Senior Technical Architect

At Robots & Pencils, we design and deliver digital products that transform how our clients innovate and compete. We're seeking a Technical Architect (L4) who combines deep technical expertise with the ability to design scalable, cloud-native solutions across diverse client projects. This role is both strategic and hands-on, requiring you to set architectural direction while guiding teams to deliver robust, maintainable systems.

This is a senior leadership role, ideal for someone who thrives on solving complex technical problems, shaping system architectures, and influencing engineering practices across multiple teams and platforms.

About You

You're passionate about building systems that last. You take pride in crafting architectures that balance performance, scalability, and maintainability, while aligning to business goals. You're comfortable moving between high-level design discussions and hands-on technical guidance. Known for your ability to influence and mentor, you excel at building consensus across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What You'll Do

Architecture & Solution Design

• Lead the design of enterprise-grade, cloud-native architectures across web, mobile, and backend platforms

• Define API strategies, integration approaches, and data flows for complex, distributed systems

• Make technology recommendations, balancing client requirements with best practices in scalability, security, and cost efficiency

• Ensure architectures adhere to compliance, accessibility, and performance standards

Technical Leadership

• Provide architectural oversight across active projects, reviewing designs, code, and delivery practices

• Mentor senior engineers and contribute to building technical depth across the organization

• Champion engineering excellence through patterns, reusable frameworks, and reference architectures

• Lead technical discovery workshops and communicate trade-offs clearly to clients and stakeholders

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with product managers, designers, and delivery leads to align architecture with product vision and business strategy

• Collaborate with DevOps and cloud engineers to ensure CI/CD pipelines, observability, and infrastructure support scalable delivery

• Partner with security and compliance teams to ensure architectures follow industry best practices

Continuous Improvement & Innovation

• Stay current with emerging technologies, frameworks, and cloud services, bringing forward innovations that enhance client solutions

• Contribute to internal architecture guilds, knowledge sharing, and thought leadership initiatives

• Support sales and pre-sales teams in crafting technical solutions and proposals for prospective clients

Qualifications & Experience

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 3–5 years in architecture or technical leadership roles

• Proven expertise designing and delivering solutions in cloud-native environments (Specifically AWS)

• Strong experience with microservices, event-driven architectures, and API-first design

• Solid understanding of databases (SQL/NoSQL), caching, messaging systems, and distributed systems

• Proficiency with Node.js, plus experience with at least one frontend or mobile stack

• Familiarity with CI/CD, DevOps, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), and IaC (Terraform, CloudFormation)

• Excellent communication skills, able to present complex technical solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences

Preferred

• Certifications in cloud architecture (AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect, GCP Professional Cloud Architect)

• Experience in regulated industries (finance, healthcare, government)

• Contributions to open-source projects, technical blogs, or speaking engagements

Core Competencies

• Strategic thinker – aligns technology choices with long-term business goals

• Ownership and accountability – take responsibility for architecture outcomes across the lifecycle

• Collaboration – builds strong partnerships across teams, clients, and time zones

• Leadership – inspires, mentors, and elevates technical teams

• Adaptability – thrives in fast-paced, client-driven environments

• Clarity and influence – communicate trade-offs and solutions in a compelling, accessible way

Why Join Robots & Pencils?

At R&P, we don't just deliver software, we craft digital-first experiences that matter. Our teams are diverse, globally distributed, and passionate about solving tough technical challenges. As a Technical Architect, you'll shape solutions that push boundaries, mentor engineers across projects, and help influence the future of our engineering practice.

**This role is open only to candidates currently residing in Canada with legal work authorization.