Systems Architect - Customer Experience

Job Title: Systems Architect - Customer Experience

Location: Remote

Type: Full-time

About BigRio:

BigRio is a Digital Transformation consulting firm headquartered in Boston, MA, specializing in data and analytics, custom development, software implementation, data analytics, and machine learning/AI integrations. As a one-stop shop, we deliver cutting-edge and cost-conscious software solutions to clients across various industries. With diverse industry exposure, our teams of data architects, engineers, developers, and consultants tackle complex software and data challenges, providing best-in-class solutions.

Job Summary:

We are looking for an experienced Systems Architect to lead the technical strategy and system architecture of our customer-facing applications in the healthcare space. This role is critical in shaping scalable, secure, and high-performance platforms that support essential workflows such as patient onboarding, provider collaboration, test ordering, and results delivery. The ideal candidate will play a pivotal role in driving modernization efforts and establishing best practices across infrastructure, architecture, security, and deployment.

Key Responsibilities:

Platform Architecture & Application Strategy

• Lead the design and evolution of customer-facing healthcare applications with a strong emphasis on scalability, security, and maintainability.
• Define architectural standards, reusable components, and modular service structures.
• Introduce design patterns and frameworks that promote high-quality, efficient development.
• Evaluate emerging technologies to enhance system performance and user experience.

Cloud & Deployment Strategy

• Define and implement cloud architecture using AWS, Azure, or GCP to support scalability, cost-efficiency, and reliability.
• Lead CI/CD pipeline development, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and infrastructure-as-code practices (Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Guide the setup of development, staging, and production environments with robust deployment and rollback processes.
• Ensure all infrastructure complies with healthcare regulations and audit requirements.

Messaging, Integration & System Communication

• Architect asynchronous, event-driven systems using message queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS, etc.).
• Define secure and scalable integration patterns for connecting with EMRs, third-party APIs, and internal microservices.
• Design RESTful and event-based APIs to facilitate both internal and external system communication.
• Ensure resiliency, graceful degradation, and robust error handling across distributed systems.

Data Strategy & Management

• Design scalable data models and schemas to support clinical, genomic, and transactional data needs.
• Collaborate with engineering and data teams to optimize data access strategies, caching, indexing, and storage.
• Ensure sound data governance practices across all user-facing systems.

Security, NFRs & Compliance

• Implement architectural strategies that meet healthcare industry compliance standards such as HIP nd SOC2.
• Define and enforce non-functional requirements related to performance, observability, availability, and reliability.
• Work with InfoSec to enforce security standards including encryption, OAuth2/OpenID Connect, and RBAC.
• Develop observability standards to proactively identify and resolve issues using logging, tracing, and metrics.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Leadership

• Partner closely with product, engineering, DevOps, QA, and InfoSec teams to align architecture with business and user needs.
• Provide architectural mentorship, conduct design/code reviews, and help guide engineering best practices.
• Lead technical planning during sprints and releases, balancing long-term architecture with short-term delivery goals.
• Collaborate with leadership to align system evolution with the broader organizational vision.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, including 4+ years in architecture or technical leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience designing and scaling customer-facing platforms in regulated environments, ideally healthcare.
• Expertise in cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), containers (Docker, Kubernetes), and infrastructure-as-code.
• Strong knowledge of microservices, API design, and messaging systems.
• Skilled in SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis) database design.
• Deep understanding of system-level NFRs: high availability, observability, disaster recovery, and incident response.
• Experience implementing secure authentication, logging, and compliance frameworks such as HIP nd SOC2.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership abilities.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with HL7/FHIR integration and EMR interoperability.
• Background in designing patient or provider-facing portals.
• Familiarity with genomic or laboratory information systems.
• Exposure to API gateways, service mesh architecture, or platform engineering.
• Knowledge of healthcare workflows such as test ordering, accessioning, and report generation.

Additional Technical Strengths:

• Strong understanding of full-stack architecture, including frontend, backend, data, and infrastructure layers.
• Experience with modern frontend frameworks (React, Angular, Vue) and building responsive, secure user interfaces.
• Proven track record in designing resilient, distributed microservices and event-driven systems.
• Familiarity with real-time data pipelines, caching strategies, and eventual consistency models (e.g., CQRS).
• Deep understanding of DevOps practices, container orchestration, and deployment automation.
• Ability to drive developer efficiency through reusable components and architectural standards.
• Innovative mindset with a product-oriented approach to system design.
• Leadership in evaluating and integrating emerging technologies into scalable, maintainable, and compliant systems.