Platform Architect

About the job Platform Architect Location: Menlo Park, CA Type: FTE, direct hire We are seeking a Platform Architect to define and evolve the architectural foundation of a growing financial technology platform. This role will own end-to-end system architecture across shared services and core infrastructure, with a focus on scalability, reliability, security, and developer efficiency. Responsibilities: Own the technical architecture and long-term platform strategy across core systems and shared services. Design scalable, secure, and fault-tolerant distributed systems for financial and enterprise applications. Define architectural standards for APIs, data models, service boundaries, and infrastructure patterns. Partner with engineering teams on system design, implementation guidance, architecture reviews, and complex technical problem-solving. Collaborate with Security and Infrastructure teams on authentication, authorization, key management, resilience, and defense-in-depth controls. Evaluate new technologies and architecture patterns while balancing innovation, maintainability, and operational maturity. Ensure platform designs can support enterprise, institutional, and regulatory requirements. Document architectural decisions, technical tradeoffs, and long-term roadmaps. Mentor senior engineers and help strengthen architectural practices across engineering teams. Qualifications: 5+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale platform or infrastructure systems. 6+ years of software development experience building production-grade backend systems. Proven experience as a Platform Architect, Principal Engineer, Senior Systems Architect, or comparable technical leadership role. Deep understanding of distributed systems, including fault tolerance, replication, consensus, and networking. Strong experience with cloud and/or hybrid infrastructure, including technologies such as AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, or bare-metal environments. Experience designing APIs, data models, and distributed services that operate reliably at scale. Strong expertise in security-critical systems, including authentication, authorization, cryptography, and key management. Experience designing highly available systems for financial, transactional, or other mission-critical applications. Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Experience working effectively with distributed or cross-functional engineering teams. Experience with blockchain, digital asset, or distributed ledger infrastructure (preferred). Experience contributing to open-source projects (preferred). Familiarity with HSMs, secure enclaves, or hardware-backed key storage (preferred). Background in fintech, capital markets, or institutional financial systems (preferred). SQA Solution