Principal Architect; AI & SaaS Platform Architecture

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Full Time Professional The Woodlands, TX, US

29 days ago Requisition

Location: The Woodlands Texas

Reports To: President of intelliSPEC

Schedule: Monday – Friday, 8 am – 5 pm, hybrid – Monday
- Wednesday in office, Thursday & Friday optional work from home; 40 hours weekly

Travel: Minimal – 5%

As Principal Architect, you will define and govern the end-to-end technical architecture for IntelliSPEC’s AI-enabled, multi-tenant SaaS platform. This role owns architectural vision and technical standards across application, data, AI, cloud, and edge layers, with explicit responsibility for modern web and SaaS application architecture.

You will operate at the intersection of AI strategy, SaaS platform engineering, and enterprise architecture, ensuring IntelliSPEC’s MERN-based applications are scalable, secure, resilient, and fit for safety‑critical industrial environments. This role combines deep hands‑on technical authority with strategic architectural governance.

You will be a senior member of IntelliSPEC’s Product and Technology leadership team, working closely with the President, Product Management, Engineering, Dev Sec Ops , and SDET leaders. The Chief Architect sets architectural guardrails while enabling autonomous execution across frontend, backend, data, and AI teams.

• 12+ years of experience in software architecture, platform engineering, or senior technical leadership roles
• Proven experience architecting large-scale SaaS applications using modern web stacks
• Strong hands‑on expertise with MERN-stack technologies, including React, Node.js, and MongoDB
• Deep experience designing API‑first and microservices‑based SaaS platforms
• Strong understanding of frontend architecture patterns, state management, and performance optimization for React applications
• Hands‑on experience with MongoDB data modeling, indexing strategies, and scalable data access patterns
• Experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into SaaS platforms, including data pipelines and inference workflows
• Hands‑on experience with cloud‑native platforms (Azure preferred), containerization, and Kubernetes
• Ability to define architectural standards, reference implementations, and technology roadmaps
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence executives, architects, and senior engineers

• Experience designing multi-tenant SaaS platforms with strong tenant isolation and scalability guarantees
• Experience with Next.js or similar React-based frameworks for enterprise SaaS
• Experience with RAG, LLM‑based systems, or AI‑powered application features
• Experience with edge computing, offline‑first, or mobile‑first architectures
• Experience with security architecture, identity platforms, and zero‑trust design
• Background in industrial, energy, manufacturing, or regulated enterprise environments

• Define and own IntelliSPEC’s end‑to‑end SaaS architecture across frontend, backend, data, AI, and cloud layers
• Establish architectural standards for React‑based web applications and Node.js backend services
• Own MongoDB data architecture including schema design, performance optimization, and lifecycle management
• Ensure AI capabilities are architected responsibly and integrated cleanly into SaaS workflows
• Partner with Product and Engineering leaders to translate platform vision into executable roadmaps
• Review and approve major architectural decisions, designs, and technology selections
• Ensure platform scalability, availability, security, and performance meet enterprise SaaS expectations
• Collaborate with Dev Sec Ops  to align architecture with CI/CD, security, compliance, and operational readiness
• Mentor architects and senior engineers, raising the technical bar across the organization

IntelliSPEC is transforming industrial operations with a unified, intelligent platform built for safety, reliability, and efficiency. Our solutions empower inspection teams and plant operators to work anywhere, even in…