What are the responsibilities and job description for the Backend Architect/Backend Solutions Architect/Senior Backend Architect/Sr. Backend Architect position at Orpine.com?
Job Title: Backend Architect
Location: Denver, CO (Hybrid)
Duration: Long Term
Job Description:
- We're seeking an experienced hands-on Backend Technical Architect to lead architecture design, technical delivery, and system optimization across our platform.
- This is a hands-on role requiring deep technical expertise, leadership capabilities, and end-to-end ownership of critical systems.
Architecture & Design:
- Design and evolve system architecture for scalability, reliability, and performance
- Create and maintain architectural documentation and technical specifications
- Evaluate and recommend technology stack improvements
- Conduct architecture reviews and provide technical guidance to development teams
Technical Leadership:
- Break down complex initiatives into actionable tasks with clear acceptance criteria
- Provide accurate Level of Effort (LOE) estimates for projects and features
- Mentor and guide junior developers through code reviews and pair programming
- Own end-to-end delivery of critical features and systems
- Establish engineering best practices and coding standards
Problem Solving & Optimization:
- Troubleshoot and resolve critical production issues
- Analyze system bottlenecks and implement performance improvements
- Conduct capacity planning and scaling analysis
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives across the technology stack
- Platform & Infrastructure Optimization
- DynamoDB: Query optimization, indexing strategies, capacity planning, cost optimization
- Kafka: Consumer/producer tuning, partition strategies, throughput optimization, monitoring
- Circuit Breakers: Implement resilience patterns, fault tolerance, and graceful degradation
- TypeScript: Code quality improvements, type safety enhancements, refactoring legacy code
- Performance: Latency reduction, caching strategies, load testing, profiling
Technical Expertise:
- 8 years of software engineering experience with 3 years in architecture roles
- Expert-level proficiency in TypeScript/Node.js
- Deep understanding of distributed systems, microservices architecture, and event-driven design
- Production experience with AWS services (DynamoDB, Lambda, ECS, API Gateway, etc.)
- Strong knowledge of Kafka or similar event streaming platforms
- Experience implementing resilience patterns (circuit breakers, retries, bulkheads, timeouts)
- Proficiency in performance profiling, optimization, and scaling strategies
Leadership & Delivery
- Proven track record of owning and delivering complex technical projects
- Experience mentoring developers and conducting technical interviews
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to balance technical excellence with business priorities
Nice to Have:
- Knowledge of observability tools (DataDog, Splunk, New Relic, CloudWatch, Grafana)
- Background in SRE practices and DevOps methodologies
- Experience with GraphQL, REST API design, and API gateway patterns
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation
- Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform, CDK, CloudFormation)
Deliverables & Success Metrics:
- Architectural designs and technical specifications
- Task breakdowns with accurate LOE estimates
- Performance improvement implementations with measurable results
- Reduced system latency and improved throughput
- Mentorship of junior team members with demonstrable skill growth
- Successful delivery of assigned projects within timeline and scope
Education:
- BA/BS in Information Technology, Computer Science, related field or equivalent combination of education and experience