Software Architect

Iris.ai is a pioneering AI-first company on a mission to transform how humans discover and apply knowledge. For over a decade, we’ve built intelligent systems that empower researchers, engineers, and product teams to work faster and more precisely with scientific and technical data.

Our product suite — Neuralith, Axion, and RSpace — supports end-to-end AI development, from data orchestration and retrieval to LLM evaluation and deployment. At the core of our work are Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, LLM Evaluation Frameworks, and intelligent AI Agents that bring context-awareness, accuracy, and task-level reasoning to applied AI.

Backed by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and trusted by leading R&D teams across industries, we turn advanced AI research into real-world tools that help organizations solve high-impact problems.

Opportunity:

We are seeking a Lead Software Architect (AI Systems) to define, evolve, and steward the architecture that powers our AI platform and products. This is a senior technical leadership role for a deep technologist who thrives in end-to-end systems design, guides engineering strategy, and works hands-on to turn ideas into scalable, reliable solutions.

You will drive architectural vision, ensure coherence across services and teams, and provide technical mentorship while collaborating closely with product managers and researchers. You will make foundational decisions about system design, performance, data flows, infrastructure, and long-term maintainability. While you’ll still contribute code, your primary focus will be enabling the engineering organization to build robust, scalable AI platforms.

What You’ll Do

• Architect end-to-end AI-driven software systems with scalability, observability, and robustness at their core.

• Participate in the design of the technical roadmap and drive long-term architectural evolution of our AI platform.

• Define system boundaries, service interfaces, data flows, storage strategies, and integration patterns.

• Evaluate and adopt new technologies to improve performance, developer productivity, and system reliability.

• Mentor engineers, set coding and design standards, and review critical system components.

• Ensure alignment between architecture, product strategy, and organizational goals.

• Guide technical planning, capacity management, and system-level issue resolution.

• Participate in hiring, onboarding, and technical evaluation of engineering talent.

Key Technologies

• Python, Django

• PostgreSQL, non-relational & vector databases (Elasticsearch / OpenSearch, ChromaDB, Couchbase)

• AI / ML / NLP libraries (Transformers, Torch, spaCy, Gensim, Autogen, etc.)

• AWS

• Modern GenAI productivity tools (Windsurf, Cursor, Amazon Q, Claude, etc.)

• Git, CI/CD, distributed systems foundations

What You Need

• 2+ years of technical leadership or architecture experience (Tech Lead, Architect, Team Lead, etc.).

• 7+ years of professional software development experience.

• 3+ years of professional Python experience.

• Strong expertise in backend architectures, distributed systems, REST APIs, databases, and cloud infrastructure.

• Understanding of ML/AI system fundamentals or motivation to deepen expertise.

• Deep knowledge of software architecture and design patterns.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or similar.

• Ability to communicate tradeoffs and guide teams through technical decisions.

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.

• Fluent English.

Nice to Have

• Master’s degree in CS or related field

• Experience with LLMs, NLP, or model evaluation pipelines

• Experience designing or operating RAG systems in production

• Open-source contributions, papers, talks, or mentoring experience

LIFE AT IRIS OFFERS:

🌍 Impact

• Build responsible AI that shapes the future of science and tech

• Join a sharp, versatile team of ambitious builders

• Thrive in a flat structure with no corporate hierarchy, where every voice matters

💸 Compensation

• Competitive salary with annual reviews

• Stock options to share in our long-term success

🌍Work Your Way

• 30 days annual paid vacation + bonus days

• Flexible work hours

• Flexible work location - You choose where to work from

• Hybrid model or 100% remote work - You want it? - You have it!

• Regular Team building activities and travels

• Seasonal Working Camps (summer / winter)

• Personalized Work Equipment Allowance - choose your own Gear

🚀 Grow With Us

• Learning & Development Allowance - we will sponsor you to Join global conferences or take upskilling courses

• Career Enhancement Plan

• New technologies introduction & testing opportunities

• Knowledge transfer, Work buddies, PairCoding, Mentorship opportunities, weekly Tech Deep Dives

• Workshops, Conferences, Hackathons

• Freedom to bring innovation and your ideas to life

🎁 Wellbeing & Perks

• Free MultiSport card

• Cool Sofia office in a central location

• Private Health Insurance - Premium package

• Bi-annual health checks

• Charity and volunteer activities