Software & AI Architect

Job description

About brightfin : Brightfin is the AI-native enterprise platform helping Fortune 500 and mid-market companies optimize IT spend across IT Financial Management (ITFM), Technology Expense Management (TEM), and FinOps. We are growing aggressively, with a clear and ambitious path ahead. Our customers include large healthcare systems, financial institutions, federal government agencies, and global enterprises spanning both domestic and international markets — organizations where data security and trust are non-negotiable. Job Summary: The Software & AI Architect reports to Brightfin's Chief Product & AI Officer and owns the technical architecture of the platform end to end: the software design behind our products, the AI-native capability built into them, the AI-driven development lifecycle the engineering org runs on, and the technical infrastructure and guardrails that make AI safe to use company-wide. This is a builder role. The Software & AI architect writes code, ships working systems, and proves ideas before anyone hires a team to scale them. Essential Functions / Duties / Responsibilities: Software architecture and platform design Own the end-to-end technical architecture of brightfin's product suite, including platform-native builds and any standalone SaaS products, and the decisions that keep the platform scalable, secure, and fast to extend. Set engineering standards for quality, scalability, and reliability that hold up for enterprise, federal, and international customers alike. AI strategy and roadmap Define brightfin's point of view on where AI creates real advantage across the platform and turn that point of view into a roadmap the Chief Product & AI Officer and executive team can act on. Prioritize initiatives by the outcome they produce for customers or the business, tied directly to brightfin's growth goals — not by novelty. AI-native product capability Design and build AI-native capability inside the brightfin platform, including agentic features embedded across the product suite. Own the technical foundation these capabilities run on: model selection, orchestration, prompt and agent architecture, and the evaluation pipelines that show whether the AI is working. AI-driven development lifecycle (AIDLC) Partner with the Chief Product & AI Officer and engineering leadership to build and operate the AI-driven development lifecycle that shortens brightfin's path from concept to shipped product. Build inside the codebase, not above it — the tooling and workflows engineers use every day, used first-hand by the person who built them. AI infrastructure, security, and governance Own the technical backbone behind responsible AI use at brightfin: model and vendor evaluation, data handling and guardrails for AI tools, access management, and integration standards. Partner with People & Culture and the AI Champions network on the systems behind brightAI's security-first principle. People & Culture owns training and adoption; this role owns the infrastructure and guardrails underneath it. Build now, scale later Operate as an individual owner in year one: prototype, ship, and prove out architecture and AI initiatives directly, without waiting on a team that doesn't exist yet. Make the case for the team brightfin needs — with working systems, not slide decks — once an initiative is ready to scale, then recruit and lead it. Executive partnership and reporting Partner with the Chief Product & AI Officer and the executive team on architecture and AI investment decisions, tying every initiative to a measurable outcome: adoption, velocity, cost, or revenue. Report on initiatives with the same rigor brightfin expects of its own product: clear metrics, honest status, no spin. Qualifications: Experience 8+ years in software engineering or architecture, with direct, hands-on experience designing and shipping production systems at scale — not proofs of concept. 3+ years leading or contributing to teams within AI-native organizations, with deep experience across LLMs, RAG, agentic-native system design, and multi-agent architectures, and a strong understanding of how AI-first companies structure engineering and scale these capabilities Hands-on software architecture experience: owning and evolving the technical design of a production platform, not just reviewing someone else's. Hands-on AI architecture experience: designing and operating LLM-based tooling, agentic workflows, and AI-native product capability in a real production environment. Direct experience operating in the ServiceNow ecosystem — ideally having architected ServiceNow applications directly, not just integrated with the platform from outside it. Experience standing up an initiative, system, or function without an existing team or playbook. Comfortable operating as an individual contributor today, with the range to hire and lead a team once the case for one is proven. Skills and competencies Deep engineering fluency: writes and reviews code, understands architecture and trade-offs first-hand across both core software and AI-native systems. Working knowledge of security, data governance, and the guardrails enterprise, federal, and international customers expect from a platform handling their financial and operational data. Clear communicator who can turn technical trade-offs into a decision an executive team can act on. Bias toward building over presenting: measures progress in what's running, not what's planned. Judgment under ambiguity — brightfin's architecture and AI roadmap is being written, not inherited. Education Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience. Preferred qualifications Experience in or adjacent to ITFM, TEM, FinOps, or enterprise IT cost management. Experience architecting beyond a single platform dependency, including a path to decoupled or standalone SaaS architecture. Experience with FedRAMP or other federal compliance frameworks for SaaS platforms. Experience at a PE-backed or growth-stage SaaS company scaling aggressively. Experience building the technical backbone for a company-wide AI adoption program — security guardrails, access management, or tooling standards. Location: US Based Compensation & Benefits: brightfin offers a comprehensive health, dental and vision benefits package. Paid time off. We strongly believe in work-life balance and taking time for yourself. 401K with employer match Salary Range: $200,000-240,000 OTE Location: Remote first, US based FLSA Status: US Exempt Physical Requirements: Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer. The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties, responsibilities, or physical requirements. Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. brightfin is an equal opportunity employer. The company will consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran or military status, age, genetic information or other characteristics protected by federal, state, or local applicable law. Candidates are subject to a background check. All employees must adhere to brightfin’s Information Security and Privacy policies and procedures.