Staff Software Engineer/Architect

Cooper Flooring seeks a Staff Software Engineer/Architect in Carrollton, TX (hybrid) to design and build production services in Python and React with PostgreSQL, owning architectural decisions and progressing toward platform ownership in a succession-track role.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and own production backend services in Python, currently using FastAPI, that power the business.
• Develop a real frontend in React that operators, office staff, and field personnel rely on daily.
• Model and evolve the data layer with relational schema design and migrations to keep a growing PostgreSQL platform clean; migration work is a core activity.
• Make architectural decisions and defend them, defining domain boundaries, integration contracts, access controls, and data shapes, with documentation for future maintainers.
• Design API integrations between internal services and third party systems, prioritizing portable interfaces over vendor lock-in.
• Set and enforce development standards, conventions, review gates, and guardrails to enable fast progress with a small team.
• Operate the Azure estate including Container Apps, Static Web Apps, Docker workloads, networking, Key Vault, and identity via Microsoft Entra ID.
• Own the delivery pipeline, including CI/CD, automated deployments, environment management, and infrastructure as code.
• Design the platform with security and compliance in mind, including identity controls, secrets handling, monitoring, vulnerability remediation, and SOC 2 posture enforced in code and data models.
• Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity planning for the platform.

Requirements

• 5+ years building and shipping production web applications you owned, with strong backend work in Python (FastAPI or comparable) and frontend work in React.
• Deep relational data modeling and migration experience, with PostgreSQL preferred.
• Solid architectural judgment, with history of designing systems, weighing trade-offs, and explaining decisions with openness to potential improvements.
• Working competence in Microsoft Azure and cloud-native operations: containers (Docker), CI/CD, networking, and identity basics; depth is a plus and growth capability is required.
• Security integrated into design processes rather than added later.
• Comfort in a small, high-trust team with self-direction, low ego, end-to-end ownership, and genuine interest in the software operations serviced.

Technologies

• Python, FastAPI, React, PostgreSQL, Azure, Container Apps, Static Web Apps, Docker, Microsoft Entra ID, Key Vault

Benefits

• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Retirement plan

AI and Automation

• We use AI heavily and deliberately. Claude Code is a primary development accelerator here, and AI is built into the platform with guardrails. The pattern is propose, not act: AI surfaces structured suggestions for humans to approve, and sensitive data is kept from AI egress by design. You will extend that, identifying high-value places to apply AI to development, reporting, and operations, while maintaining a secure posture.

Our Architecture Has Opinions

• Structural over cultural approach to design
• Architecture Decision Records
• Append-only activity streams enforced at the database level
• Claims-based access control with consistent scoping
• PII-free AI egress by design
• Portability-first philosophy
• KISS and defer with a named trigger

Not Required

• Experience with the legacy FileMaker system is not required; it is being retired and successors will not need to learn it.

How We Hire

• Judgment is the central evaluation, more than resume items. Expect to discuss real architectural decisions from our platform, with conclusions removed, and to reason aloud about potential improvements. We evaluate thinking over memorized frameworks and welcome constructive disagreement.

Why This Role Matters

• The platform powering CIS is a strategic asset currently concentrated in a few individuals. This role is about creating a peer and eventual successor who shapes the next generation of the system and ensures the technology foundation outlives any single engineer.

Pay

Salary: $77,322.59 - $93,119.67 per year

Work Location

Hybrid remote in Carrollton, TX 75006

Nice to Have (and Teachable)

• Deeper Azure specialization in architecture, security operations, and infrastructure as code at scale
• Experience with operational, field-service, logistics, or home-improvement organizations
• Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions, reporting and BI, workflow automation
• Experience applying AI to real engineering and operational work