Forward Deployed Architect

About ENDGAME 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 - Architecture: System design, API design, infrastructure as code - Cloud: AWS, Azure, GCP; preference for serverless/edge (Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects) - AI/ML: Model integration, Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, custom deployments - 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) - AI/ML platform experience (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, custom deployments) - 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) - System design session (60–90m) - Offer → No architecture astronauts. No trivia.