Technical Architect

Photon; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Photon is seeking a senior software engineering leader with 15+ years of progressive experience to drive large-scale system design and technical strategy in a Dallas-based role. You will lead cross-functional teams, shape architecture across multiple domains, and accelerate AI-driven productivity while ensuring secure, compliant development practices.

Expect ownership of complex systems and a measurable impact on product direction and business outcomes.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive software engineering experience.
• Experience with large-scale system design and cross-functional leadership across multiple technology domains.
• Deep experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred), DevOps practices, and CI/CD automation.
• Proven ability to design, scale, and optimize systems supporting millions of users.
• Strong understanding of security engineering, compliance standards, and secure development practices.
• Experience with mobile infrastructure, crash analytics, feature deployment frameworks, and release automation.
• Expertise in integration platforms, vendor ecosystems, and enterprise workflow automation.
• Experience using AI-assisted development, agentic software engineering, automation, or emerging developer productivity tools to improve how teams design, build, test, deploy, and operate software.
• Strong background in monitoring, observability, event-driven systems, and operational analytics.
• Spec-first practice — authors complete technical specifications and drives design reviews from written artifacts
• Proven ability to take ownership of an existing codebase, standards set, and roadmap at speed
• Proven ability to influence product strategy, investment decisions, technical direction, AI adoption, and business outcomes through credibility, clarity, sound judgement, and technical insight.
• 7+ years of demonstrated track record of leading engineering initiatives with measurable business impact in a distributed environment (Retail, Hospitality, etc)

Responsibilities

• Drive design reviews from written specifications and artifacts.
• Take ownership of an existing codebase, standards, and roadmap at speed.
• Influence product strategy, technical direction, and AI adoption to improve business outcomes.
• Lead engineering initiatives with measurable impact in distributed environments.

Skills

System design

Technical architecture

Cross-functional leadership

Cloud platforms

AWS

DevOps

CI/CD

Security engineering

Compliance standards

Secure development

Mobile infrastructure

Release automation

AI-assisted development

Observability

Event-driven systems

Operational analytics

Spec-first

Codebase ownership

Influence product strategy

AI adoption

Distributed environments

Engineering leadership

Job description

Required Qualifications Technical Expertise

15+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with demonstrated expertise in large-scale system design, technical architecture, and cross-functional leadership across multiple technology domains.

Deep experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred), DevOps practices, and CI/CD automation.

Proven ability to design, scale, and optimize systems supporting millions of users.

Strong understanding of security engineering, compliance standards, and secure development practices.

Experience with mobile infrastructure, crash analytics, feature deployment frameworks, and release automation.

Expertise in integration platforms, vendor ecosystems, and enterprise workflow automation.

Experience using AI-assisted development, agentic software engineering, automation, or emerging developer productivity tools to improve how teams design, build, test, deploy, and operate software.

Strong background in monitoring, observability, event-driven systems, and operational analytics.

Spec-first practice — authors complete technical specifications and drives design reviews from written artifacts

Proven ability to take ownership of an existing codebase, standards set, and roadmap at speed

Proven ability to influence product strategy, investment decisions, technical direction, AI adoption, and business outcomes through credibility, clarity, sound judgement, and technical insight.

7+ years of demonstrated track record of leading engineering initiatives with measurable business impact in a distributed environment (Retail, Hospitality, etc)