Engineering Lead/Architect - Hybrid in NYC - Long Contract

Engineering Lead/Architect

• Hybrid in NYC
• Long Contract at Elevate Digital Engineering Lead/Architect
• Hybrid in NYC
• Long Contract at Elevate Digital in Weehawken, New Jersey Posted in 3 days ago.

Type:

contract

Job Description:

Hybrid in NYC (Tues-Thurs in office) Min 1-year contract with potential for FT hire 3-step interview process Market rate Summary We're looking for an Engineering Lead/Architect who can own the technical direction of a complex platform modernization while staying hands-on enough to validate that direction through real delivery. This role sits at the intersection of architecture, engineering leadership, and execution-setting the runway for how we build, integrate, and evolve our systems. You'll define integration strategy, establish non-functional requirements, maintain the architecture decision log (ADRs), and ensure the team builds on patterns that hold up at scale. You'll also be the technical conscience of the program-helping the team make pragmatic tradeoffs without accumulating hidden debt. This role begins as a consulting engagement with a right-to-hire path. What You'll Do

• Own the architecture runway: define integration patterns, NFRs, security posture, and technical standards that the team builds against.
• Maintain and evolve the technical decision log (ADRs
• capturing context, alternatives considered, and rationale so decisions remain traceable.
• Drive design reviews and ensure architectural consistency across backend services, APIs, frontend components, and data flows.
• Partner with Product, DevOps, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into architecture that balances correctness, operability, and delivery speed.
• Evaluate build-vs-buy and integration decisions with clear frameworks-especially around

AKS, API

gateway patterns, event-driven architecture, and workflow orchestration.

• Establish security and audit patterns: authentication, authorization, API contracts, data classification, and audit trail design.
• Hands-on contribution where it matters most: proof-of-concepts, critical-path components, and reference implementations that set the quality bar.
• Mentor engineers through design conversations, code reviews, and architecture pairing-raising the team's ability to make good technical decisions independently.
• Use AI tools to accelerate architecture work (analysis, documentation, pattern evaluation), while maintaining strong judgment and validation. What We're Looking For
• 10+ years of software engineering experience with meaningful time in architecture or technical leadership roles.
• Deep experience with Java platform architecture (Spring Boot, Spring Security, modern Java) and API design (REST, contract-first, versioning).
• Strong understanding of security and audit patterns: OAuth/OIDC, RBAC, API gateway design, data classification, and compliance-aware architecture.
• Experience with cloud-native platforms, preferably AKS/Kubernetes, and familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and deployment pipelines.
• Proven ability to define and enforce integration patterns across distributed teams-you can set standards without becoming a bottleneck.
• Excellent written communication: your ADRs, design documents, and technical proposals are clear, concise, and decision-ready.
• A pragmatic mindset: you prefer proven patterns over novel ones, and you optimize for clarity and maintainability over cleverness. Nice to Have
• Experience with event-driven architecture and messaging systems (Azure Event Hubs, Kafka, or similar).
• Familiarity with workflow orchestration platforms (Temporal or similar) and their architectural implications.
• Experience modernizing legacy platforms while maintaining business continuity-especially migrations from monolithic or component-based systems.
• Exposure to design reviews and architecture governance in regulated or control-oriented domains (financial services, operations, accounting).