Principal Architect (m/f/d)

Posted Jan 20

At Bitly, we believe in the power of the link or scan - to start a conversation, build a relationship or grow a business. Our mission is to turn every interaction into a catalyst for connections. It’s what motivates us to help people share, promote and engage everywhere on the Internet. We do this by being relentlessly product-focused, fostering the free-flowing exchange of ideas, and inspiring people around the world to dream up new ways of using Bitly.

The Role

As a Principal Architect at Bitly, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the technological landscape of our organization. Leveraging your top-notch engineering skills, you will lead the charge in defining and implementing the architectural vision at scale, ensuring alignment with business objectives. You'll be a facilitator, bringing together cross-functional teams to make collective decisions on technological direction. Communication is your thing, and you'll use it to foster an environment of knowledge-sharing and mentorship, helping our developers grow both technically and professionally. Your influence extends beyond code; you'll contribute to strategic decision-making, evaluate emerging technologies, and guide the team toward adopting best practices.

What You'll D

  • Develop and drive the overarching architectural strategy, ensuring it aligns with the company's business objectives.
  • Act as a key decision-maker in critical architectural choices and guide teams to implement features and functionality that are scalable and efficient.
  • Facilitate collaboration among cross-functional teams, ensuring collective decision-making on architectural matters.
  • Identify essential missing technical requirements during the planning and design phases of the SDLC.
  • Work closely with product managers, engineers, and other architects to identify and solve complex technical challenges.
  • Cultivate an open communication culture, promoting knowledge sharing and collaboration within the engineering team.
  • Mentor junior, mid-level, and senior developers, providing guidance on best practices, coding standards, and architectural principles.
  • Stay up-to-date on industry trends and emerging technologies, influencing decision-making based on the latest advancements.
  • Lead the evaluation and adoption of new technologies to enhance the company's technical capabilities.
  • Oversee a technical area by providing guidance and alignment in a project's Design and Planning phases.
  • Contributes to Implementation phases of project(s) that are critical for the business and highly complex.
  • Conduct regular code reviews and architectural assessments to maintain architectural integrity.
  • Documents how services, files, and technologies work together.
  • Defines, implements, documents, and enforces best practices to uphold high code quality and system reliability standards.

Who You Are

General

  • Proven experience designing and implementing solutions for high-scale environments serving billions of customers.
  • Demonstrated ability to make sound technical decisions based on industry best practices.
  • Familiarity with challenges related to scalability, performance optimization, and distributed systems architecture.
  • Proactively stays informed about industry trends, embraces innovative solutions to address challenges, and takes the lead in evaluating and adopting cutting-edge technologies to enhance the company's technical capabilities.
  • Passion for mentorship and fostering the professional growth of team members.
  • Ability to lead by example, inspiring others through technical excellence and collaborative leadership.
  • Proficiency in our main programming languages is essential. For the backend, this means expertise in Golang and Javascript/Typescript, and for the frontend, it is necessary to know Javascript/Typescript with React as our main framework. Experience with other modern languages is also beneficial, as long as there is a willingness to focus on our primary languages.

For Backend Architects

  • Hands-on experience with Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), including but not limited to the key services we leverage.
  • Proficiency in designing, deploying, and managing applications in AWS/GCP cloud environments.
  • Knowledge of best security, scalability, and cost optimization practices on the AWS/GCP platform.
  • Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, etc.)
  • Production experience running services such as load balancers, relational databases, messaging systems, and container-orchestration systems

For Frontend Architects

  • Strong expertise in defining and leading frontend architecture, emphasizing modular and scalable design patterns.
  • Proven ability to guide development teams in implementing best practices for performance optimization, code maintainability, and user-centric design in frontend applications.
  • Experience in crafting scalable and responsive user interfaces that enhance the overall user experience.
  • Excellent in aligning architectural decisions with product goals and business objectives.

EU Employee Benefits

  • Competitive Salary + Stock Options
  • 30 days paid vacation + one week company vacation in summer
  • Flexibility: remote-first (Bielefeld and Berlin offices available) & flexible working hours
  • High standard equipment (laptop. Monitors, keyboards ..)
  • Work from home stipend
  • Wifi / Internet & Cell Phone Stipend
  • Personal Development Budget
  • Fitness Membership at Urban Sports Club
  • Regular onsite & offsite team events
  • Trust based leadership
  • Strong feedback culture
  • Employee focused onboarding experience
  • Company sponsored volunteering opportunities (when it is safe to do so)

Closing

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in Germany on a full-time basis and located in Germany.

#LI-AR1

The annual cash compensation range for this position is below. Final compensation will be determined based on experience and skills and may vary from the range listed.

Pay Range

€100.000—€130.000 EUR

Our Values

  • Be a Catalyst. As an innovative technology company, we build our products to be a catalyst for connection and encourage our team to be catalysts for meaningful impact both at work and in the world
  • Take Ownership. In our highly collaborative culture, Individual accountability is critical. We depend on each other to solve our customers' most challenging problems and celebrate the wins together
  • Champion Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Our product connects people of all backgrounds and abilities. And our company is built on the belief that our differences make us better and that everyone deserves the opportunity in which to thrive
  • Show Integrity. We don’t cut corners. We don’t look for the easy way out. We approach every day with a shared mindset - let’s do the right thing, even if it’s the harder thing
  • Have Fun. Whether your time is here is as short as a Bitly link or as long as the links your grandma sends you, we want your experience at Bitly to be fun and memorable. We hope the connections you make here last a lifetime

In keeping with our beliefs and goals, no employee or applicant will face discrimination or harassment based on: race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, age, gender, marital domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or veteran status. Above and beyond discrimination/harassment based on “protected categories,” Bitly also strives to prevent other, subtler forms of inappropriate behavior (e.g., stereotyping) from ever gaining a foothold in our office. Whether blatant or hidden, barriers to success have no place at Bitly.