About Zinkworks

Zinkworks partners with leading Telecommunications and Financial Services organizations to modernize legacy systems, migrate mission-critical platforms to the cloud, and engineer AI-driven automation. From OSS transformation to rApp development and network intelligence, our teams simplify complexity and turn it into competitive advantage. Based in Ireland and operating across the EU, UK, and US, Zinkworks combines deep domain expertise with delivery excellence to help clients modernize faster and operate smarter.

Role Purpose

The Senior Platform Architect is the technical visionary for Zinkworks’ shared platform. You will define, evolve, and maintain a core capability focused on agentic automation and reusable delivery components.

This is a "Player-Coach" transition role. You will combine deep, hands-on technical leadership with architectural ownership, ensuring that innovations emerging from specific customer programs are generalized into a scalable, multi-tenant platform. You will bridge the gap between high-level product strategy and pragmatic engineering delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Architectural Vision: Lead the design and implementation of platform capabilities, ensuring they are built for evolution, versioning, and multi-customer consumption.
Product Partnership: Collaborate closely with Product Management to translate the roadmap into a technical "Golden Path" that delivery teams can follow.
Harvesting Innovation: Establish the criteria for identifying "reusable" patterns from customer projects and lead the effort to integrate them back into the core platform.
Hands-on Leadership: Remain active in the codebase, particularly where architectural intent and implementation are tightly coupled (e.g., core abstractions).
Ecosystem Alignment: Work with Presales and Domain Specialists (Telco/Finance) to ensure the platform supports the commercial trajectory of the business.
Governance: Define contribution and versioning models that prevent "dependency hell" or fragmentation across delivery teams.

Experience and Background

We value a mix of skills. You don't need to be an expert in every single one, but you should recognize yourself in most of the following:

1. Microservices & Distributed Systems (Core Focus)

Event-Driven Architecture (EDA): Deep experience designing and implementing asynchronous, event-driven microservices using Kafka, RabbitMQ, or Pub/Sub.
Stateful Workflows: Proficiency in managing complex, closed-loop automation through stateful workflow engines (e.g., Temporal, Camunda).
System Resiliency: Proven ability to implement patterns like Circuit Breakers, CQRS, and Event Sourcing to ensure high availability and data integrity.

2. Agentic Systems & AI

Intelligent Automation: Experience building autonomous agents using frameworks like LangChain or LlamaIndex.
AI Orchestration: Expertise in RAG pipelines, Vector Database management (Pinecone, Weaviate, etc.), and secure sandboxing for AI execution.

3. Data & Software Engineering

Polyglot Development: Proficiency in Python (AI/ML logic) and C++/Java (for high-performance core services); expert-level API-first design (gRPC, REST).
Data Pipelines: Experience architecting high-throughput ETL/ELT pipelines for real-time telemetry (Telco) or transaction data (Finance).

4. Infrastructure & Security

Cloud-Native & Hybrid: Architectural mastery of AWS, GCP, or Azure; experience with hybrid abstractions like Google Anthos, Azure Arc, or AWS Outposts.
Containerization: Advanced Kubernetes (K8s) skills, specifically for Edge and On-Premises deployments.
Zero Trust: Ability to bake security into the architecture using Policy-as-Code and OIDC/IAM frameworks within highly regulated environments.

What Success Looks Like

In your first 12 months, success is defined by:

The "Golden Path": A clear, well-understood architectural model and extension points for the platform.
Measurable Reuse: At least three major components from delivery programs successfully generalized into the core platform.
Delivery Velocity: A tangible reduction in friction and "start-up" time for new customer projects via platform-standardized components.
Leadership Growth: The successful hiring and onboarding of a core platform engineering team under your guidance.

Highly Desirable

Experience in Telecommunications (RAN/NETCONF/YANG) or Fintech/Payments.
Experience supporting multiple delivery teams consuming a shared internal product.
A history of contributing to or managing internal "InnerSource" contribution models.

Inclusion & Diversity at Zinkworks

At Zinkworks, we are deeply committed to fostering a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging. We believe that our strength lies in the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of our team members. By embracing an inclusive environment, we empower innovation and collaboration across all levels of our organisation. Based in Ireland, we are proud to support and engage with our local communities through meaningful initiatives that promote equity and opportunity. Our commitment extends beyond the workplace, as we actively contribute to creating a more inclusive and connected society for all.

Senior Platform Architect

Job Description