Architect jobs in Penicuik

About PollStream

PollStream is a public affairs intelligence platform that brings together public opinion data, political intelligence, and AI to help organisations understand and navigate the issues that matter. We give decision-makers a real-time picture of the political and public landscape - turning complex, continuously updated data into clear, actionable insight. Backed by a major player in the market research technology space, we're a small, ambitious team building at the intersection of public affairs, insights, and AI.

The Role

We're launching in summer 2026 and are already working with beta customers. This role joins us immediately post-launch - a rare moment to step into a live, growing product and shape its architecture from a strong foundation rather than from scratch.

You'll own the technical vision of our platform, define how our systems are built, set engineering standards, and make high-stakes decisions that affect the reliability and scale of PollStream's core product. With a small, close-knit dev team, this is a deeply hands-on role - you'll be writing and reviewing code every day, not just drawing diagrams. You'll also guide the team's technical direction and help us grow the right way.

You'll report directly to the CTO and work closely with product, data, and engineering leads.

What You'll Do

• Define and evolve PollStream's system architecture - from data pipelines and APIs to front-end delivery and infrastructure
• Lead technical design reviews and establish engineering standards for quality, security, and performance
• Identify and resolve architectural bottlenecks, technical debt, and scalability risks before they become problems
• Partner with product and data teams to translate complex requirements into pragmatic system designs
• Mentor senior engineers and raise the technical bar across the organization
• Evaluate and recommend new technologies, frameworks, and approaches
• Contribute production-quality code - this is not a purely advisory role

What We're Looking For

Required:

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years in an architecture or technical leadership capacity
• Proven ability to architect systems that handle large volumes of continuously updated data - high-throughput ingestion, real-time processing, and data consistency at scale
• Hands-on experience with AI and LLM integration - whether embedding models into products, building LLM-powered workflows, or working with inference infrastructure
• Strong command of distributed systems design - APIs, event-driven architectures, caching, and data modeling
• Proven experience designing and scaling cloud-native applications (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Comfortable working across the stack - backend-heavy, but not backend-only
• Strong communication skills; able to explain complex trade-offs to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders
• Experience working in agile, fast-moving environments

Nice to Have:

• Background in market research technology, survey platforms, polling, or analytics products
• Familiarity with real-time data pipelines (Kafka, Kinesis, or similar)
• Background in SaaS product companies
• Experience with TypeScript/Node.js, Python, or React

Why PollStream:

• Fully remote - work from anywhere in the UK
• Meaningful technical ownership from day one
• Small team, big scope - your decisions will shape the product directly
• Stock options
• Backed by a major player in the market research technology space - the stability of an established backer with the energy of a start-up
• Flexible working hours

How to Apply

Apply directly through Indeed. Include a brief note on a system design decision you're proud of and why.

PollStream is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds.

Pay: £60,000.00-£90,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Employee stock ownership plan
• Work from home

Work Location: Remote