Principal Software Architect (San Diego)

About Carlsmed

Our mission is to improve outcomes and decrease the cost of healthcare for spine surgery and beyond. The Carlsmed aprevo® personalized surgery platform is designed to improve the standard of care for spine surgery one patient at a time.

Position Description

The Principal Software Architect will work on software projects supporting Carlsmed’s proprietary implants, instrumentation, and design automation systems for personalized surgery. In this role, you will provide technical leadership and define scalable architectures that support both current needs and future growth. You will collaborate with engineering teams and senior leadership to align technical strategy with business objectives, guide key architectural decisions, establish best practices, and mentor engineers across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical vision and roadmap for our entire platform
• Design scalable, maintainable architectures for complex distributed systems
• Establish technical standards and best practices across the organization
• Lead architectural reviews and provide technical governance
• Make critical technology choices that impact the entire organization
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leads in architectural thinking
• Drive innovation and keep our technology stack modern and competitive
• Collaborate with senior leadership to align technical strategy with business goals
• Identify and mitigate technical risks across the organization
• Guide teams in implementing Node.js-based microservices architecture
• Design and govern GraphQL schema architecture across multiple services
• Establish patterns for scalable React applications and component libraries
• Architect database solutions using PostgreSQL for high-scale applications
• Define API standards and integration patterns across the platform
• Lead proof-of-concept initiatives for new technologies
• Drive technical spikes to validate architectural decisions

Skills and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field
• 10–15 years of experience building software systems, including 5+ years of experience leading development teams, required
• Experience with spine or orthopedics highly desired
• Excellent verbal and written communication
• Ability to perform high quality work with speed
• Willingness to wear multiple hats when needed to enable excellent patient outcomes
• Deep expertise in Node.js ecosystem and distributed systems
• Advanced knowledge of GraphQL, including federation and gateway patterns
• Expert-level understanding of React architecture and performance optimization
• Extensive experience with PostgreSQL at scale, including sharding and replication
• Proven track record of leading large-scale technical initiatives
• Strong understanding of system design, scalability, and performance
• Experience with high-traffic, distributed systems
• Excellence in technical communication and documentation

• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and technical leads
• Experience with Prisma in large-scale applications preferred
• Knowledge of modern application frameworks like Remix preferred
• iOS architecture experience for enterprise applications preferred
• Experience with multiple cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) preferred
• Background in API gateway and service mesh technologies preferred
• Experience with event-driven architectures and message queuing preferred
• Knowledge of security best practices and compliance requirements preferred

Equal Opportunity Employer

Carlsmed is an equal opportunity employer.  All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.  Carlsmed is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know.

Compensation

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is $210,000 - $230,000. Individual compensation is determined based on factors such as experience, skills, education, certifications, and geographic location.

In addition to base salary, eligible employees may participate in incentive compensation programs and receive a comprehensive benefits package. Our benefits reflect our commitment to the health and well-being of our employees and their families and include 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums, a 401(k) plan with employer matching, and unlimited paid time off (PTO). Your recruiter can provide additional details about our total rewards package during the hiring process.