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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Staff Software Engineer/Architect - **Company:** Cooper Flooring, Ltd. - **Location:** Carrollton, TX, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $77,323.0 - $93,120.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Application Services, Microsoft Azure, Cyber Security, Databases, Continuous Integration, Relational Databases, Disaster Recovery, Filemaker, Github, Python (Programming Language), PostgreSQL, Software Architecture, Azure Active Directory, Software Vulnerability Management, Web Applications, ReactJS, Delivery Pipeline, Backend, Fastapi, Data Layers, Deployment Automation, Api Management, Docker, Key Vault - **Published:** July 27, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=1cb3fc9356696747 ## About the Role * 5+ years building and shipping production web applications you owned - not just supported. Demonstrable depth in Python (FastAPI or comparable) on the backend and React on the front end. * Strong relational data modeling and migration experience (PostgreSQL preferred). * Architectural judgment. You've designed systems, made consequential trade-offs, and can walk us through why - including the ones you'd make differently now. * Working competence in Microsoft Azure and cloud-native operation: containers (Docker), CI/CD, networking and identity basics. Real depth is a plus; willingness and ability to grow into it is required. * Security built into how you design, not added afterward. * The temperament for a small, high-trust team: self-directed, low-ego, comfortable owning outcomes end to end, and genuinely interested in the operations the software serves. Nice to have (and teachable) * Deeper Azure specialization (architecture, security operations, IaC at scale). * Experience with operational, field-service, logistics, or home-improvement organizations. * Azure DevOps / GitHub Actions, reporting and BI, workflow automation. * Experience applying AI to real engineering and operational work. Not required: experience with our specific legacy system (FileMaker). We're retiring it. The successor never needs to learn it. ## Description This role is to be an integral part of the engineering effort and ongoing maintenance. Today the platform is architected and largely built by one person - the Chief Systems Architect. You would be the second. That means two things, and we want to be direct about both. First, you will write the platform, not just keep it running. This is not an infrastructure-management seat with application work bolted on the side. The core of the job is designing and building production services in Python and React against a PostgreSQL data layer, and carrying the architectural judgment that keeps a federated platform coherent. The cloud, the pipelines, and the security posture are part of the job - but they are the ground the applications stand on, not the point of the role. Second, this is a succession-track role. You'll start as deputy, pairing daily with the Chief Systems Architect, absorbing not just how the system is built but why it's built the way it is. Over the next few years you'll grow into full architectural ownership of the platform. If the idea of inheriting an opinionated, well-documented system and being trusted to evolve it is exciting rather than daunting, keep reading. If you're looking for a team to manage, this isn't that. What you'll own (the core) * Build production application services in Python. Backend services and APIs - currently FastAPI - that run the business. You'll design them, write them, own them. * Build the front end in React. Real application UI that operators, office staff, and the field depend on every day. * Model and evolve the data layer. Relational schema design, migrations, and the discipline that keeps a growing PostgreSQL platform clean. Migration work is first-class here, not an afterthought. * Make architectural decisions and defend them. Designing domain boundaries, integration contracts, access-control models, and data shapes - and documenting the reasoning so the next person inherits the decision instead of rediscovering it. * Design API integrations between our internal services and third-party systems (including our partners' systems), favoring portable interfaces over vendor lock-in. * Set and uphold development standards - conventions, review gates, and the structural guardrails that let a very small team move fast without drifting. What you'll also carry (the breadth) This is where Azure and operations live. Depth here is welcome, but if you're a strong application engineer who's competent-but-not-expert in Azure, that's fine - it's the half of the job we can grow you into. * Operate our Azure estate: Container Apps, Static Web Apps, Docker-based workloads, networking, Key Vault, and identity via Microsoft Entra ID. * Own the delivery pipeline: CI/CD, automated deployments, environment management, infrastructure-as-code. * Keep the platform secure and compliant by design: identity and access controls, secrets handling, monitoring, vulnerability remediation, and supporting our SOC 2 posture - enforced structurally, in the code and the data model, not by hope and convention. * Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity planning for the platform. AI & automation We use AI heavily and deliberately. Claude Code is a primary development accelerator here, and AI is built into the platform itself - but inside guardrails. Our pattern is propose, not act: AI surfaces structured suggestions for humans to approve, and sensitive data is kept out of AI egress paths by construction. You'll extend that - finding high-value places to apply AI to development, reporting, and operations - while keeping the responsible, secure posture that makes it trustworthy. Our architecture has opinions We're telling you this up front because it's the best filter we have. If these make you lean in, you're our person. If they read as overhead, you'll be unhappy here. * Structural over cultural. Access control, data protection, and policy are enforced in the data shape and the code path - not by discipline or documentation alone. * Architecture Decision Records. Consequential decisions are written down, with context and trade-offs, so reasoning is inherited rather than reconstructed. * Append-only activity streams, enforced at the database level. * Claims-based access control, scoped consistently throughout. * PII-free AI egress, by construction. Not "we remember to scrub it" - it's structurally impossible by design. * Portability-first. External dependencies sit behind interfaces with portable fallbacks. Services speak to interfaces, not vendors. * KISS and defer-with-a-named-trigger. When something is genuinely risky or complex, we defer it explicitly, with documented rationale and a named condition for when it ships. ## Related Videos - [Watch Tests Go Brrrr! : Getting Started with Cypress in ReactJS](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/282-watch-tests-go-brrrr-getting-started-with-cypress-in-reactjs) - [Innovating Developer Tools with AI: Insights from GitHub Next](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1268-innovating-developer-tools-with-ai-insights-from-github-next) - [Docker Compose: Rediscovered](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1978-docker-compose-rediscovered) - [Crew Management System for Airlines: Plan duties for pilots & flight attendants worldwide](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1444-crew-management-system-for-airlines-plan-duties-for-pilots-flight-attendants-worldwide) - [Bringing AI Model Testing and Prompt Management to Your Codebase with GitHub Models](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1536-bringing-ai-model-testing-and-prompt-management-to-your-codebase-with-github-models) - [Empowering Thousands of Developers: Our Journey to an Internal Developer Platform](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1519-empowering-thousands-of-developers-our-journey-to-an-internal-developer-platform) ## Related Articles - [Dev Digest 120 - Apple and peers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/455-dev-digest-120-apple-and-peers) - [How We Built a Worry-Free System That Runs for 10+ Years – And What We’d Do Again](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/751-how-we-built-a-worry-free-system-that-runs-for-10-years-and-what-we-d-do-again) - [Navigating the AI Shift](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/629-navigating-the-ai-shift) - [Dev Digest 121 - AI goes offline](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/456-dev-digest-121-ai-goes-offline) - [Dev Digest 137 - AI'm not sure about this](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/485-dev-digest-137-ai-m-not-sure-about-this) - [Why Upskilling And Reskilling is Important For Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/428-why-upskilling-and-reskilling-is-important-for-developers)