Lead architectural decisions across backend, frontend, infrastructure, and data layers Establish engineering standards, best practices, and code quality guidelines Mentor and review work of junior and mid-level engineers Own technical planning, sprint scoping, and long-term platform evolution Translate ambiguous product requirements into clear, scalable technical solutions Design and build high-performance REST and/or GraphQL APIs Architect scalable data models and schemas (PostgreSQL preferred) Implement secure authentication, RBAC, rate limiting, and API throttling Optimize performance, caching, and reliability (Redis, queues, background jobs) Build integrations with third-party systems (e.g., Stripe, Twilio, external APIs, internal EMR systems) Build performant, production-grade UIs using Next.js (SSR, SSG, ISR) Drive component architecture, state management, and front-end best practices Collaborate with product and design to deliver intuitive, complex workflows Ensure SEO optimization, accessibility, performance, and mobile responsiveness Architect and manage deployments on AWS, Vercel, or similar platforms Own CI/CD pipelines, release workflows, and automated testing frameworks Improve observability with monitoring, logging, and alerting (Datadog, Sentry, CloudWatch, etc.) Enforce security best practices for secrets, environments, and infrastructure