---
title: 'Senior Cloud Architect at Robots and Pencils'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-cloud-architect-robots-and-pencils-united-states-85pfx4m38p74'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-12'
---

# Senior Cloud Architect at Robots and Pencils

- **Company:** Robots and Pencils
- **Location:** United States
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-11-09
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-12
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/robotsandpencils/jobs/5477193008

## Job description

This role can be remote based in the US or Canada

Company Overview

Robots & Pencils is an applied AI engineering firm building the next frontier of business architecture. We design and ship AI co-workers that integrate into enterprise operations and deliver measurable results for our clients. We're all in on AWS, combining deep UX capability with senior engineering talent to get AI into production fast and keep it there. We’ve earned the trust of leaders across Consumer Products and Retail, Education, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing and more, and earned a reputation as the nimble alternative to traditional global systems integrators. Founded in 2009, with delivery centers in Canada, the United States, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, we are smaller, faster, and more senior by design. Our teams average 15+ years of experience. We move fast, sweat the details, and build things that actually ship.

Position Overview

We’re looking for a Senior Cloud Application Architect to contribute to the design and delivery of cloud-native applications on AWS, growing into architectural ownership while staying close to the code. This is a role for someone who enjoys hands-on development and wants to sharpen the judgment that comes from designing services, APIs, and event flows that have to run reliably in production. You’ll help decompose systems into well-bounded services, shape serverless and container-based deployments, and make the day-to-day calls that keep applications scalable, secure, and maintainable.

In this role, you will work as a delivery-embedded contributor on a cross-functional team building real systems for real clients. You’ll collaborate closely with senior architects, engineers, and product partners to translate requirements into sound application architecture, implement infrastructure as code and CI/CD pipelines, and integrate AI services where they add value. Along the way you’ll develop the technical instincts that come from shipping things that matter and learn to weigh tradeoffs across cost, performance, resilience, and team velocity.

## Why This Role Matters

At Robots & Pencils, we design AI systems for a human world. Our name says it all. Robots and pencils means engineering paired with creativity, because every agent we ship has to work for real people in real workflows. That balance is baked into how we operate.

Every role here contributes directly to that mission. Here, you shape how AI systems integrate into enterprise operations, how teams move at real velocity, and how products create measurable impact for clients and the people they serve. We ship production-ready AI in 30 to 45 days. That pace demands people who take ownership, lead with craft, and care deeply about what they put their name on.

## What You’ll Do

Craft & Delivery

- Contribute to the design of cloud-native applications, helping define service boundaries, API contracts, and data flows on AWS
- Build and deploy microservices and serverless functions using containers and managed compute
- Implement event-driven patterns and asynchronous messaging between services
- Design and implement APIs across protocols and gateways
- Support infrastructure as code and CI/CD pipelines that make deployments repeatable and safe
- Implement observability, scalability, and resilience practices so applications stay healthy under load
- Apply AWS Well-Architected practices for security, reliability, and cost across the services you build
- Build and integrate AI and LLM services into cloud applications, including RAG and inference workflows
- Bring an AI-forward mindset to your daily work, using tools like Claude, Cursor, and other modern AI assistants to ship higher-quality work at pace

Collaboration & Communication

- Collaborate with engineers, data, AI, and product teams to translate requirements into sound application architecture
- Communicate technical tradeoffs and design decisions clearly across functions
- Maintain architecture and API documentation that supports reproducibility, onboarding, and shared understanding
- Participate actively in design and code reviews, raising concerns and offering constructive feedback

Leadership & Influence

- Take ownership of system components end-to-end with growing scope of architectural responsibility
- Contribute to architectural standards and best practices that lift the quality of work across the team
- Begin mentoring more junior engineers, sharing knowledge and supporting their growth

## What You’ll Bring

- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with hands-on experience designing cloud-native applications
- Working knowledge of a cloud platform and cloud-native application patterns, with AWS preferred
- Proficiency in at least one backend language and familiarity with another (e.g., Python, TypeScript, Java, Go)
- Experience building microservices, serverless functions, and event-driven systems
- Familiarity with containers and orchestration
- Experience designing and consuming APIs across REST, GraphQL, or gRPC and working with API gateways
- Working knowledge of infrastructure as code and CI/CD
- Familiarity with observability, scalability, and resilience practices in cloud applications
- Understanding of cloud security, identity, and access management fundamentals
- Experience integrating AI or LLM services into applications, including RAG or inference patterns
- Demonstrable, day-to-day usage of AI-forward tools such as Claude and Cursor
- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to navigate ambiguous technical challenges with sound judgment

Helpful Extras and Unique Skills

- CMS integration specialist experienced in localized site builds and content migration, with hands-on exposure to SurfOS.

You’ll Do Well Here if You Are

- A doer. You see something broken and fix it. You'd rather move on clarity than wait for certainty.
- A fast learner who knows you don't know everything. The AI landscape changes weekly. You're senior enough to know better and curious enough to keep learning anyway.
- Direct in a way that makes the work better. You give honest feedback. You'd rather have the hard conversation than blow smoke.
- Obsessed with craft. You know genius is in the details. You ship exceptional, not perfect, and you don't put your name on work you wouldn't stand behind.
- Built for ownership. You honor commitments, admit mistakes fast, and back your teammates when a decision costs something. No handoffs, no finger-pointing.
- All in. You treat clients' businesses like your own. You take the work seriously without taking yourself seriously.
- Resourceful when the budget, timeline, or team is tight. Constraints don't slow you down. They sharpen you.
- Glad to be in the room with people who care as much as you do. Our teams average fifteen-plus years of experience. We hire people who push each other to do better work.

The below range reflects the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue-based metrics, any collective bargaining agreements, and business or organizational needs. The salary range for this role based in the US is $110,000. USD - $ 151,000.USD; the salary range for this role based in Canada is: $90,000. USD - $124,000. USD. We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.

An offer of employment may be conditional upon successful completion of a background check in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice. Your current employer will not be contacted without your permission.  We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job-related reasons regardless of an applicant's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law.

## About Robots and Pencils

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Robots & Pencils is an Applied AI Engineering Partner that builds generative and agentic AI systems for enterprise clients, taking AI from pilot to production quickly.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Bootstrapped/Organic Growth)
- **Headquarters**: Chagrin Falls, Ohio, United States
- **Founded**: 2009
- **Founders**: Len Pagon (CEO), Nathan Carmon

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: IT Services and IT Consulting, Applied AI Engineering, Cloud-Native Development
- **Target customers**: Enterprise clients in Financial Services, Healthcare, Education, Energy, Retail & Consumer Goods, High Tech, and Transportation
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "We build smart systems for a human world" — blending the logic of machines with the creativity of humans to help organizations modernize platforms, design cloud-native applications, and unlock the real-world value of AI.

## Products & Services
- **Applied AI Engineering**: Building generative and agentic AI systems on Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, with memory, observability, and security built in from the start. Focused on taking AI from pilot to production quickly.
- **Cloud-Native AWS Modernization**: Re-architecting AWS environments from EC2/ECS to serverless-native infrastructure. Migrating legacy systems to cloud-native AWS, beyond lift-and-shift.
- **The Sharpening Sprint™**: A structured engagement to surface the strongest AI use cases for a client and deliver a sequenced build plan.
- **UX/UI Design & Product Strategy**: A creative team of product owners, researchers, UX designers, and visual designers who craft seamless experiences.
- **Legacy Platform Modernization**: Refactoring aging platforms and designing cloud-native applications across industries.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (privately held)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue of **$21.5M** (estimated) [ca.linkedin.com](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/robots-and-pencils)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: AWS (Advanced Tier Services Partner and Inaugural AWS Pattern Partner)
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of ~115 employees (+35.1% YoY, +39 people) [ca.linkedin.com](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/robots-and-pencils); 23,753 LinkedIn followers (+55.2% yearly growth); 77M+ users reached worldwide across launched apps; 25 patents & published works; 5 apps hit #1 in the App Store

## Competitive Advantages
- **Applied AI Engineering Focus**: Specializes exclusively in taking generative and agentic AI from pilot to live, fast — a nimble, high-velocity alternative to traditional global systems integrators.
- **AWS Pattern Partner**: One of only 11 inaugural AWS Pattern Partners selected from the AWS Partner Network, signaling deep technical partnership and trust.
- **Senior-Led Teams**: Operates through small, senior teams (15+ years average experience per team member) rather than massive consulting organizations, ensuring high-quality delivery.
- **Human-Centered Design**: Blends elite engineering talent with world-class UX design, differentiating from pure technical consultancies.
- **Proven Track Record**: 77M+ users reached worldwide, 25 patents & published works, and multiple #1 App Store launches.

## Strategic Focus
- **Agentic AI on AWS**: Building agentic systems on Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore with memory, observability, and security built in from the start.
- **Production-Ready AI**: Focused on taking AI from pilot to production in weeks, not months, with a strong emphasis on compliance and regulatory environments (Financial Services, Healthcare).
- **Industry Expansion**: Serving Financial Services, Health Tech, Education, Energy, Retail & Consumer Goods, and High Tech — industries where AI agents create exponential value.
- **Global Delivery Network**: Operating delivery centers across the U.S., Canada, Eastern Europe, and Latin America to serve enterprise clients worldwide.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as "wicked smart, wildly curious, ready to build" — a culture that values curiosity, collaboration, and impact. The company emphasizes "always learning" and invests in personal and professional growth.
- **Work Model**: Hybrid and remote-friendly. "Whether you are co-located in one of our offices or remote first, we prioritize how teams are set up to focus in on collaboration for successful delivery." [robotsandpencils.com](https://robotsandpencils.com/careers/)
- **Benefits**: Salary continuation and protected leave for parents (birth, spouse, and adoptive); health & wellness benefits; flexible hours; paid time off (vacation, sick, personal leave, flexible holidays).
- **Engineering Culture**: Described as a team of "tech wizards creating digital magic" — frontend, backend, mobile, and full-stack developers working on cutting-edge AI and cloud-native projects. The hiring process includes a pre-screen assessment, skills assessment, and deep dive interview to evaluate culture addition, communication, and technical fit.
- **Global Team**: Delivery centers in the U.S., Canada, Ukraine, Colombia, and the Philippines, offering a diverse, international work environment.

## Sources
1. [robotsandpencils.com](https://robotsandpencils.com/)
2. [robotsandpencils.com/about](https://robotsandpencils.com/about/)
3. [robotsandpencils.com/careers](https://robotsandpencils.com/careers/)
4. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/robotsandpencils](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/robotsandpencils)
5. [ca.linkedin.com/company/robots-and-pencils](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/robots-and-pencils)

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