Lead Backend Architect – Node.js, Cloud & AI

Phoenix, Arizona 85001 Posted September 14th, 2026 Job Type: Full Time Job Category: IT Job Description Job Title: Lead Backend Architect – Node.js, Cloud & AI Location: Phoenix, Az Full Time Job Description Role - Lead Backend Architect – Node.js, Cloud & AI Experience Required -10+ Years Must Have Technical/Functional Skills • 12+ years of experience in designing and building enterprise-scale, cloud-native backend systems and distributed architectures. • Strong hands-on expertise in Node.js, JavaScript, and TypeScript (must-have), with working knowledge of Python and Go. • Extensive experience developing microservices, REST/gRPC APIs, event-driven architectures, and scalable backend platforms. • Strong expertise in AWS and/or GCP, Kubernetes, Docker, cloud-native architecture, and CI/CD pipelines. • Experience with distributed messaging and streaming technologies such as Kafka, queues, and asynchronous processing. • Proven experience designing highly available, secure, scalable, and resilient backend systems. • Strong understanding of databases (SQL/NoSQL), caching, observability, logging, and performance optimization. • Mandatory experience integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) into enterprise applications and backend platforms. • Hands-on experience with Agentic AI frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, or Semantic Kernel. • Experience building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, AI orchestration workflows, and LLM gateways. • Working knowledge of PyTorch, Hugging Face ecosystem, embeddings, inference, and model evaluation. • Strong understanding of AI governance, evaluation, safety, and responsible AI practices. • Excellent architecture, technical leadership, stakeholder management, and mentoring skills. • Required Technologies o Languages: Node.js, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go o Cloud: AWS/GCP o Containers: Kubernetes, Docker o APIs: REST, gRPC o Messaging: Kafka or equivalent o AI Frameworks: LangGraph, LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, Semantic Kernel o ML: Hugging Face, PyTorch DevOps: CI/CD, Terraform (preferred) Roles & Responsibilities • Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of scalable cloud-native backend platforms for Lounge Services. • Design and develop high-performance microservices and APIs using Node.js/TypeScript on AWS/GCP. • Define architecture standards for distributed systems, event-driven solutions, messaging, and cloud-native applications. • Drive the adoption of AI capabilities by integrating LLMs and Agentic AI into enterprise backend services. • Design and implement reusable AI platform components including orchestration, RAG pipelines, model gateways, and AI observability. • Provide technical leadership across engineering teams, driving architecture reviews, engineering best practices, and technology decisions. • Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Security, and Enterprise Architecture teams to deliver scalable and secure solutions. • Mentor engineering teams and influence technical direction across multiple initiatives. • Evaluate emerging backend, cloud, and AI technologies and recommend enterprise adoption where appropriate. Ensure solutions meet enterprise standards for scalability, reliability, security, performance, and operational excellence. Required Skills Performance Architect