Senior Software Architect: on-call bench for technical due diligence reviews (remote, per project)

Fee agreed per project. The budget field is required by Upwork and is not the fee. Collate reviews the technology inside software businesses before they are bought or sold. Our clients are private equity firms, independent sponsors and holding companies buying companies with USD 2M to 50M in revenue, and founders preparing to sell. We are building a small on-call bench of senior architects. When a deal comes in, we match it to the architect whose stack and industry experience fit best. Each review is fixed scope, 7 business days (or 5 business days for a red flag review), fully remote, with read-only access to the target's code, cloud console and documents. What you would do on a review: - Map the architecture and identify scaling limits - Review code quality, test coverage, dependencies and open-source licences, through scans plus a manual read of the critical modules - Review cloud configuration, access, keys, backups and data handling - Test whether the target's AI claims hold up in the code and in production - Join interviews with the target's CTO and engineers - Write up findings against our scoring rubric, with evidence and cost-to-fix ranges We handle the client, the report layout and the final edit. You bring the technical judgement and the evidence. What we need: - 15 or more years building and running production software, including time as an architect, principal engineer or CTO - Hands-on depth in at least two of: Ruby on Rails, Python/Django, Node.js, Java/.NET, PHP/Laravel, React or React Native - Strong AWS, Azure or GCP experience - Practical experience with machine learning or LLM-based products - Clear written English. Findings must be plain enough for a deal partner to act on - Previous technical due diligence, code audit or security review work is a strong plus - Industry experience is welcome: fintech, healthtech, logistics, field service, SaaS, e-commerce, edtech, or others How it works: - Each review is paid as a fixed fee agreed with you per project. - Work comes as deals arrive. Expect irregular demand at first. - NDA and contractor agreement signed before any client work. To apply, please include: 1. A redacted example of an audit, architecture review or technical assessment you have written (or a detailed description if you cannot share one). 2. One system you designed that is still in production, and what you would change today. 3. Your strongest stacks, clouds and industries. 4. How many due diligence or audit reviews you have done, if any. 5. One reference we can contact (past client or manager). 6. Your expected fee for a 7-day review.