Forward Deployed Solution Architect

Title: Forward Deployed Solutions Architect
Duration: 6+ months
Location: Remote
Mission. Own the technical solution end-to-end: decide *where* trust is enforced in each ecosystem, write the architecture decision records, design the demos, and be the technical face to merchants and partners (Anthropic, Google/UCP, Cloudflare, Visa, wallet vendors).
What you will do in the first 90 days
· Produce the hook-point inventory and runtime comparison for Anthropic's blueprint (Messages API vs Agent SDK vs Managed Agents) and author two ADRs: primary runtime target and integration architecture.
· Design the reference integration: session-start identity binding, backend-level decisioning (approve / step-up / deny) with fail-open/closed policy per hook, and the gateway verifier for hosted agents — so the merchant changes zero prompt bytes and zero gate code.
· Design loyalty-without-login on UCP (namespaced signal with a loyalty block, member pricing and reserved inventory in the checkout, step-up via identity linking) and on a protocol-agnostic header/middleware rail.
· Shape the Verifiable Credential POC: issuer, holder wallet, presentation flow, merchant verifier, and the privacy properties it must demonstrate.
· Write the threat model for each integration, the merchant integration guides, and the demo runbooks with fallbacks. Run the demos.
Must have
· 8+ years in solutions or software architecture with hands-on code; recent (2025–26) production work on LLM agent systems with tool use.
· Working knowledge of Anthropic's Claude platform (Messages API tool use, prompt caching, Agent SDK, Managed Agents) and the Model Context Protocol, including authenticated MCP servers.
· Identity and payments architecture: OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, JWT/JWKS, HTTP message signatures, PCI-adjacent checkout flows; familiarity with agentic-commerce protocols (UCP, OpenAI ACP, AP2) and KYA concepts.
· Threat-modelling and privacy-by-design experience; can write an ADR that engineers actually follow and a sequence diagram a partner can read.
· Consulting-grade communication: has led technical working sessions with external engineering teams and translated between executives and builders.
Nice to have
Verifiable Credentials (W3C VC 2.0, OID4VCI/OID4VP, SD-JWT or BBS+); fraud/risk decisioning platforms; CDN/edge architectures (Cloudflare Workers); prior forward-deployed or FDE role.
Deliverables you own. ADRs · hook-point inventory · threat models · reference architecture diagrams · integration guides · demo runbooks · partner technical briefings

Work arrangement
Yes