Lead Software Architect (PHP) / Lead Software Architectess (PHP)

Lead Software Architect

Location: [Location / Remote] | Experience: 7+ years | Focus: Product Engineering | Technologies: PHP/Symfony, APIs, React & React Native

About the Role

This is a hands-on technical leadership role for an experienced software architect who will drive architectural clarity across backend services, APIs, web applications, and mobile platforms. You will own and evolve the architecture of applications while collaborating closely with Engineering Leads, engineers, Product, QA, Infrastructure, and DevOps teams. The role combines high-level architectural ownership with the ability to delve deeply into system design, review critical implementations, challenge technical decisions, and guide teams toward pragmatic, sustainable solutions.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Architecture

• Own and evolve the end-to-end architecture for backend services, APIs, web applications, and mobile platforms.
• Define and maintain architectural principles, patterns, technical standards, and decision-making practices for scalable, secure, and maintainable software.
• Act as the primary architecture reference for Engineering Leads and engineers, guiding complex technical design decisions and trade-offs.
• Lead architecture reviews for major features, integrations, platform changes, and cross-team initiatives.
• Identify technical debt, architectural risks, and modernization opportunities; define realistic improvement plans.
• Ensure architectural decisions align with both immediate product needs and the long-term evolution of the platform.
• Review critical implementations and technical designs requiring architectural input.
• Mentor engineers and technical leads to enhance system design, architecture, and technical decision-making capabilities.

Engineering Excellence and Operations

• Promote engineering best practices across teams, focusing on code quality, testing, security, performance, maintainability, and documentation.
• Collaborate with Infrastructure and DevOps teams to shape cloud-native application architecture, deployment patterns, CI/CD practices, and production readiness standards.
• Ensure observability, reliability, resilience, and operational ownership are integrated into architectural decisions from the beginning.
• Support incident analysis for significant production issues and implement durable architectural or operational improvements.
• Establish practical standards for service boundaries, API design, database usage, integration patterns, and system reliability.
• Maintain a balance between technical quality and pragmatism, avoiding unnecessary complexity and short-term decisions with long-term costs.

Collaboration and Delivery

• Work closely with Engineering Leads, Product, QA, Infrastructure, and DevOps to translate product and business requirements into sustainable technical solutions.
• Create alignment across teams while preserving their ownership, autonomy, and ability to act swiftly.
• Contribute to technical roadmap planning, investment decisions, and prioritization alongside the CTO and Product stakeholders.
• Coordinate architectural initiatives that involve multiple teams, services, platforms, or product areas.
• Clearly communicate architectural decisions, risks, dependencies, and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Assist teams in making informed delivery decisions by balancing technical feasibility, time-to-market, reliability, and maintainability.

Experience

• At least 7 years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong background in software architecture, technical leadership, or senior engineering roles.
• Proven expertise in designing and evolving backend systems, APIs, and service-oriented architectures in production environments.
• Experience guiding engineers through complex system design decisions and architectural trade-offs.
• Demonstrated ability to establish technical standards and improve engineering practices across multiple teams or product areas.
• Experience in environments prioritizing reliability, maintainability, scalability, and production operations.
• Proven ability to identify technical debt and modernization opportunities, converting them into prioritized initiatives.
• Experience mentoring engineers and enhancing the overall technical capability of a software engineering organization.
• Comfortable transitioning between strategic technical direction and hands-on engagement in designs, code reviews, and implementation decisions.

Technical Fluency

• Strong expertise in backend architecture, service design, and API design, particularly in PHP and Symfony or comparable technologies.
• Solid understanding of end-to-end application architecture encompassing backend services, APIs, web applications, and mobile applications.
• Good working knowledge of modern frontend architecture, ideally including React and React Native, with the ability to review and guide frontend architectural decisions.
• Experience with SQL databases and designing reliable data access, integration, and persistence patterns.
• Familiarity with modern production environments, including Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Good understanding of cloud-native architectural principles, deployment practices, and operational concerns.
• Experience with observability and production monitoring tools such as Sentry, Datadog, or similar platforms.
• Strong grasp of code quality, automated testing, application security, performance, and reliability practices.

Ways of Working

• Able to articulate and defend technical positions with senior engineers, Engineering Leads, Product stakeholders, and executive leadership.
• Pragmatic in decision-making: protect architectural quality while empowering teams to achieve meaningful product outcomes.
• Collaborative and influential, capable of creating alignment without relying solely on formal authority.
• Comfortable working across multiple disciplines, including backend, frontend, mobile, QA, Product, Infrastructure, and DevOps.
• Able to convey complex technical topics, risks, and trade-offs clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Structured and detail-oriented, maintaining a focus on achieving significant outcomes.
• Adaptable in evolving product environments with clear architectural direction.
• Committed to fostering team success through mentorship, establishing standards, and providing thoughtful technical challenges and support.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, including architecture or technical leadership responsibilities.
• Strong background in backend architecture and API design, ideally in PHP/Symfony environments.
• Experience across web and mobile product ecosystems.
• Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, SQL databases, and production observability tools.
• Proficient in English communication skills, both written and spoken.
• A pragmatic mindset, high standards for software quality, and a genuine interest in empowering engineering teams to build superior systems.

Apply online using the form below. Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.