Forward Deployed Architect

ENDGAME is an AI-native consulting and product development firm. Small, senior teams amplified by purpose-built AI tooling deliver strategy and execution in the same hands at software-company economics. We help companies find where AI brings real value, prove it works, and scale the results across the organization. The Role You'll design technical approaches for AI-first enterprise products. You'll make architecture decisions that balance capability, cost, risk, and time. You'll help teams build what you design. This is hands-on. You will need to write code, build prototypes, and review pull requests, when needed. You don't hand off diagrams. You'll work directly with clients. You learn their systems, explain trade-offs, and recommend solutions that fit their constraints.

What You'll Do
- Understand: Map existing landscape of capabilities, business processes, services to gather full in detail understanding of the product.
- Design: Create system architectures—components, integrations, data flows, infrastructure. Choose technologies based on what works, not what's newest. Weigh cost against speed, risk against capability, then recommend. Set performance targets: response times, uptime, load capacity, recovery.
- Build: Write code to test designs before teams commit to them. Build prototypes to check assumptions early. Review code to catch problems before production.
- Guide: Unblock engineers during implementation. Make technical calls when the path isn't clear. Teach others how to think about architecture. Document decisions so others can maintain what you build.
- Client Work: Map existing systems, constraints, and requirements. Turn business needs into technical plans. Explain options in plain terms. Review systems after launch and recommend improvements.
- Manage Risk: Assess security, compliance, and operations before building. Design for regulated environments. Identify failure points and design around them. Tools & Methods
- Cloud: AWS, Azure, GCP; preference for serverless/edge (Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects)
- Documentation: ADRs, design docs, runbooks, technical specifications
- Collaboration: Direct client workshops, technical presentations, stakeholder alignment Required Skills
- 8+ years building software; 3+ years making architecture decisions
- Cloud platform experience (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Modern infrastructure knowledge: containers, serverless, infrastructure as code
- AI/ML integration

experience:
models in applications, data pipelines, monitoring, latency, versioning
- Enterprise

experience:
security, compliance, legacy integration, data governance
- Ability to explain technical concepts to executives and business constraints to engineers
- Current coding skills in production environments Nice to Have
- Regulated industry experience (healthcare, finance, government)
- Cost management

skills:
cloud spend, build vs. buy analysis, total cost of ownership
- Edge computing, IoT, or distributed systems background Perks and Benefits
- Competitive salary + bonus.
- Up to 22 days PTO; public holidays (location-based); high-end laptop + tools; learning budget; extensive AI tooling.
- Remote-first (GMT-1 to GMT+4) with occasional travel. The Process
- Getting to know each other (30m)
- Technical discussion (45m)
- Offer