Senior SaaS Architect / Technical Lead – Construction Technology SaaS Platform

# Senior SaaS Architect / Technical Lead – Construction Technology SaaS Platform Hourly Rate: $40–$70/hr Expected Commitment: ~15 hours/week Monthly Commitment: ~50–60 hours Engagement: Long-term ## About the Role We are building a construction technology SaaS platform designed to bring multiple construction, project-management, commercial, procurement, operations, and related workflows onto one connected platform. The platform will have multiple business modules operating on a common foundation, with shared entities such as organizations, projects, locations, users, teams, WBS, vendors, materials, documents, workflows, and approvals. This is an early-stage platform, so we are looking for someone who can help us get the foundational architecture right before the number of modules and developers grows. We are looking for a Senior SaaS Architect / Technical Lead who can establish the technical architecture, data model, security framework, engineering standards, and development practices that will allow a small engineering team to build the platform in parallel without creating architectural or data inconsistencies. This is not simply a coding role. We are looking for someone who can think at the system, application, data, security, and engineering-governance levels, make strong architectural decisions, document them clearly, and then work closely with 2–5 developers as the platform is built. You will initially focus heavily on architecture and foundations and subsequently remain involved as the technical lead. ## What You Will Own ### 1. Platform Architecture Design the overall SaaS architecture, including: * Multi-tenant architecture and data isolation strategy * Organization → project → location hierarchy * Module boundaries and inter-module communication * API architecture and service boundaries * Scalability and performance strategy * Third-party integration strategy * Monorepo structure and application layering * Frontend, backend, and shared-service architecture The objective is to establish clear boundaries so that multiple developers can build modules independently without creating technical debt or duplicated logic. ### 2. Data Architecture Design a scalable and normalized PostgreSQL + Prisma data architecture covering: * Organizations * Users * Teams * Projects * Locations * Shared master data * Cross-module entities * Permissions and access rules * WBS structures * Relationships between modules You will define: * Tenant isolation strategy * Query-level data isolation * Database constraints and integrity rules * Indexing standards * Migration practices * Schema evolution standards * Cross-module relationship patterns * Single-source-of-truth principles ### 3. Identity, Authorization & Security Design a unified authorization framework using Clerk as the identity layer. The system should support: * Organization membership * User context * Hybrid RBAC + ABAC * Project-level permissions * Location-level permissions * Team-level permissions * Approval hierarchies * Access constraints * Data-level authorization Security and authorization should be enforced consistently across the platform rather than implemented independently within each module. ### 4. Shared Platform Services Design reusable services that will be consumed by multiple modules: * Workflow and approval engine * Audit logging and activity tracking * Notifications * File/document management * Search and indexing * Error handling * Observability * AI service integration layer The goal is to prevent individual modules from reinventing common functionality. ### 5. UI Architecture & Design System Establish a reusable frontend architecture and design system. This includes: * Tables * Forms * Modals * Drawers * Filters * Search * Entity selectors * User/project/WBS/vendor/material selectors * Workflow and status components * Standard layouts * Cross-module UI patterns You will define component reuse standards and ensure that modules feel like parts of one coherent product. ### 6. Engineering Standards & AI-Assisted Development We are building with significant use of AI-assisted development, particularly Cursor. You will establish standards for: * Coding practices * Architecture * Database/schema design * Module boundaries * Security * Access control * Shared Cursor rules * AI coding prompts and project configuration * Review and validation of AI-generated code We want AI to accelerate development without compromising architecture, security, maintainability, or code quality. ### 7. DevOps, CI/CD & Infrastructure Define the development and production infrastructure, including: * Local development * Development environment * Staging * Production * CI/CD * Deployment automation * Secrets management * Configuration management * Logging * Monitoring * Error tracking * Backup and recovery * Security practices ### 8. Testing & Quality Assurance Establish a unified testing strategy covering: * Unit testing * Integration testing * API testing * End-to-end testing * Regression testing * Cross-module workflows * Critical business-process validation The goal is to create a testing framework that scales as additional modules are introduced. ### 9. Technical Leadership Once the architecture and foundations are established, you will work closely with the engineering team to: * Translate product requirements into technical designs * Break features/modules into engineering tasks * Coordinate 2–5 developers working in parallel * Review pull requests * Review database/schema changes * Resolve cross-module architectural issues * Maintain architecture and technical documentation * Establish engineering standards * Support hiring and onboarding of developers * Act as the technical owner of the platform architecture ## Current / Expected Technology Stack The architecture will primarily involve: * PostgreSQL * Prisma * Clerk * Modern React-based frontend * TypeScript * Node.js/backend services * Monorepo architecture * Cursor / AI-assisted development * Cloud-based deployment and CI/CD We are open to architectural recommendations where you believe a different approach is materially better. ## What We Are Looking For You should have strong experience designing and scaling real-world B2B SaaS platforms. Experience with construction technology, ERP, project management, field operations, procurement, real estate, or other complex operational software is highly valuable because the platform will involve interconnected business workflows rather than isolated CRUD applications. You should particularly be experienced with systems involving: * Multi-tenancy * Complex permissions * Hierarchical organizations/projects * Modular application architecture * PostgreSQL * API design * Enterprise authorization * Workflow/approval systems * Shared platform services ### Particularly Valuable Domain Experience * Construction technology / construction management software * ERP or enterprise workflow platforms * Project management systems * Procurement / vendor management systems * Cost management or commercial systems * Field operations / site management software * Real estate or infrastructure technology You do not need to have construction-industry experience if you have architected similarly complex enterprise SaaS platforms. However, you should be comfortable understanding complex real-world business processes and translating them into a clean, extensible technical architecture. You should be comfortable making architectural decisions and explaining why a particular approach is appropriate rather than simply implementing a predefined technical specification. ### Strongly Preferred * Experience as a SaaS Architect, Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, or Technical Lead * Experience architecting B2B/enterprise SaaS * Experience with RBAC + ABAC * Experience with complex multi-tenant systems * Strong PostgreSQL knowledge * Prisma experience * Clerk or comparable identity/authorization platforms * TypeScript/React/Node.js experience * Experience leading small engineering teams * Experience with AI-assisted software development * Strong technical documentation skills ## Important: We Are Looking for an Architect, Not Just a Developer Please do not apply if your primary experience is simply building individual React/Node features from an existing specification. We need someone who can look at the entire platform and answer questions such as: * Where should this data live? * Which module owns this entity? * How should two modules communicate? * How do we prevent tenant data leakage? * Where should authorization be enforced? * What should be shared vs. module-specific? * How should the database evolve over time? * How do we allow 5 developers to work in parallel safely? * How do we use AI coding tools without allowing architecture to drift? ## Expected Initial Deliverables The initial phase will focus on establishing the technical foundation, including: 1. Overall system architecture 2. Monorepo/application architecture 3. Multi-tenancy and organization model 4. Core PostgreSQL/Prisma schema 5. Authorization architecture 6. Module boundary definition 7. Shared services architecture 8. API conventions 9. Frontend architecture/design-system conventions 10. CI/CD and environment strategy 11. Testing strategy 12. Engineering and Cursor rules 13. Technical documentation and architectural decision records After the foundation is established, the role will transition into ongoing technical leadership and architecture oversight. ## How to Apply Please include: 1. 2–3 examples of SaaS platforms you have architected, preferably where you were responsible for the architecture rather than only implementation. 2. A brief explanation of how you would approach multi-tenancy + RBAC/ABAC for this platform. 3. An example of a difficult architectural decision you made and the trade-offs involved. 4. Your experience with PostgreSQL + Prisma + Clerk or equivalent technologies. 5. Your experience leading multiple developers working on different modules simultaneously. 6. Your experience using Cursor or other AI-assisted development tools. 7. Your availability for approximately 15 hours/week. We are looking for a long-term technical partner, not someone who simply delivers an architecture document and leaves. Hourly Rate: $40–$70/hr Expected Hours: ~15 hrs/week Expected Monthly Commitment: ~50–60 hours