iHerb

eCommerce

SoftwareArchitect

Shanghai, China FULL TIME
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Lead candidates.

The Brief

“Software Architect at iHerb. Skills: System Architecture, Hands-on Coding, Cloud-Native Infrastructure, AI-Native Infrastructure. Drive system design. Drive technical innovation”

What You'll Achieve.

drive system design; drive technical innovation; drive architectural excellence; identify technical debt; design long-term optimization strategies; establish standard patterns; accelerate feature delivery; optimize reliability; reduce complexity; enable automated, agentic code generation and testing workflows

Industry & Context.

eCommerce
Problems you'll solve

identifying technical debt; designing long-term optimization strategies; formulate incremental, cloud-native service decomposition strategies; optimize reliability; reduce complexity

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

8+ years of software development experience, 3+ years operating in an architect or principal-level role, Expert hands-on coding skills in at least one major language, Extensive experience with high-scale relational database modeling, Solid experience building and scaling applications using modern cloud infrastructures, Proven expertise in modern software architecture patterns, Exceptional ability to articulate complex technical trade-offs

Nice to Have

E-commerce or High-Volume Fintech Experience, Prior experience engineering high-volume transactional platforms, distributed retail inventories, AI-First Developer Experience, Practical familiarity with LLMs, prompt engineering, integrating developer-facing AI tools

What You'll Do.

Drive technical innovation

Drive architectural excellence

Balance technical vision

Balance hands-on coding

Dive deep into systems

Identify technical debt

Design optimization strategies

Remain active in codebase

Establish standard patterns

Lead evaluation of solutions

Lead adoption of solutions

Own technical architecture

Translate commercial goals

Create robust designs

Create scalable designs

Create secure designs

Maintain presence in codebase

Develop critical components

Execute high-value features

Create functional prototypes

Validate design concepts

Map legacy applications

Formulate decomposition strategies

Research third-party software

Audit third-party software

Integrate third-party software

Accelerate feature delivery

Define service boundaries

Define database schema standards

Mentor engineering teams

Lead architecture preparation

Design MCP-ready endpoints

Design tools for code generation

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

guiding technical direction across multiple teams; articulate complex technical trade-offs clearly to local engineering teams; articulate complex technical trade-offs clearly to transnational executive stakeholders; mentoring engineering teams on system design best practices; mentoring engineering teams on coding discipline

Communication Scope

Exceptional ability to articulate complex technical trade-offs clearly

Full Job Description

Location: Shanghai, China (Global Engineering Hub) Position Type: Full-time | Hands-on Technical Leadership Position Summary As a Software Architect, you will join our core engineering leadership team to drive system design, technical innovation, and architectural excellence across multiple business domains. This is a highly influential, dual-capability role designed for a strategic thinker who actively balances system-wide technical vision with hands-on coding execution. You will dive deep into our systems, identifying technical debt and designing long-term optimization strategies. At the same time, you will remain active in the codebase, building prototypes, delivering features, and establishing standard patterns for our engineering teams. Additionally, you will lead the evaluation and adoption of cutting-edge open-source and commercial solutions to keep our technology stack at the frontier of high-velocity, high-quality development. Key Responsibilities System Architecture & Design: Own the end-to-end technical architecture for high-impact initiatives across different domains, translating complex commercial goals into robust, scalable, and secure designs. Hands-on Technical Execution: Maintain a strong presence in the codebase by developing critical components, executing high-value features, and creating functional prototypes to validate design concepts. System Modernization & Tech Debt Management: Map our legacy applications, identify technical debt, and formulate incremental, cloud-native service decomposition strategies to optimize reliability and reduce complexity. Technical Vendor & Open-Source Evaluation: Proactively research, audit, and integrate best-in-class third-party software, libraries, and tools from the market to accelerate feature delivery. Engineering Governance & Mentorship: Define clear service boundaries, API contracts, and database schema standards while mentoring engineering teams on system design best practices and coding discipline. AI-Nat

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