Software Architect at Actian - Remote UK Cloud Role — Columbus
Traveler-Friendly Insight
Remote/Hybrid Flexibility: Actian explicitly offers remote or hybrid work arrangements, making this role viable for digital nomads — though the UK location hint suggests the role is likely anchored to UK time zones (GMT/BST). Expect core collaboration hours roughly within a 9am–6pm GMT window, which limits total timezone flexibility.
Async Friendliness: The role involves high-level architectural design, code reviews, and setting technical standards — work that can be largely async. However, regular syncs with development teams and executives are implied, so fully off-timezone working (e.g., Southeast Asia with a 7–8 hour difference) may be challenging without negotiation.
Visa Considerations: If you're a UK/EU national or hold settled status, this role is straightforward. For non-UK citizens, the UK's Skilled Worker visa is the most relevant pathway for a Software Architect role. EU nomads may find the lack of explicit EU hiring a limitation — confirm eligibility before applying.
Cost of Living Comparison: No salary is published, but UK Senior/Principal Architect market rates typically run £80,000–£130,000 GBP annually. At those levels:
- Lisbon, Portugal: A comfortable lifestyle costs ~€2,000–2,800/month — UK-level pay would go far here if fully remote.
- Bangkok, Thailand: ~$1,500–2,200/month for a comfortable expat lifestyle — excellent value, but the timezone gap (GMT+7) may strain team collaboration.
- Medellín, Colombia: ~$1,200–1,800/month — GMT-5, making async work with UK teams feasible for early risers.
No specific travel perks (coworking stipend, equipment budget) are mentioned — worth asking about during interviews.
The architecture team at Actian works side-by-side with the development team. We are looking for a Software Architect to design the structure of our cloud platform and make it efficient, easy to extend, maintain and operate.
We need a proactive professional who ensures the product meets three key conditions: it must be stable (it doesn't crash when failures happen), efficient (it doesn't skyrocket cloud costs), and easy to use for our own developers. Your goal is to eliminate technical complexity and set the rules of the game so developers can ship new features fast and without errors.
Core Responsibilities:
- Cloud Platform Design: Design and improve the cloud structure (AWS, Azure, or GCP) of our data platform, ensuring it works well for many clients at the same time.
- Stability & Fault Tolerance: Build a system ready for failures, capable of recovering automatically and keeping things running if there are issues in production.
- Making Life Easy for Developers: Create clear APIs, templates, and common tools so internal developers can write code faster and with fewer mistakes.
- Cloud Cost Control: Monitor and optimize the use of cloud servers and tools (like Kubernetes) to keep the product cost-effective to run.
- Improving Legacy Code: Identify parts of the system that have become outdated and plan how to improve them step-by-step without stopping daily work.
- Technical Guidance & Standards: Review team designs and define the company's technical standards, helping to resolve questions without becoming a bottleneck.
- Security by Design: Ensure the platform's structure inherently protects customer data and complies with security rules from the very beginning.
- System Monitoring: Decide how we measure platform performance so that if something fails, we know exactly what happened within a few minutes.
- Testing New Technologies: Build quick prototypes and test new tools before deciding whether to adopt them company-wide.
Qualifications & Profile:
- Technical Background: Proven experience as a Software Architect or Principal Engineer working with cloud SaaS products and systems handling large volumes of data.
- Key Tools: Real-world experience with microservices, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), and messaging systems.
- Proactive Mindset: You don't wait to be told what to do; you look for where the system might fail or where we are overspending, and you propose solutions.
- Developer-Focused: You care about your fellow developers working comfortably and without frustrations using the tools you design.
- Communication: Excellent English skills (written and spoken) to explain complex technical problems simply to both developers and executives.
What We Offer:
- The chance to be part of an innovative, fast-growing company making a significant impact in the data management space.
- Collaboration with a passionate and diverse team.
- Competitive salary and benefits package.
- Flexible work arrangements (remote or hybrid).
- Opportunities for professional growth and development.
Why Join Us? At Actian, we are passionate about innovation and teamwork. This role is perfect for someone who thrives in a dynamic environment, loves creating an efficient and welcoming workspace, and enjoys working closely with a talented team.
Interested? We'd love to hear from you! Let's discuss how you can contribute to our success while growing your career with us.
We value diversity at our company. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics in the location in which the candidate is applying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this Software Architect role fully remote or does it require office attendance?
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Is this role more hands-on coding or higher-level design and guidance?
