Staff Platform Architect

Staff Platform Architect at Vantage 9 About the job Work Authorization: This role requires U.S. work authorization that does not require employer sponsorship now or in the future. About Vantage 9 Vantage 9 is an early stage, profitable logistics SaaS company. We sit between rigid legacy WMS/TMS suites and slow, expensive custom builds. Our platform manages logistics for enterprise retailers, 3PLs, and manufacturers for our flagship accounts. We are currently architecting the platform's next phase: a future where AI agents are first-class, autonomous participants on our platform. This Role You are a senior individual contributor reporting directly to the CTO, leading the design and implementation of Vantage 9's agent-native platform initiative. This is a hands-on role. You will write production code daily, steward our Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), and ensure the foundations we build today can navigate enterprise scale. You will architect and build the platform capabilities that let AI agents operate as first-class citizens of our platform. Working out what this should look like in our MACH composable platform is the core of the role. The problem areas you'll design through include identity, authorization, governance, multi-customer isolation, integration contracts, and platform evolution. You will propose these design decisions, write production code, and work alongside our engineering teams. This is hands-on engineering, not architecture-by-document. You write production code daily. This role cycles through three other modes as platform priorities shift: You will help with hardening and scaling: performance, reliability, observability, security, quality. You will ship new capabilities that broaden our platform's surface area. This could be data services, integration patterns, or new modules. You will build customer-specific applications on top of the platform alongside our delivery teams. You should be the kind of engineer who finds this mix energizing rather than disorienting. Your First 90 Days Day 1: Use AI to grok our codebase for context, merge your first PR, and ship production code. Day 14: Shipped a meaningful, measurable improvement to a core platform service or tenant application. Day 30: Mapped the platform and tenant application landscape end to end. Drafted the first ADRs on agent-native design and opened them for engineering team review. Day 60: First production implementation of agent-native patterns merged and running. Documented well enough that other engineers can build on them. Day 90: A piece of the agent-native foundation in production and load-bearing. At least one other module, agent, or customer integration depends on it. What We Want You to Bring 8+ years of professional engineering experience, with a meaningful chunk spent designing systems other engineers and customers build on: identity and authorization for agents and services, multi-tenant isolation on shared infrastructure, audit and observability for systems of record, and versioned contracts that survive years of change without breaking consumers. Deep experience with the Microsoft stack: modern .NET, C#, and Azure services. You find energy in the autonomy of a small, senior team and the technical discipline required by a profitable, self-funded company. You have hands-on experience (beyond prototypes) with the infrastructure side of LLMs, including orchestration, tool-calling, and evaluation harnesses. A working understanding of MACH principles and the real tradeoffs of composable architecture in enterprise contexts. The ability to lead through clean architecture, clear ADRs, working code, and through code review, pairing, and direct technical influence rather than authority. Comfortable with ambiguity and periodic shifting priorities where you will not be insulated from the business. Strong judgment on when to apply DRY and when WET is the right call. You don't follow either dogmatically. Nice to Haves Logistics, supply chain, WMS, TMS, or warehouse operations domain experience. Familiarity with Snowflake, Datadog, and modern observability and data platform patterns. Prior experience in an early-growth-stage startup, particularly one selling into Fortune 500 enterprise. Experience with enterprise logistics operations, especially in the Bentonville/NWA ecosystem. Location and Work Model We prefer candidates in the Bentonville / Northwest Arkansas area. Our customer density is here. Proximity to that ecosystem is a strategic advantage we want this role to participate in. For the right candidate, we'll consider fully remote (US) with periodic onsite travel. What We Hope You'll Like You will shape the foundation that future modules, customer agents, and partner integrations build on. Direct reporting line to the CTO and platform-level scope from day one. Our code manages critical inventory for the world's largest retailers. Your architectural decisions have physical consequences. A senior team where your work reaches production fast and customers feel it directly. A bootstrapped and profitable company. We answer to our customers and our own technical standards, not a VC board. Vantage 9 is an equal opportunity employer. Requirements added by the job poster Authorized to work in the United States No need for visa sponsorship Our process We start with a short role-specific assessment (~20 minutes), then review resumes, then interviews. Apply here