Zact Inc.
Software Architect - Enterprise Java * Cloud-Native * AI-Augmented Development
Skills
Job description
Position Overview
We are seeking an accomplished Software Architect to lead the design, implementation, and governance of enterprise‑grade, cloud‑native Java applications. In this pivotal role, you will define architectural standards, mentor engineering teams, drive adoption of modern development practices — including AI‑augmented workflows — and ensure our systems are built for resilience, scalability, and long‑term maintainability.
You will serve as the technical authority across multiple product domains, collaborating closely with product management, DevOps, and senior leadership to align technology decisions with strategic business objectives.
Position Details
Job Title: Software Architect
Department: Engineering – Architecture & Platform
Reports To: VP of Engineering
Location: Remote
Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent
Experience: 15+ Years Software Engineering; 5+ Years Architecture
Key Responsibilities
Architecture & Design
Define and enforce enterprise architecture standards, patterns, and conventions across all product domains
Lead technical design sessions and author Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) for major system changes
Establish and refine microservices topology, service contracts, and inter‑service communication strategies
Oversee database schema design, migration versioning, and data consistency strategies across distributed systems
Engineering Excellence
Drive adoption of SOLID principles, Gang‑of‑Four design patterns, and reactive programming paradigms
Establish code quality gates: minimum 85%+ test coverage enforced via CI/CD pipelines
Introduce JMH micro‑benchmarking for performance‑critical paths and define SLOs for critical services
Own OpenAPI/Swagger documentation standards and API versioning governance
Guide proper exception hierarchy design, structured logging, and observability best practices (traces, metrics, logs)
AI‑Augmented Development
Champion integration of AI‑assisted coding tools (GitHub Copilot, JetBrains AI, Cursor, Claude) into the SDLC
Define guidelines for safe, productive, and auditable use of LLM‑generated code in production systems
Evaluate and prototype AI/ML integration patterns: LLM API consumption, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), embedding pipelines, and vector store integrations within the Java/Spring ecosystem
Develop internal AI‑powered productivity tooling (code reviewers, test generators, documentation assistants) using Spring AI or LangChain4j
Ensure AI‑generated outputs comply with security, licensing, and intellectual property policies
Cloud‑Native & Infrastructure
Architect cloud‑native solutions on GCP leveraging Kubernetes, service meshes, and managed data services
Define containerisation, configuration management, and secret management standards
Lead distributed transaction strategy using Saga patterns, idempotent consumers, and outbox patterns
Oversee CI/CD pipeline architecture and promote GitOps workflows
Leadership & Mentorship
Mentor senior and mid‑level engineers in architectural thinking, design patterns, and production‑readiness criteria
Conduct architecture reviews, technical due diligence, and proof‑of‑concept evaluations
Collaborate with Product and Business stakeholders to translate requirements into actionable technical roadmaps
Represent the engineering organisation in cross‑functional architecture committees and vendor evaluations
Technical Requirements
Core Java & Spring Ecosystem
Java 17+
Spring Boot 3.x & Spring Framework 6.x
Spring Security (OAuth 2.1, JWT, OIDC)
Spring Data JPA / R2DBC / Redis
Spring Cloud
Reactive Streams
Maven & Gradle build tooling
Hibernate ORM & Flyway migrations
Enterprise Patterns & Architecture
Domain‑Driven Design (Aggregates, Bounded Contexts)
CQRS & Event Sourcing (Axon / custom)
Saga Pattern (Choreography & Orchestration)
Repository & Unit of Work Pattern
Specification Pattern for query composition
Strategy, Factory, Builder, and Decorator Patterns
Dependency Injection mastery (Spring IoC)
Quality, Testing & Observability
JUnit 5, Mockito, TestContainers, ArchUnit
JMH Benchmarking & performance profiling
SonarQube, OWASP Dependency Check
OpenAPI 3.x / Swagger documentation
Micrometer + Prometheus + Grafana
Distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Zipkin)
Resilience testing
Cloud, Messaging & Data
GCP (container & serverless services)
Kubernetes, Helm, ArgoCD
Apache Kafka
PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis
gRPC & Protocol Buffers
GraphQL
REST API design best practices
AI & Machine Learning Integration
Spring AI / LangChain4j framework experience
LLM API integration (OpenAI, Anthropic)
Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines
Vector databases
Embedding models and semantic search
AI‑assisted code generation tool governance
Prompt engineering & chain‑of‑thought patterns
Qualifications
Required
15+ years of professional software engineering experience with 5+ years in a software architect or principal engineer role
Deep expertise in Java 17+, Spring Boot 3.x, and the broader enterprise Java ecosystem
Demonstrable production experience with microservices, event‑driven systems, and cloud‑native architectures
Strong command of DDD, CQRS, Event Sourcing, and distributed transaction patterns
Hands‑on experience with containerised deployments on Kubernetes in a major cloud provider
Proven ability to mentor and elevate the technical skills of engineering teams
Excellent written and verbal communication for both technical and non‑technical audiences
Preferred
Experience with Spring AI, LangChain4j, or direct LLM/ML API integration in production Java services
Familiarity with AI‑assisted development workflows: Copilot, Cursor, JetBrains AI, or equivalent
Contributions to open‑source Java / Spring projects or published technical writing