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Factbird helps manufacturers turn real-time production data into actionable decisions. Since 2016, the company has served over 300 manufacturers across 28 countries, with a team of 80+ people in Copenhagen and the US.
You will be Factbird's Lead Architect — the most senior technical role on the engineering career ladder, with no direct reports. Your authority derives from judgment and track record, not organizational hierarchy. You will set the company's technical direction across architecture, tooling, and multi-year technology strategy, working alongside Tech Leads and the Director of Engineering as part of the technical leadership group.
Key responsibilities include:
**Architecture & Technical Strategy**: Own Factbird's multi-year technology strategy and make high-stakes, hard-to-reverse architecture decisions informed by cost, risk, and business context. Author and drive major RFCs from proposal through decision. Steward core languages and frameworks (Rust, React, Node.js, AWS). Make build-vs-buy calls for new technical capabilities. Define observability, reliability, and security standards.
**Tooling & Standards**: Set technical tooling and platform standards as the company scales. Define the strategy for AI-assisted development, balancing velocity against code quality, security, and IP risk. Shape engineering-wide quality philosophy and hiring bar. Help define shared components and reference architecture. Provide input on technical org design and team topology.
**Technical Leadership & Mentorship**: Act as trusted technical advisor to the Director of Engineering and technical leadership group. Mentor senior engineers and Tech Leads toward architect-level thinking without formal people management. Communicate technical vision and trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders. Identify technical risks early. Represent Factbird's technical thinking externally where appropriate.
The role is deliberately lightly defined to allow the first person to help shape what technical leadership at this level looks like as Factbird scales. You will work across a team built on Rust, React, Node.js, and AWS, with AI-assisted development already core to the development process.
**Requirements**:
- 8+ years of hands-on engineering experience, including real time spent as an architect or equivalent senior technical authority (not just a senior engineer with a bigger title)
- Track record of owning multi-year technology strategy or platform architecture decisions that other teams had to live with and that held up
- Experience leading major RFCs or architecture proposals cross-team through genuine pushback to actual decision
- Comfortable making build-vs-buy and technology-adoption calls accounting for cost, risk, and market direction, not just technical interest
- Experience mentoring senior engineers or Tech Leads toward architect-level thinking without formal authority
- Practical, current experience with AI-assisted development and a clear point of view on where it helps versus where it creates risk
