Principal Architect

Harrison Clarke is partnering with an exceptional founding team to build the engineering core of a new category-defining company: an AI-native, agentic system of record for enterprise operations. This is not an incremental SaaS product. It’s a ground-up reimagining of how complex enterprise systems are built, operated, and experienced - replacing brittle workflows, heavy implementation layers, and admin overhead with self-managing, agent-driven infrastructure. The company is backed by leading venture firms and founded by a rare combination of former enterprise platform leaders and deeply technical architects who have built and scaled mission-critical systems from first principles. We are hiring the Founding Backend Architect, a true peer to the CTO, to help design and build the system from 0→1. The Opportunity Be one of the first senior technical hires, working directly with an experienced technical founder to architect a high-scale, enterprise-grade system from scratch. This is a role for someone who wants to: Design systems that will underpin core operational infrastructure for modern companies Build at the intersection of distributed systems, data integrity, and AI-native workflows Define the architecture for a platform that must be secure, auditable, highly configurable, and globally scalable Operate as a hands-on architect, not a distant reviewer Key challenges include: Designing transactional, strongly consistent systems with complex domain models (e.g. effective dating, auditability) Building configurable enterprise-grade security models (RBAC, delegated authority, fine-grained access) Architecting for high throughput + low latency in workflow-heavy environments Creating self-healing, observable systems that can operate with minimal human intervention Defining guardrails for AI-assisted development and execution Designing APIs and extensibility layers that are open by design Experience Requirements: Has built and scaled large, complex backend systems (not just maintained them) Is deeply fluent in: Data consistency & transactional integrity Failure modes & resilience engineering Security & privacy in enterprise systems Can think in multi-year architectural horizons, not just sprint cycles Is still hands-on and enjoys building Can operate as a technical peer to an experienced CTO Saw a system evolve through scale, not just after it stabilised Have experience in high-scale infrastructure or enterprise platforms Understand the tradeoffs of configurability vs. complexity in enterprise products Why This Role Is Different You are not inheriting legacy - you are defining the system You’ll help build a product in a category with deep structural pain and no clear winner The company is addressing not just software, but the broader implementation and services burden around enterprise systems You’ll work with founders who have built and scaled globally-used platforms Validated before build - multiple design partners already committed, with clear signals & high anticipation to adopt early This is the formative build phase - the decisions made here will define the system for years. #J-18808-Ljbffr