Principal Solution Architect

Principal Solution Architect
About the role
We are building an AI platform that helps workers, business owners and specialist advisers work out what Australian employment law requires and what the correct pay is. Award rules shift with age, classification, seniority and hours, and they change every year. Recent reforms have raised the stakes considerably, with underpayment now attracting criminal penalties in serious cases. Our platform determines which award and classification apply, calculates entitlements from published rates and rules, and records how every answer was reached, so the result can be relied on and defended.
As our Principal Solution Architect, you will own the end-to-end solution architecture of the platform and act as its architecture authority. You will work directly with the founders to turn product requirements into solution designs our overseas development team can build from, and you will review and approve the team's own designs before work begins. Design and architecture decisions are too important to sit outside the company, which is why this role is based in Sydney.
Key responsibilities
• Own the end-to-end solution architecture across our products for workers, business owners and specialist advisers, and the shared components beneath them. This is the core of the role.
• Translate product requirements, epics and rule specifications into solution designs, data models and integration designs, documented to the company's solution design standard.
• Set the platform's non-functional requirements and design to meet them, covering security, privacy, Australian data residency, performance, availability, scalability and running cost.
• Design the AI components with clear guardrails: where models are used, how their outputs are verified, when the system declines to answer, and how a model can be replaced without a rebuild.
• Review and challenge designs proposed by the development team, identify gaps and risks, and approve designs before build begins.
• Design integrations with payroll, rostering and accounting systems such as Xero, MYOB, Deputy and Tanda, and with public sources such as the Fair Work Commission's award and pay rate data.
• Record significant design decisions with the options considered and the reasoning, and keep the architecture coherent as the product grows.
• Work with the Principal Engineer to confirm that what is built matches what was designed, and update the design when the build reveals something new.
Selection criteria
Essential
• Substantial experience in solution architecture, typically eight or more years across delivery and design roles, with designs that have reached production.
• Experience designing data-intensive or rules-driven systems in a regulated environment, such as financial services, payroll, insurance or government.
• Strong command of cloud architecture (AWS preferred), integration patterns, API design and data modelling.
• Demonstrated ability to set non-functional requirements, including security and privacy, and design systems that meet them.
• Experience acting as design authority over work delivered by external or offshore teams.
• Excellent written communication. Solution design documents are the main output of the role and must be clear enough to build from without a conversation.
Desirable
• Experience designing systems that use large language models, including retrieval, verification and evaluation.
• Background in payroll, workforce management, employment law or regulatory technology.
• Familiarity with recognised architecture frameworks such as TOGAF.
• Experience in an early-stage company where the architect also helps shape delivery process and standards.
What we offer
• Direct involvement at an early stage of the company, with regular access to the founders and real influence over product and technical direction.
• Ownership of the platform's architecture, with the authority that comes with it.
• The chance to set design standards from the start rather than inherit them.
How to apply
Please submit your CV together with a brief statement outlining your interest in the role and the problem we are solving. We value concise, considered applications over length.