Last updated 10 October 2026

Head of Technology and Architecture

One opening.

Apply for this role. Reading the page is not applying. The application is the only way to be considered, and it is the whole first step.

Why this role exists

We need someone to oversee these items:

• Every piece of the firm's code lives in one protected place, and nobody keeps a copy anywhere else.
• Client information never reaches a system we do not control.
• Every request the firm's software makes goes to the cheapest model that can answer it well.
• The systems improve on their own, rather than somebody editing them by hand every week.
• A new person can run any part of the technology from what is written down.

Logistics

• Company stage: Small, growing accounting firm with a lean leadership bench.
• Start: Agreed with you before either of us signs.
• Location: Remote. Romania or elsewhere in Eastern Europe.
• Reports to: the Head of Operations, People and Process.
• Direct reports: None today. You build the engineering team as the firm grows.
• Video: On for every team call.
• Stability standard: we want someone who plans to stay with the same company for at least three years.
• This is not a work when you want role. We all work at the same time, in different places.
• Contract: Contractor. The standard terms show every one of them on its own.

Work hours

Our clients are in the United States, so this role runs on US Central time. That is not negotiable. Read this part twice before you apply.

• Full time is 7 am to 4 pm Austin time.
• That is 2 pm to 11 pm in Warsaw, Belgrade, and Skopje.
• Monday through Friday, year round.

Full time here

You are passionate about your work. Full time here means 8 to 10 hours a day, because you want to see things through to finished.

Who we want here

• Women. We want more of them here.
• Autistic people. The rules are written down. Nobody has to read a room.
• Direct communicators.
• People who think in systems. When something breaks, they look for what caused it instead of fixing only the part they can see.
• People who are optimistic about the outcome when they are under stress or facing a challenge.
• People who move fast and get a lot done.
• People who are all in.
• People who want the company to grow and are excited to help make that happen.
• People who, when they are stressed, notice what they are feeling, then say what they need and write it down. Stopping at the feeling, with nothing written down, is not a fit here.

Who should not apply

This is not the role for you if you:

1. Wait for somebody else to pick a thing up, or need the work handed to you tidy and already decided.
2. Report a problem and stop there.
3. Try somebody once, get no answer, and give up.
4. Go quiet when something needs raising, or find telling the truth consistently hard.
5. Read hidden meanings and office politics instead of the plain words.
6. Overstate what you can do, or are different before you are hired and after.
7. Have changed jobs every year or two, or want short projects and a work whenever schedule.

Who this role is for

1. You have built something that ran without you, and somebody else took it over from what you wrote down.
2. When you find a problem, you see what it is connected to ahead of it, behind it and beside it, and you find out why it happened so it does not happen again.
3. You reach for the simple version anybody can follow rather than the clever version only you can run.
4. You have run open source models on your own hardware, not only called somebody else's.
5. You build automations for yourself without being asked.
6. You read a bill for a system you built and change the system when the number is wrong.
7. You are a player and a coach: at first you are the department, and as we grow you hire a team to support you.
8. You get bored when you are paid to do nothing.
9. You plan to be in this role for three years.

The technology you need to work here

The setup is the same for every role here. The technology you need to work here lists the computer, the internet, the power backup, the audio and the workspace.

How your results are measured

• Every part of the firm's technology can be run by somebody else from what is written down.
• The cost per request goes down quarter on quarter, and you can show which change did it.
• No client information has reached a system outside our control.
• Nothing the firm depends on lives only in your head.
• Final KPIs are agreed after you are hired.

Role summary

• You own the firm's code, where it lives, and who can reach it.
• You own how the firm's software chooses which model answers a request, and what that costs.
• You own the systems that run without a person editing them.
• You start as the whole department and build the team as the firm grows from a handful of people toward fifty.

What you own

Where the code lives and who reaches it

• One protected repository holds every piece of the firm's code. Nobody keeps a second copy.
• Personal information is protected before it reaches any system, using tools that do it the same way every time rather than asking a model to do it.
• Access is given by role and removed the day somebody leaves.

Which model answers a request

• Our own interface routes each request to the lowest cost model that can answer it well, priced in real time.
• The routing is a rule anybody can read, not a preference you hold.
• You can say what the firm spends on this, and what changed it.

What never leaves

• Open source models run on our own servers for the work that must not reach an outside company.
• You say plainly which work that is, and why.

Systems that improve themselves

• Updates, routing changes and pipeline improvements happen on their own rather than by hand.
• A change somebody makes by hand every week is a change that should have been built once.

Your own time entries

• Name the client or the work, and what came out of it, on every entry.
• Five minute increments.
• Do not use increments smaller than five minutes.
• Only logged time counts as work for the firm.

What this role does not do

• Client work. Bookkeeping, tax returns, and month end close sit with the delivery team.
• Deciding who joins the firm and who leaves.
• Approving a payment.
• Setting prices.

How SMB Numbers works

We move fast, and we do not do chaos. We do consistency. We are becoming a firm that runs on systems thinking.

How we work together

• We work at the same hours most of the time, and some of the work is done asynchronously. You will not always have somebody online to ask, so you write things down and you keep going.
• Written, asynchronous communication is modeled as part of the company's culture. Things are read in writing before a live call is requested, and writing is used to prevent the need for calls.
• Trust through Truth. If you do not tell the truth, we do not trust you.
• We are a low context company. Direct talk is how trust gets built here. Vague, high context, or indirect language erodes trust.
• Tell the truth early. If something is late, stuck, or going wrong, say it early and clearly.
• Be proactive.
• Keep records clean enough that someone else can step in, so you can take time off.
• Protect client information and handle sensitive material carefully.
• Track your time correctly and on time.
• When you see a repeat problem, fix the system.

Software we use

• Canopy, for the client record, calls logged against it, and time.
• A hosted remote desktop, which is how you reach our systems.
• Google Workspace, for mail, chat, and documents.
• Our internal site, for the SOPs and daily priorities.
• Your own sandbox, which is your own copy of the internal site. You change a page there, check it works, and send it for approval.
• Zoom phone

What we need from you

• You have designed a system somebody else now runs, and you can point at it.
• You have run open source models on hardware you controlled.
• You have built something that chooses between services on cost, and you know what it saved.
• You have worked with people in more than one country and more than one time zone.
• All firm work happens in our software. Your own tools stay out of it, with no exceptions.

Pay

How pay works here. The parts, how each one grows, the coverage bonus and sales commission.

Career growth

• Tell us what you want over the next three years. We will help.
• You book a career conversation with your manager every quarter. It's your meeting to run, and it's where we plan what you learn next.
• The firm is going from a handful of people toward fifty. The systems you build now are the ones a much larger team runs on.

Every step of our process, in order

Every step of our process, in order. Read it before you apply, so you know what is coming and when.

How to apply

Fill in the application. It is the whole first step.

It asks for a web address for a short video recording answering both of these questions. Put the video anywhere we can open without an account, and paste the address into the application.

1. What do you do when you get a task/project you do not understand?
2. From a logistics standpoint, when is the earliest that you could start full time if you were to be accepted?

Apply now. If you have read this far and it sounds like you, send it. We read every one.

Tax and accounting career levels, the levels used across the firm.