Software Architect / Technical Lead - PHP and Symfony

Architect / Technical Lead (PHP/Symfony) Full-Time | Direct Hire US Citizen or Green Card Only No Visa Transfer or Sponsorship Available 100% Remote (Candidates must currently reside in one of the following states): Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, or Wisconsin. We're seeking an experienced Architect / Technical Lead to lead the architecture and modernization of our SaaS platform. This is a hands-on technical leadership role responsible for defining architectural strategy, mentoring senior engineers, and ensuring our systems are scalable, secure, and built for long-term success. You'll partner closely with Product and Engineering leadership to translate business objectives into technical solutions, establish engineering standards, drive architectural decisions, and ensure compliance with security and data privacy requirements. Responsibilities Own the overall technical architecture, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability.Translate business goals into technical strategy, architecture, and system design.Lead complex architecture initiatives, proof-of-concepts, and technology evaluations.Guide engineering teams through architectural decisions, technical challenges, and implementation.Define architectural standards, coding guidelines, and engineering best practices.Drive data architecture, database design, data modeling, and ETL/pipeline strategies.Provide architectural guidance across backend, APIs, frontend, integrations, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps.Partner with DevOps/SRE on containerization, CI/CD, observability, deployments, and operational excellence.Identify technical debt, architectural risks, and performance bottlenecks while driving continuous improvement.Ensure systems meet compliance, privacy, security, accessibility, and reliability standards.Lead architecture reviews and mentor engineers through design reviews and technical decision-making.Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to shape the technical roadmap and technology strategy.Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI/ML opportunities, where they deliver measurable business value.Support hiring, onboarding, mentoring, and development of engineering talent.Complete required compliance and HIPAA training.Leadership Responsibilities Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across multiple teams.Participate in hiring, onboarding, performance feedback, and career development.Partner with Engineering leadership on architectural planning and cross-functional initiatives.Review technical proposals to ensure alignment with long-term platform strategy.Foster a collaborative engineering culture focused on quality, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.Required Qualifications Minimum 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience with a minimum of 3-4 years of experience architecting/designing enterprise-scale applications.Strong expertise with PHP 8.x and Symfony (required).Experience with Docker, Nginx, MongoDB, Linux, AWS and modern backend technologies.Strong understanding of software architecture, including:Object-Oriented Design (OOP)Domain-Driven Design (DDD)REST API DesignMicroservicesDistributed SystemsPerformance OptimizationExperience leading architecture reviews and providing technical direction across engineering teams.Hands-on experience with DevOps, containerization, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud infrastructure.Experience with data architecture, database design, data modeling, and ETL/pipeline patterns.Ability to guide architecture across backend, APIs, integrations, and frontend technologies.Strong understanding of Agile development, test-driven development (TDD), and iterative delivery.Knowledge of system reliability, observability, security best practices, and operational excellence.Experience working within compliance-driven environments; SOC 2 experience preferred.Interest in evaluating emerging technologies, including practical AI/ML applications.Excellent communication skills with both technical and business stakeholders.