Engineering Lead / Platform Architect

Blackford Technologies

Own the technical architecture for a multi-module AI-driven platform

Define and maintain service boundaries, integration patterns, APIs, schemas, and engineering standards

Lead day-to-day technical execution across multiple developers

Translate product and AI strategy into clear, buildable engineering plans

Ensure the platform remains cohesive, scalable, secure, and maintainable as new modules are introduced

Establish best practices for:

• System design
• Code quality
• Documentation
• Testing
• Deployment
• Observability
• Identify and manage technical risks, dependencies, and architectural trade-offs
• Support hiring, onboarding, and mentoring of engineers as the team expands
• Work closely with leadership to balance speed of delivery with oversight and governance
• Act as the technical bridge between innovation, architecture, and execution.

What This Role Owns:

Engineering oversight, platform architecture, technical delivery structure, developer coordination and quality and scalability of implementation.

Required Experience:

• Proven experience as an Engineering Lead, Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, or Solutions/Platform Architect.
• Strong background designing and delivering scalable software platforms.
• Experience leading developers in a fast-moving product or platform environment.
• Deep understanding of: Distributed systems, API and integration design, event-driven or service-oriented architecture and cloud-based deployment patterns, ability to make practical architectural decisions while keeping delivery moving.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to align technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Comfortable operating in an evolving environment where structure is still being defined:

Preferred Experience

• Experience working on AI-enabled products or data-intensive platforms
• Exposure to security, intelligence, risk, or decision-support systems
• Familiarity with governance, auditability, and operational controls in complex platforms
• Experience setting up engineering processes for a growing team