The posting
About Clockworks
Clockworks is a Rotterdam-based AI company. For more than ten years we have turned cameras, sensors and messy data streams into systems that read, look, count and predict, and then quietly do their job inside the operations of utilities, logistics and industrial companies.
A demo that works eighty percent of the time takes a week. We are in the business of the last twenty percent: the photo that is not quite sharp but still needs to be readable, off-hours peaks in traffic, a customer’s fifteen-year-old system everything has to plug into. We work in small teams with everything in-house to solve a problem end to end, with software and AI engineering in one room, which is why what we build actually goes live. Alongside client work we build our own products, such as Blicker, our meter-reading API for utility companies, and everything runs on ClockworksOS, our own toolkit for data, models and production systems.
The gears of a clock are complicated, and that is exactly why reading the time is simple. The same concept holds for the solutions we build and how we work.
The role
If the AI is the brain of a solution, our software engineers build the body around it. As Solution Architect you decide what that body looks like before a line of it is written, and then you help write it. You define how a vague AI idea becomes a system that meets real requirements for performance, scalability, security and maintainability, how it fits into whatever the client already has running, and you build the parts that matter most yourself.
You are one of two architects and you sit across everything we build: client projects, products such as Blicker, and ClockworksOS underneath them. You see architectural risk before anyone else does and say so, whether to a junior engineer, a client CTO or Clockworks leadership; when a project's technical direction is contested, you cut through the noise with a clear, defensible recommendation.
This is a coding architect role, not a slide-deck one. You combine everything a senior software engineer does, writing production code, reviewing pull requests, setting up infrastructure, with designing systems before implementation starts and reviewing all Clockworks solutions from an SE, DevOps and security perspective. At a team of our size there is no room for an architect who only draws boxes: the credibility of your designs comes from the fact that you can, and do, implement them.
What you'll work on
- Build production code on the critical parts of our systems, from ClockworksOS platform components to the integration layer of a client project, so your architectural judgment stays grounded in what it takes to implement it.
- Design scalable, secure and maintainable architectures for AI-integrated systems, from cloud to edge, and turn AI solution concepts into concrete implementation plans.
- Review all Clockworks solutions, products and client projects alike, from an SE, DevOps and security lens, and raise architectural risk before a project hits trouble.
- Define and govern our technical standards and architectural guidelines, documented in architectural decision records, and lead technical due diligence on complex engagements.
- Build alignment around architectural decisions: bring engineers, clients and stakeholders along through clear, objective argumentation, keeping the end user and operational reality in view.
- Mentor senior and medior engineers, and stay current on the full SE landscape, from cloud and security to the role of AI coding agents in how we build.
Who we're looking for
This is a senior role by definition: not the next step after senior engineer, but a distinct profile. You have:
- 8+ years of software engineering experience, including several years designing and owning the architecture of systems that run in production.
- Deep, breadth-first knowledge of architecture patterns (microservices, event-driven, serverless), cloud-native architecture (Azure preferred), Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code such as Terraform or Pulumi, and the judgment to know which of these a specific problem actually needs.
- A solid grasp of security architecture (zero-trust, data protection, GDPR, ideally ISO 27001) and of API design, integration patterns and data platform architecture, especially with systems that were never designed with AI in mind.
- Strong programming skills in at least one modern language (most of our work is in Python) and the wish to keep using them: a substantial part of your week is building, and you want it that way.
- The ability to explain complex trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders, to hold your ground constructively when your view contradicts what a team has already committed to, and to know when to hold a standard and when to accept a compromise, with its cost made explicit.
It would be great if you also have experience architecting systems around machine learning or computer vision models (cloud and edge), with event streaming or high-volume data pipelines, with AI coding agents and an opinion on how they change the way teams build, or with working across several clients and codebases at a consultancy or agency. Fluent professional English is required; Dutch helps in client conversations.
Not ticking every box? If the hands-on part and the judgment are there, we would still like to hear from you.
Why us?
We offer:
- A seat across everything Clockworks builds: client systems in utilities, logistics and industry, our own products, and the platform underneath them.
- Architecture that has to hold up in the real world: computer vision on the edge, high-volume streams from cameras and sensors, and AI models running inside the operations of utilities and logistics companies. Nothing we build is a demo; everything goes live.
- A small, senior team of engineers with backgrounds in AI, computer science and applied sciences, where software and AI engineering sit in one room and what we design actually goes live.
- Responsibility that comes early and sits high: at a boutique like ours you are in the client conversations, the design decisions and the trade-offs from day one.
- The latest language models and coding agents as part of how we work, from first analysis to code, and the freedom to shape how the team uses them.
- A flat, informal company culture in the heart of Rotterdam, with competitive remuneration, flexible working conditions and a team that backs your professional ambitions.
Interested? Send us your CV and a short note on a system you designed that is still running, and why. Apply via our careers page or at [email protected].
We hire directly. Agency submissions are not accepted.
