Head Of Software Architecture

Power Factors is scaling in complexity - more products, more platforms, more sophisticated buyers, and rapidly rising expectations for AI-native capability across our renewable energy software suite. In that context, the absence of a single, accountable technical vision creates real risk: divergent architectural patterns across verticals, inconsistent approaches to AI and data platform investment, and technical debt that compounds faster than it can be paid down.

The Head of Software Architecture exists to close that gap. This is a hands-on, deeply technical leadership role responsible for defining and enforcing enterprise architecture standards across Power Factors' Product & Technology organization - spanning Platform, SCADA, EMS, APM, CloudOps, and CAM/FSM/Product Ops - while personally architecting and prototyping the hardest problems the organization faces, particularly around AI-based product introductions, IoT data acquisition, and multi-tenant SaaS scalability.

This role combines the strategic scope of an enterprise architect with the credibility of a builder who still writes code, reviews pull requests, and is comfortable being the most technical person in the room.
Purpose of the Role

The Head of Software Architecture acts to define, evangelize, and enforce a coherent technical architecture strategy that allows Power Factors to scale product complexity without sacrificing reliability, security, or development velocity.
• Enterprise-wide architectural coherence: Technical decisions across verticals are grounded in shared architectural principles, not siloed team preferences.
• AI-native product development: New AI-based product capabilities are architected end-to-end - from data pipeline to model integration to user-facing experience - rather than bolted on.
• Development velocity multiplication: Engineering teams are equipped with modern AI-assisted development tooling and workflows that materially increase throughput.
• Deep technical credibility: Engineering leaders and individual contributors alike see this role as a working architect, not a slide-deck strategist.
• Domain-informed design: Architecture decisions reflect genuine understanding of renewable energy operations - SCADA, EMS, PPC, edge devices, and grid-facing data systems.

This role acts as the connective tissue between the CPTO's organizational strategy and the day-to-day technical decisions made by vertical engineering teams.
Core Responsibilities
1. Enterprise Architecture & Complex System Design
• Define and maintain Power Factors' enterprise architecture standards, reference architectures, and technical guardrails across all verticals
• Lead architectural reviews for major initiatives, ensuring consistency, scalability, and long-term maintainability
• Own the technical roadmap for cross-cutting platform capabilities (data platform, integration layer, identity, observability)
• Design for complex, high-availability systems where correctness, latency, and data integrity carry real operational and commercial consequences
• Partner with vertical leaders (SCADA, EMS, APM, Platform, CloudOps) to ensure local architecture decisions align with enterprise direction
2. Technical Team Leadership
• Build and lead a distributed architecture function that operates as a trusted technical authority across Greece, Montreal, and other regions
• Mentor senior engineers and engineering leaders on architectural judgment, system design, and technical tradeoff analysis
• Establish and run architecture governance forums (design reviews, RFC processes, technical steering committees)
• Act as a technical escalation point for the highest-stakes design decisions across the organization
3. AI-Based Product Architecture & Delivery
• Architect and personally help build end-to-end AI-based product capabilities - from data acquisition and model selection through deployment and monitoring
• Define Power Factors' architectural approach to LLM-based products, including use of Model Context Protocol (MCP), retrieval architectures, and agentic workflows
• Evaluate and select development LLMs and AI platforms appropriate for embedding into commercial products
• Own the technical bridge between REMI and other AI-native initiatives and the broader platform architecture
• Bring machine learning and data science expertise to bear on product decisions - model selection, feature engineering, data pipeline design, and MLOps practices
4. Hands-On Development
• Write production code, prototype new architectural patterns, and directly contribute to the hardest technical problems facing the organization
• Lead by example on code quality, testing discipline, and engineering craftsmanship
• Stay close enough to the codebase to make credible, current architectural judgments rather than relying on secondhand reporting
• Build proof-of-concept implementations to de-risk major architectural bets before full team investment
5. IoT, Edge, and Industrial Systems Architecture
• Architect scalable IoT data acquisition systems capable of ingesting, normalizing, and processing high-volume telemetry from distributed renewable energy assets
• Design architecture for edge devices and Power Plant Controllers (PPC), balancing on-site computation, latency constraints, and cloud connectivity
• Ensure architectural approaches account for grid code compliance, real-time control requirements, and the operational realities of SCADA and EMS environments
• Apply renewables and energy industry domain knowledge to inform data model, integration, and control system design decisions
6. Cloud, SaaS, and Multi-Tenant Architecture
• Own cloud architecture strategy across GCP and/or AWS, including cost, resilience, and security posture
• Advance Power Factors' multi-tenant SaaS architecture to support scale, tenant isolation, and configurability without fragmenting the codebase
• Define architectural standards for mobile app development where products extend to field and operations use cases
• Evaluate build-vs-buy and platform consolidation decisions across the technology stack
7. Engineering Productivity & AI-Enabled Development
• Identify, evaluate, and roll out AI development tools that enable a 3-4x productivity improvement across engineering teams
• Define best practices for AI-assisted coding, testing, and code review, balancing speed with quality and security
• Partner with engineering leadership to measure and report on productivity gains from AI tooling adoption
Reporting & Operating Model
Reporting Line
• Reports to: Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO)

Embedded collaboration with:
• Vertical engineering leaders (Platform, SCADA, EMS, APM, CloudOps, CAM/FSM/Product Ops)
• Product Management and Product Marketing on AI-based product introductions
• CloudOps and Security on infrastructure and compliance posture
Operating Principles
• Architecture in service of the business, not architecture for its own sake
• Hands-on credibility over theoretical authority
• Pragmatic standardization - enough consistency to scale, not so much it stifles teams
• AI-first thinking applied responsibly, with attention to data quality, safety, and reliability
Skills & Profile
Required Experience
• 15-20 years of progressive experience in software engineering, with significant time spent in architecture and technical leadership roles
• Enterprise Architecture & Complex System Design: demonstrated experience architecting large-scale, high-complexity systems with significant operational stakes
• Technical Team Leadership: proven ability to lead and mentor senior engineers and architects across distributed teams
• Trading/Transactional Systems: experience building high-throughput, high-integrity trading or transactional systems where correctness and performance are non-negotiable
• AI Product Delivery: track record architecting and shipping end-to-end AI-based product introductions, from concept to production launch
• Hands-On Development: an architect who still codes - genuinely enjoys building, not just designing
• IoT Data Acquisition: experience with systems that ingest and process high-volume telemetry from distributed physical assets
• Edge Devices & Power Plant Controllers (PPC): familiarity with edge computing architectures and industrial control systems
• Renewables / Energy Industry Experience: ideally direct experience in renewable energy or broader energy sector software (strongly preferred, not required)
• Machine Learning & Data Science: solid working knowledge sufficient to make informed architectural and platform decisions
• MCP & LLM-Based Products: hands-on experience with Model Context Protocol, development LLMs, and building LLM-based product features
• Cloud Platforms: deep experience with GCP and/or AWS at an architectural level
• AI Development Tooling: experience selecting and rolling out AI dev tools that meaningfully increase engineering team productivity
• SaaS & Multi-Tenant Architecture: advanced experience designing and scaling multi-tenant SaaS applications
• Mobile App Development: working knowledge of mobile architecture and delivery, sufficient to guide teams building mobile experiences
Core Capabilities
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to zoom between enterprise strategy and line-level code
• Executive-level communication - able to translate architectural tradeoffs into business terms for the CPTO and executive team
• Comfortable operating with significant technical authority while remaining collaborative and low-ego
• Genuine enthusiasm for staying current with the fast-moving AI and LLM landscape
Background Fit
• Principal Engineer, Distinguished Engineer, VP of Engineering, or Chief Architect background
• Experience operating in a scaling, multi-product SaaS organization
• Comfortable being both the enterprise architecture authority and an individual contributor when the problem demands it
Success Metrics (KPIs)
• Number of AI-based product capabilities architected and shipped to production per year
• Measured productivity gains (velocity, cycle time) attributable to AI development tooling rollout
• Reduction in cross-vertical architectural inconsistency and duplicated platform investment
• System reliability and performance metrics for enterprise-critical and transactional systems
• Adoption rate of architectural standards and reference designs across engineering teams
• Qualitative 360° feedback from engineering leaders on technical leadership effectiveness
What This Role Is Not

This role is not a purely strategic or advisory position removed from the codebase, and it is not a people-management role focused primarily on process and reporting. The Head of Software Architecture is expected to remain a credible, hands-on technical contributor throughout their tenure.

The role also does not own product roadmap prioritization or commercial strategy - those remain with Product Management and the CPTO - but it directly shapes what is technically possible and how quickly it can be delivered.