Senior Software Architect for MVP Planning or Scale Engineering Assessment

We’re looking for an experienced software architect or product engineering consultant to review our product requirements or existing application and recommend a practical technical direction. The engagement is primarily advisory. Depending on the product’s stage, the focus will be either planning a new MVP or assessing an existing MVP that needs to become more reliable, maintainable, and ready for growth. We will agree on one assessment path before starting. We need recommendations that connect engineering decisions to product priorities, delivery effort, operating costs, and the needs of our users. The work may involve: Reviewing the product goals, user journeys, requirements, and current technical approach. For a new MVP: defining the essential scope, recommending an appropriate architecture and technology stack, and identifying integrations and delivery dependencies. For an existing MVP: reviewing the architecture and agreed code samples to identify technical debt, performance bottlenecks, reliability risks, and constraints on future development. Assessing API design, database structure, authentication, access controls, and tenant isolation where relevant. Reviewing cloud deployment, CI/CD, testing, monitoring, and backup arrangements at a high level. Recommending what to retain, refactor, or replace, including AI-generated or rapidly assembled code where applicable. Prioritising changes and outlining a realistic implementation roadmap with effort ranges and key assumptions. We are looking for clear engineering judgement and implementable recommendations. The assessment should explain what needs attention now, what can wait, and why. Recommendations should fit the product’s current stage and avoid unnecessary infrastructure complexity. Ideal experience: Senior-level software architecture and hands-on product engineering experience. Experience taking SaaS products from concept to MVP and improving existing products for production use and growth. Strong understanding of backend services, frontend architecture, APIs, relational databases, and cloud infrastructure. Experience identifying technical debt and planning incremental improvements without disrupting existing users. Practical knowledge of application security, automated testing, CI/CD, and observability. Ability to challenge assumptions and communicate technical trade-offs clearly to founders and engineering teams. Expected deliverables: Initial consultation/discovery call. Review of the agreed requirements, proposed architecture, or existing technical materials. Concise assessment with prioritised findings and recommended architecture or improvements. Practical implementation roadmap covering priorities, dependencies, indicative effort ranges, and key assumptions. Short handover discussion to explain the recommendations and answer questions. This is a small consultation covering one product and one assessment path. For the initial budget, we will agree on a limited set of materials and questions before starting. A comprehensive repository audit, penetration test, load test, or hands-on implementation would be scoped separately. Successful work may lead to additional implementation or ongoing architecture advisory work. Please apply with: A brief example of an MVP you helped architect or an existing product you improved for reliability or scale. Your approach to assessing a product and deciding between retaining, refactoring, or rebuilding components. Your relevant technology experience and what you could realistically deliver within the initial budget. Your availability during the next two weeks. Please avoid generic proposals. We are specifically looking for someone who can understand the product quickly, challenge assumptions where necessary, and turn loosely defined requirements or technical concerns into a practical engineering plan.