and influencing engineering culture organization‑wide
• Methodologies: Experience with Agile development methodologies and project management tools
• Security Knowledge: Strong understanding of web and OWASP security best practices
• DevOps: Experience with DevOps best practices (e.g., CI/CD pipelines)
• Regulatory Understanding: Experience with or demonstrable experience with FDA regulations and compliance requirements for medical software
• Collaboration: Demonstrated ability to work in a fast‑paced, collaborative environment

How you stand out

• Deep hands‑on experience with AWS infrastructure and infrastructure‑as‑code tooling
• Experience leading enterprise identity and security architecture, including OpenID, OAuth2, SAML, and zero‑trust patterns
• Experience as a technical leader in medical device software or other FDA/HIPAA‑regulated environments

A reasonable estimate of the base salary compensation range is $200,000 to $275,000, plus bonus and equity. #LI-Hybrid

Heartflow is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to a work environment that supports, inspires, and respects all individuals and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law. This policy applies to every aspect of employment at Heartflow, including recruitment, hiring, training, relocation, promotion, and termination.

Positions posted for Heartflow are not intended for or open to third party recruiters / agencies. Submission of any unsolicited resumes for these positions will be considered to be free referrals.

Heartflow has become aware of a fraud where unknown entities are posing as Heartflow recruiters in an attempt to obtain personal information from individuals as part of our application or job offer process. Before providing any personal information to outside parties, please verify the following: All legitimate Heartflow recruiter email addresses end with “@heartflow.com” and the position described is found on our careers site at www.heartflow.com/about/careers/.