Systems Architecture Engineer

About the Role

Surge is an AI-first software and data company serving the wholesale mortgage lending space. We run Partner360, a partner relationship management platform with a ten-year production history and a six-year zero-outage record, built on proprietary mortgage-industry data that nobody else can assemble. We recently entered a new chapter under new ownership, and we are building the team that takes us through our next phase of growth.

This is an individual contributor role focused on building systems, not managing teams. Leadership here builds production AI systems daily, and expects you to do the same. You will own the back-end and the wiring: the database side of the platform, the integrations across our data infrastructure, and the operational instrumentation that keeps it running. You will draw the systems before you build them, map dependencies across services, explain trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders, and ship.

What You Will Do

Architectural Thinking

• Diagram systems before implementing them
• Map dependencies across microservices and data flows
• Explain architectural trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Design for production constraints: reliability, security, compliance, cost

Platform Wiring

• Own the back-end database side: schema, performance, integrity, observability
• Build and maintain the integration layer between our data stores and the customer-facing surfaces they feed
• Stand up the operational instrumentation that lets us run with confidence

AI-Forward Execution

• Use AI tools daily for architecture design, refactoring, documentation, and code review
• Verify AI-generated output rather than treating it as infallible
• Apply AI to real engineering problems, not just autocomplete
• Ship production code with AI assistance, maintaining quality standards

Visual Communication

• Create stakeholder-ready diagrams as first-class output, not afterthoughts
• Draw to explain technical concepts during discussions
• Produce architecture diagrams, data flow maps, and system dependencies
• Make technical decisions accessible through clear visuals

What We Are Looking For

• At least five years in software engineering, systems architecture, or infrastructure roles
• Background in mortgage banking, fintech, or financial services compliance strongly preferred; experience in other regulated industries such as health or legal also valuable
• Hands-on with the platforms we run on
• A daily AI tool user for architecture and systems work, not just code completion
• Comfortable working distributed, async-first, and documentation-heavy
• Can explain complex systems through diagrams and visual models
• Understands production constraints: reliability, security, compliance, cost
• Comfortable with real-time incident response and architectural decision-making

The job lives most heavily in Snowflake (data warehouse and architecture layer) and AWS / S3 (storage, including our own S3-backed product surface). It also touches Salesforce, Claude Code (daily AI-assisted engineering), and Google Workspace.

Who You Are

• An individual contributor builder who wants to expand scope through excellence, not title
• An async communicator who documents decisions and context
• Transparent about blockers and trade-offs
• Someone who ships working systems, not perfect prototypes

How We Hire

As part of the interview process, you will spend a working session demonstrating four competencies: live AI problem-solving, whiteboard architecture, system diagramming, and incident retrospective analysis. No pseudocode, no trivia. We want to see how you actually work, not how you describe how you work.

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive compensation based on experience (including bonus, 401(k), etc.)
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Remote work; Unlimited PTO

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other category protected by law.