System Architect

Role Overview

We are seeking a Systems Architect to work closely with the VP of Architecture, Product, and Engineering teams to ensure the correct design and evolution of our technical systems. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in backend and system design, a pragmatic approach to architecture, and the ability to translate product requirements into robust, scalable technical solutions. As a Systems Architect, you will play a key role in defining how our systems are designed before development starts, reducing rework and ensuring long-term maintainability.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

• Partner with Product and Engineering to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Work upstream of development to analyse requirements and define technical approaches.
• Ensure a clear separation of concerns across frontend, backend, and infrastructure.
• Collaborate closely with the VP of Architecture, Product Owners, and engineering teams to analyse and clarify product requirements.
• Review and refine tickets before they are assigned to developers.
• Define and document system architecture, technical approach, data models, data flows, and API contracts.
• Ensure clear frontend vs backend responsibilities.
• Prevent over-engineering, under-engineering, and business logic leaking into the frontend.
• Support engineering teams during implementation to ensure alignment with agreed designs.
• Escalate complex or high-risk technical decisions to the VP of Architecture when needed.
• Contribute to the continuous evolution of our architectural standards, design patterns, and engineering best practices.

Requirements

• Strong experience in backend development and system design.
• Proven experience designing and evolving complex systems in production.
• Deep understanding of web application architectures, REST APIs, and data-driven systems.
• Strong knowledge of relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Pragmatic mindset with strong judgement around technical trade-offs.
• Comfortable collaborating across Product, Engineering, and Architecture functions.

Nice to Have

• Experience working in product-led companies.
• Experience with large monoliths evolving over time.
• Familiarity with modular or service-oriented architectures.
• Experience mentoring engineers on architectural topics.

Join the best in the business

Founded in 2009, Little Emperors is a private luxury travel club connecting travellers and independent advisors with the world's finest hotels, experiences and journeys. Travellers access the lowest available rates and real benefits like complimentary breakfast, room upgrades and hotel credits, through an intuitive platform and a team of travel experts available by phone, WhatsApp or email, day or night. Independent advisors join through MyLER, an invite-only programme giving them the tools, relationships and commercial terms to build a successful luxury travel business.

Remote - this role can be accomplished anywhere worldwide, we work UK timezone.