Distinguished Architect, Platform
Please Note: This is a Utah-based hybrid position which will require some regular in-office days each week. Additionally, employment with BambooHR is contingent on passing both a background and credit check.
Essential Job Duties
BambooHR is seeking a Distinguished Architect to partner with the VP of Software Engineering in leading Platform Engineering. You’ll define and steward the architectural vision for our headless, API-first platform that powers both our products and external ecosystem. You’ll be accountable for the cohesive architecture of BambooHR’s platform, ensuring architectural alignment and interoperability across domains in partnership with domain architects and engineering leadership. You’ll define the multi-year platform architecture, establish standards and guardrails, and mentor and influence architects and principal engineers to deliver a resilient, secure, compliant, and cost-efficient multi-tenant SaaS.
You will:
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Set platform vision & reference architectures for a resilient, secure, compliant, multi‑tenant SaaS: identity & permissions, tenancy, configuration, notifications, audit, and compliance guardrails.
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Architect and guide the evolution of our headless/API-first platform: capability maps for domain APIs, events, and webhooks; OpenAPI/JSON Schema as sources of truth; contract testing; semantic versioning and clear deprecation windows.
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Architect and influence platform modernization: evolve BambooHR’s core platform architecture—modernizing legacy systems, enabling scalable cloud-native patterns, and ensuring the platform is positioned for future innovation and growth.
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Collaborate with Product and Engineering leadership to define and communicate the product vision and strategy from an architectural perspective—representing the architectural vision and tradeoffs to the executive leadership team to ensure alignment across business, product, and technology.
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Own external developer experience: Developer Portal, interactive docs & explorer, quickstarts, sandbox tenants, API keys & usage dashboards, changelogs/status, language SDKs/CLIs/starter kits with automated releases, and partner onboarding (app registration, scopes/consent, security checks, marketplace publication, proactive change notices).
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Elevate how internal developers build on top of the platform: evolve the Internal Developer Platform (IDP) to empower teams with standardized, self-service developer workflows, standard SDKs/libraries, and self-service tooling that accelerate delivery and improve DORA metrics and time-to-first-service.
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Frontend & UX foundations: Partner with frontend architects to ensure the design system, accessibility standards, and frontend platform align with overall platform architecture principles and patterns.
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Provide architectural guidance for Data & AI platform patterns: guide data modeling, streaming, analytics, AI/agent platform patterns, and evaluation/observability.
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Ensure reliability, security & compliance by design: public SLOs and error budgets, progressive delivery (canaries), chaos testing, multi-region DR; authN/authZ (OAuth2/OIDC/SAML; RBAC/ABAC), secure webhooks, audit logging; SOC 2/ISO 27001/GDPR baked into designs and pipelines.
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Guide growth, monetization & FinOps enablement: usage metering, entitlements, pricing tiers, quotas/rate limits; embed unit-economics telemetry (cost per call/event/tenant) to guide caching, capacity, storage tiers, and retention policies.
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Multiply architectural impact: run ADR/RFC processes, lead design reviews & guilds, mentor Staff/Principal engineers, and prototype to de-risk major bets and migrations.
What You Need to Get the Job Done
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10+ years designing and operating public APIs/platforms and IDPs at scale in cloud‑native SaaS (AWS/GCP, Kubernetes/containers, service mesh, IaC, progressive delivery).
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Proven ownership of developer portals, SDKs/CLIs, and partner onboarding/marketplaces; shipped versioning/deprecation programs and webhook/event architectures (REST/GraphQL; Kafka/PubSub or equivalents).
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Deep security & tenancy: OAuth2/OIDC, scope design, RBAC/ABAC, multi‑tenant isolation, auditing, privacy‑preserving patterns, and compliance baked into workflows.
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Reliability & observability fluency: tracing/logs/metrics, SLO/error‑budget culture, chaos/DR patterns, secure webhook delivery.
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DevEx & efficiency impact: measurable DORA improvements, faster time‑to‑first‑service, and improved unit economics/FinOps.
What Will Make Us REALLY Love You
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You’ve transformed developer experience—measurably improving DORA metrics and internal satisfaction through intuitive platforms and golden paths.
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You’ve inspired architectural clarity and alignment across teams, helping leadership and engineers alike rally around a cohesive technical vision.
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You’ve cultivated thriving developer ecosystems—both internally and externally—through SDKs, integrations, and marketplaces.
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You bring deep technical fluency in modern architectural patterns: event-driven systems, GraphQL federation, and emerging data/AI platforms.
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You’re a multiplier of talent: a coach, mentor, and community-builder who elevates architecture culture across the organization.
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You’re known for driving change through influence—able to balance pragmatism with innovation and communicate complex ideas simply.
What You'll Love About Us
- A Great Company Culture that has been recognized by multiple organizations like Inc, and Salt Lake Tribune
- Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance
- Generous leave policies that include 4 weeks of vacation, 12 company holidays, parental leave, and volunteer time off so you can enjoy quality of life
- 401k plans with up to 6% company match
- $2000 Paid-Paid Vacation bonus
- EAP through Headspace
- Check out all our benefits that benefit you
About Us
At BambooHR, we're building something different: we're building a people intelligence platform that transforms HR and sets people free to do great work! We're a proven market leader driving innovation while building lasting success through thoughtful, sustainable growth. Here, you'll find a place that champions growth: both professional and personal, both individual and collective.
We invest in potential, giving you the space to stretch your capabilities and turn good ideas into reality while providing the safety net of a supportive, values-driven culture. Our approach combines meaningful work with meaningful lives, offering competitive benefits, professional development, and the flexibility to thrive both in and outside the office.
What sets us apart isn't just what we do, but how we do it: with openness, integrity, and a shared commitment to doing the right thing. Join us in creating HR software that makes work better for everyone, while we make work better for you.
BambooHR is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals and will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process. If you would like to request accommodations, please let your recruiter know.
BambooHR is An Equal Opportunity Employer--M/F/D/V
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