Platform & Systems Architect

Job Description

About Airspace Link

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Throughout history, transformative advancements in infrastructure have propelled humanity forward—from Vanderbilt's railroads to Edison's electrical grid and Eisenhower's highways. Today, we are at another pivotal infrastructure moment: the transformation of the national airspace for drones and autonomous aviation.

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Airspace Link is building the digital infrastructure that will make that transformation possible.

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As an FAA-approved Unmanned Aircraft Systems Service Supplier (USS) , our flagship cloud platform, AirHub® Portal , enables businesses and government entities to safely manage and scale drone operations across the United States. Our technology is helping establish the digital systems required for drones to operate safely and efficiently in increasingly complex airspace.

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Founded in Detroit in 2018, Airspace Link is an award-winning, high-growth, VC-funded startup backed by Altos Ventures, Avanta Ventures, and others. We are remote-first and driven by a mission to advance the UAS industry while bringing together engineers, aviation experts, and creative thinkers to solve problems that have never been solved at this scale.

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Job Summary

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Build the infrastructure for the future of aviation.

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At Airspace Link, we are building the technology that enables drones to safely integrate into the national airspace. Our platform supports cities, government agencies, and enterprises as they launch and scale drone programs that improve public safety, enhance operational efficiency, and unlock new capabilities.

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We are seeking a Platform & Systems Architect to own and guide the architecture of our cloud platform and infrastructure. This is a senior, hands-on role with final approval authority over significant architectural decisions . You will maintain a system-wide understanding of our TypeScript and Go services, NATS messaging, PostgreSQL and Redis data stores, and Kubernetes/Azure infrastructure, ensuring technical decisions support the reliability, scalability, and long-term health of the entire platform.

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You will establish architectural standards, lead technical design reviews, shape the platform roadmap, and work directly with engineers on complex problems. When needed, you will personally prototype and implement foundational components. This role requires the technical judgment to balance delivery speed with long-term system health—and the willingness to push back or stop work when architectural risk is too high.

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Duties and Responsibilities

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• Serve as the final technical authority for significant architectural decisions, including service boundaries, data models, API contracts, messaging patterns, and infrastructure choices.
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• Maintain a system-wide view of how our applications, services, data stores, messaging, and cloud infrastructure interact, including dependencies and failure modes.
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• Define and enforce architectural standards and patterns across engineering teams; review designs, RFCs, and significant code changes and require rework when necessary.
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• Lead the architecture review process for cross-team and high-impact technical changes and maintain architecture documentation, system diagrams, and ADRs.
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• Own the technical roadmap and major platform decisions for Kubernetes, Azure, infrastructure-as-code, and platform tooling.
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• Personally design, prototype, and implement critical or high-risk components using Go, TypeScript, Terraform, or related technologies when hands-on involvement is required.
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• Partner directly with engineers on complex technical problems and mentor engineers to strengthen architectural thinking and engineering practices.
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• Establish and promote standards for reliability, observability, security, scalability, and operational resilience across the platform.
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• Evaluate technical debt and architectural risk against business and delivery priorities, with the authority to recommend delaying or stopping work when risk is unacceptable.
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• Partner with the CTO, Platform and Security engineers to ensure the platform evolves with a strong balance of technical quality, security, and business needs.
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Required Qualifications

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• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent relevant experience.
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• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience , including significant experience designing production SaaS platforms, distributed systems, or cloud-native applications.
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• Experience in a senior technical role such as Platform Architect, Systems Architect, Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, or equivalent .
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• Deep understanding of distributed systems, microservices, APIs, event-driven architecture, and system-wide technical dependencies.
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• Strong production experience with Go and/or TypeScript and the ability to write production-quality code.
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• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and Azure , including cloud infrastructure and networking.
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• Strong experience with Infrastructure as Code, preferably Terraform , and modern CI/CD practices.
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• Experience with event-driven systems and messaging technologies such as NATS , as well as PostgreSQL and Redis.
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• Demonstrated ability to establish architectural standards, lead technical design reviews, and make high-impact system-level decisions.
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• Strong understanding of reliability, observability, security, scalability, and operational resilience in production systems.
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• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, influence technical decisions across teams, and balance technical excellence with delivery needs.
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Preferred Experience

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• Experience with NATS, Kafka, or comparable distributed messaging technologies.
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• Experience with Azure networking, IAM, and security architecture.
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• Experience with Docker and containerized application architectures.
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• Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, Grafana, Better Stack, or similar.
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• Experience with ADRs, RFC processes, system diagrams, and technical governance.
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• Experience in aviation, UAS, or adjacent industries.
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