Systems Architect

About the role

We are looking for a Systems Architect to own our technical strategy across a complex, multi-product portfolio serving the public housing authority sector. This is a senior, cross-functional leadership role. The right person will help define where our technical landscape is going, make the decisions that give engineering teams clarity and direction, and build relationships across the organization that turn the architecture into a coherent platform.

You will be joining at a significant moment. We are actively rationalizing a product portfolio that has grown in complexity over many years, modernizing our infrastructure, addressing security gaps, and laying the technical foundation for new capabilities including AI-driven features. This role is the architectural cornerstone of that effort.

What you will own

Technical strategy

• Define and maintain the overall technical architecture across all products.
• Create and communicate a coherent roadmap for platform evolution, modernization, and debt reduction.
• Set standards for security, code quality, deployment, and observability across all engineering teams.
• Own the decision framework for technology selection evaluate new tools, platforms, and approaches against long-term goals rather than familiarity or short-term convenience.
• Drive the transition from bespoke, per-customer customizations toward a scalable, configuration-driven product model.

Platform and infrastructure

• Lead architectural decisions for our Azure hosted software, including resource standardization, cost optimization, and environment consistency across cloud and on-premises deployments.
• Define and improve CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and release processes to reduce manual error and increase deployment confidence.
• Design and oversee the evolution of our API layer, including identity management consolidation, authorization granularity, containerization, and tenant isolation.
• Oversee the reporting architecture strategy, including the transition away from Crystal Reports and the definition of a modern, maintainable reporting platform.

Cross-functional leadership

• Partner with Product Management to ensure technical strategy and product roadmap are genuinely aligned.
• Communicate clearly with non-technical stakeholders including Sales, Customer Success, Professional Services and senior leadership about technical decisions and their business implications.
• Mentor and provide technical direction to engineering teams.
• Champion a culture of engineering excellence, knowledge sharing, and documentation across the organization.

What we need from you

• C# and .NET: Hands-on expertise with C#. Must understand the migration landscape and can make principled decisions about when and how to modernize.
• JavaScript / TypeScript and at least one major frontend framework: Strong working knowledge of React or Angular.
• SQL Server: Expert-level understanding of SQL Server, including query optimization, schema design, and reporting infrastructure. Experience with SSRS & SSIS is required.
• Azure: Experienced and comfortable with cloud based infrastructure and services.
• Security architecture: Experience designing and enforcing security standards including secrets management, tenant isolation, authentication and authorization patterns, and API security.
• 3+ years of experience: With a meaningful portion in senior or principal engineering or architecture roles, ideally in product companies with complex, multi-version environments.

Strongly preferred

• Desktop software: Experience designing, shipping, and maintaining Windows based desktop applications. Understanding the specific pain of installers, upgrade paths, configuration management, multi-version support, and the operational reality of on-premises Windows environments.
• Delphi: Experience with legacy Delphi codebases is a genuine differentiator. The ideal candidate will understand the specific constraints and modernization options this creates.
• AWS: Secondary cloud experience, particularly S3 and multi-cloud considerations.
• Containerization: Practical experience with Docker and container orchestration.
• Housing or government software domain: Familiarity with compliance-driven, government-adjacent software environments is an advantage but not a requirement.

Join us

As an Aquila company, Emphasys PHA brings together bright, talented people who aspire to excellence and share a commitment to upholding our mission: To be a company of outstanding people delivering vertical market software solutions through long-term partnerships with clients.

Our entrepreneurial culture, lean environment, and people come together to form a dynamic organization where purpose drives our growth. With the autonomy to be creative and curious, we collaborate and iterate to achieve real impact in the communities we support.

Apply now

Diversity and inclusion are not mere words on paper to us. We welcome and appreciate candidates with a range of backgrounds and experiences. If you have 70% of the qualifications we are looking for and want to play an integral role in changing an industry, apply to express your interest.

Aquila and Emphasys Software promote equal employment opportunities for all. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, marital status or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment decisions are made based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities and accommodations are available on request.