Technical Architect _ Product & Client Solutions

Astral Business Consulting; United States; Remote; USD 207,000 - 413,000; Part time

Job summary

Astral Business Consulting is seeking a Fractional Technical / Solution Architect to provide senior technical leadership across multiple software product development and client implementation projects. The role involves reviewing architectures, setting standards, guiding development, and ensuring scalable, secure designs across APIs, security, cloud, and DevOps.

The position is a part-time / fractional engagement requiring hands-on architectural expertise and experience with SaaS/product

Qualifications

• 10?15+ years of software engineering experience.
• 5+ years in Solution Architect, Technical Architect, Principal Engineer, Engineering Lead or equivalent senior technical roles.
• Proven experience in end-to-end product development.
• Experience architecting and reviewing multiple software applications/products.
• Experience reviewing code written by other developers.
• Experience leading or mentoring software development teams.
• Experience working with multiple technologies and client requirements.
• Experience in production systems and troubleshooting.
• Experience with SaaS/product development is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Review business requirements and translate them into appropriate technical architectures.
• Review and approve application, database, API and integration architecture.
• Evaluate technology choices and recommend appropriate solutions.
• Review scalability, performance, security and maintainability of proposed designs.
• Guide decisions such as monolith vs. microservices, technology selection and integration architecture.
• Prepare/review architecture diagrams and technical design documents.
• Provide technical direction for development of SaaS/web-based products.
• Guide developers from architecture and design through development, deployment and maintenance.
• Establish reusable architecture and technical components wherever appropriate.
• Ensure products are designed for scalability, security and maintainability.
• Review critical source code and pull requests.
• Establish coding standards and code-review practices.
• Identify architectural issues, technical debt, security vulnerabilities and performance concerns.
• Review database structures, APIs and critical business logic.
• Guide refactoring and improvement of existing applications.
• SSO / OAuth2.0 / OpenID Connect / SAML / JWT / RBAC / MFA concepts
• Encryption at rest and in transit / secure API design / secrets management
• OWASP and secure coding practices / audit logging and access control
• Design and review REST APIs and third-party integrations
• Review API authentication, authorization, versioning and error handling
• Guide ERP, payment, external application and data integrations
• Review integration reliability, retry mechanisms and data synchronization
• Experience with AWS/Azure/GCP
• Understanding of Docker/containerisation and CI/CD
• Review deployment architecture and environment strategy
• Establish development, testing, UAT and production deployment practices
• Guide application monitoring, logging, alerting and rollback procedures
• Guide developers in resolving complex application, database, API and deployment issues
• Perform root-cause analysis of production issues
• Assist with performance, scalability and reliability problems
• Establish systematic troubleshooting and incident-management practices
• Define technical documentation standards
• Define Git and branching practices
• Establish code-review and release-management processes
• Establish standards for development and maintenance
• Conduct periodic technical health reviews of applications
• Mentor developers and technical leads
• Guide developers in architecture and technology decisions
• Improve engineering practices and technical capability of the team
• Act as the senior technical escalation point for the development team
• Comfortable working as a Part-time / Fractional engagement

Skills

Java/Spring Boot

.NET

Node.js

Frontend frameworks

REST APIs

OAuth/OIDC/SAML/JWT

RBAC

AWS/Azure/GCP

Docker/CI-CD

Monitoring/Logging

Database performance

Distributed systems

Tools

Git/GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket

Docker

CI/CD

Job description

Technical Architect Product & Client Solutions

Role Overview

We are looking for an experienced Fractional Technical / Solution Architect to provide senior technical leadership across multiple software product development and client implementation projects. The role will be responsible for reviewing system architecture and technical designs, establishing development and maintenance standards, reviewing critical code and technical implementations, guiding developers in troubleshooting and complex technical issues, and ensuring that products are developed using scalable, secure and maintainable architectures. The role will work across varied client requirements and should therefore have broad experience across software architecture, APIs, authentication/SSO, security, integrations, cloud, databases, DevOps and product engineering.

Key Responsibilities

1. Architecture & Technical Design

• Review business requirements and translate them into appropriate technical architectures.
• Review and approve application, database, API and integration architecture.
• Evaluate technology choices and recommend appropriate solutions.
• Review scalability, performance, security and maintainability of proposed designs.
• Guide decisions such as monolith vs. microservices, technology selection and integration architecture.
• Prepare/review architecture diagrams and technical design documents.

2. Product Development

• Provide technical direction for development of SaaS/web-based products.
• Guide developers from architecture and design through development, deployment and maintenance.
• Establish reusable architecture and technical components wherever appropriate.
• Ensure products are designed for scalability, security and maintainability.

3. Code & Development Review

• Review critical source code and pull requests.
• Establish coding standards and code-review practices.
• Identify architectural issues, technical debt, security vulnerabilities and performance concerns.
• Review database structures, APIs and critical business logic.
• Guide refactoring and improvement of existing applications.

4. Security & Identity

• SSO
• OAuth 2.0
• OpenID Connect
• SAML
• JWT
• RBAC
• MFA concepts
• Encryption at rest and in transit
• Secure API design
• Secrets and key management
• OWASP and secure coding practices
• Audit logging and access control

5. API & Integration Architecture

• Design and review REST APIs and third-party integrations.
• Review API authentication, authorization, versioning and error handling.
• Guide ERP, payment, external application and data integrations.
• Review integration reliability, retry mechanisms and data synchronization.

6. Cloud & DevOps

• Experience with AWS, Azure or GCP.
• Understanding of Docker/containerisation and CI/CD.
• Review deployment architecture and environment strategy.
• Establish development, testing, UAT and production deployment practices.
• Guide application monitoring, logging, alerting and rollback procedures.

7. Troubleshooting & Technical Support

• Guide developers in resolving complex application, database, API and deployment issues.
• Perform root-cause analysis of production issues.
• Assist with performance, scalability and reliability problems.
• Establish systematic troubleshooting and incident-management practices.

8. Engineering Process & Governance

• Define technical documentation standards.
• Define Git and branching practices.
• Establish code-review and release-management processes.
• Establish standards for development and maintenance.
• Conduct periodic technical health reviews of applications.

9. Team Mentoring

• Mentor developers and technical leads.
• Guide developers in architecture and technology decisions.
• Improve engineering practices and technical capability of the team.
• Act as the senior technical escalation point for the development team.

Required Experience

• 1015+ years of software engineering experience.
• 5+ years in Solution Architect, Technical Architect, Principal Engineer, Engineering Lead or equivalent senior technical roles.
• Proven experience in end-to-end product development.
• Experience architecting and reviewing multiple software applications/products.
• Experience reviewing code written by other developers.
• Experience leading or mentoring software development teams.
• Experience working with multiple technologies and client requirements.
• Experience in production systems and troubleshooting.
• Experience with SaaS/product development is highly desirable.

Technical Skills

• Strong architectural understanding of:
• Backend technologies such as Java/Spring Boot, .NET, Node.js or equivalent
• React/Angular/Vue or equivalent frontend technologies
• PostgreSQL/MySQL/SQL Server
• REST APIs and integrations
• OAuth/OIDC/SAML/JWT
• RBAC and application security
• Encryption and secure data handling
• AWS/Azure/GCP
• Docker and CI/CD
• Git/GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket
• Application monitoring and logging
• Database and application performance
• Distributed/integration systems
• The candidate need not be an expert programmer in every technology listed, but should have sufficient hands-on experience and architectural understanding to review implementations and guide development teams.

Preferred Background

• Product engineering companies
• SaaS companies
• Software consulting/implementation companies
• ERP/integration projects
• Enterprise application development
• Data/analytics platforms
• AI-enabled applications
• Multi-tenant SaaS products

Key Characteristics

• Technically strong and hands-on enough to understand implementation issues.
• Architecture-oriented rather than technology-specific.
• Comfortable reviewing and challenging technical decisions.
• Strong in security and integration architecture.
• Experienced in production troubleshooting.
• Able to work with multiple development teams and projects.
• Practical and cost-conscious in technology decisions.
• Good at mentoring developers.
• Comfortable working on a part-time/fractional basis.

Engagement

Part-time / Fractional engagement

The candidate need not be an expert programmer in every technology listed, but should have sufficient hands-on experience and architectural understanding to review implementations and guide development teams.

• Expected involvement: on need basis, with flexibility to increase involvement during major architecture, production or client implementation requirements.
• The role will function as the senior technical authority across multiple products and client projects, while day-to-day development will continue to be handled by the internal development team.
• Backend technologies such as Java/Spring Boot, .NET, Node.js or equivalent
• React/Angular/Vue or equivalent frontend technologies
• PostgreSQL/MySQL/SQL Server
• REST APIs and integrations
• OAuth/OIDC/SAML/JWT
• RBAC and application security
• Encryption and secure data handling
• AWS/Azure/GCP
• Docker and CI/CD
• Git/GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket
• Application monitoring and logging
• Database and application performance
• Distributed/integration systems