Software Architect, Core Engine

Kinaxis is a global leader in modern supply chain orchestration, providing an AI-infused platform that supports complex global supply chains. The company is seeking a Software Architect, Core Engine to lead the evolution of the Maestro platform into a cloud-native architecture, designing scalable distributed data, query, and execution systems. The role will guide backend platform architecture, influence technical decisions, mentor engineers, and ensure reliable production implementations.

Responsibilities:

• You operate comfortably across the full architecture lifecycle - from conceptual design and deep technical exploration to hands‑on implementation and production hardening. You are driven by complex systems problems and understand how to balance performance, scalability, cost, and operational resilience in real‑world cloud environments
• You will design and evolve highly scalable, distributed, cloud‑native architectures that power core platform capabilities. You think naturally in terms of data flow, consistency models, latency trade‑offs, fault tolerance, and system boundaries, and you continuously push for simpler, more robust, and more performant designs
• You will contribute to the architectural direction for the backend platform, shaping how large‑scale data processing, query execution, and platform services are built and evolved. This includes setting standards for cloud‑native design, guiding decisions around distributed systems patterns, and ensuring architectures are both extensible and production‑ready
• You will act as a technical authority across Product R&D, influencing architectural decisions that span cloud infrastructure, core platform services, and data systems. You will mentor senior engineers, elevate architectural rigor across teams, and foster a culture where architects are deeply accountable for the systems they design
• You are a pragmatic, hands‑on architect. You write code, validate assumptions through prototypes, and work closely with engineering teams to ensure designs translate into reliable, scalable implementations. You value clarity, simplicity, and execution over theoretical perfection
• You are a strong collaborator and communicator, able to explain complex architectural concepts to engineers, product leaders, and executives alike. You bring structure to ambiguity and guide teams toward solutions that align technical excellence with business outcomes

Requirements:

• Advanced education in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. Deep, demonstrated experience building large‑scale, distributed cloud systems is required
• We are implementing our own distributed database and query engine, specifically for supply chain data and use cases.  We are looking for extensive experience designing, implementing and evolving core database, storage, indexing, query execution, caching, consistency, replication, or metadata-management capabilities in large-scale, distributed production systems
• Extensive experience designing and building large‑scale, distributed systems in production environments
• Strong background in data‑intensive systems, such as distributed data processing, distributed data bases, query engines, or platform‑level data services
• Deep expertise in cloud‑native architectures, including scalability, elasticity, fault tolerance, and cost‑aware design
• Proven ability to translate complex technical challenges into clear architectural designs that can be implemented and evolved over time
• Ability to work with ambiguous requirements and translate them into clear, robust, well-communicated architectural designs that are aligned with stakeholders expectations
• Hands‑on experience with modern cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, or GCP) and their core infrastructure services
• Proficiency in modern programming languages (Go) and/or other high‑performance backend languages (C++)
• Solid understanding of system performance, concurrency, consistency models, and operational trade‑offs in distributed environments
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams and operate effectively as a senior technical leader
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex system designs to diverse audiences
• Ability to find opportunities to accelerate the SDLC through innovative application of AI or other tooling,  while upholding architecture consistency, secure design, and code-quality standards
• Ability to review AI-generated code rigorously for correctness, architectural fit, integration risk, and edge case support with a growth mindset and bias for experimentation
• Experience designing platforms that support AI, agentic systems, or advanced analytics at scale
• Exposure to Data Fabric, semantic layers, or extensible platform architectures
• Track record of technical leadership through internal platforms, publications, patents, or open‑source contributions