Sofia Marini Software Architect
San Jose, CA • softarchitect@gmail.com • +1 4085-9999
Profile Summary
- Software Architect with 14 years of experience shaping large-scale SaaS platforms across creative SaaS, real-time collaboration, and event streaming, specializing in distributed systems design, evolutionary architecture, and platform-grade NFRs.
- Solid technical background across architectural patterns (microservices, event-driven), languages (Java, Go), cloud (AWS), data and messaging (PostgreSQL, Kafka), API styles (REST, gRPC), and diagrams (C4 model) with strong fundamentals in domain-driven design, ADR discipline, and trade-off thinking on every decision.
- Deep expertise in distributed system design, non-functional requirements engineering, evolutionary architecture, and security-by-design thinking, leveraging methodologies such as ADR-driven decision making and threat-modeling reviews to drive resilient, secure, and evolvable platforms.
- Engaged collaborator working cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, and Security leadership in design-review-driven engineering organizations, contributing to architecture review boards, executive trade-off forums, and post-incident retrospectives with a pragmatic, ownership-first mindset.
- Senior leader who shares technical excellence and fosters a culture of trade-off discipline and written-decision rigor through ADR reviews and design coaching, while leading architecture guild sessions and authoring widely adopted ADR and reference-design templates.
Technical Skills
- Languages:
- Java, Go, TypeScript, Python, Kotlin, SQL
- Architectural Patterns:
- Microservices, event-driven, CQRS/event sourcing, hexagonal, serverless, modular monolith, DDD
- Cloud & Platform:
- AWS (EKS, Lambda, SQS, S3, Aurora), GCP, Azure, Kubernetes, Terraform, service mesh (Istio)
- Data & Messaging:
- PostgreSQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB, Cassandra, Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Elasticsearch
- APIs & Contracts:
- REST, gRPC, GraphQL, OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, Protobuf, JSON Schema, gateway (Kong, Apigee)
- Security & Compliance:
- Threat modeling, OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS, zero trust, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS
- Documentation & Diagrams:
- C4 model, ADRs, sequence diagrams, PlantUML, Structurizr, Mermaid, Confluence, RFC process
- Methodology & Practices:
- Domain-driven design, event storming, fitness functions, architecture katas, design reviews, mentorship
Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.S. in Computer Science
Work Experience
Adobe
Principal Software Architect
- Set architectural vision and strategy for the Creative Cloud platform services serving 60M+ paid subscribers, shaping real-time collaboration, asset and rendering pipelines, and identity and entitlements with influence across 400+ engineers across 30 teams.
- Owned platform-wide system design built on event-driven microservices on Kafka, CQRS for read-heavy collaboration paths, and hexagonal boundaries around legacy cores, anchoring 80+ production services and sustaining 220k requests/second peak.
- Drove technology selection and evaluation via time-boxed proofs of concept against real workloads, weighted scorecards on cost, ops, and team skill, and ADR-tracked decisions with revisit triggers, leading 11 cross-team POCs and standardized 7 platform components org-wide.
- Codified non-functional requirements engineering across the platform through explicit SLO contracts per critical path, capacity headroom and back-pressure design, and multi-region active-active for tier-1 services, cutting tier-1 p99 latency from 640 ms to 180 ms and lifting availability to 99.99% on tier-1 services.
- Designed cross-system integration architecture with versioned data contracts on AsyncAPI, federated identity across product lines, and API gateway boundaries with deprecation policy, knitting together 14 product lines and 6 external partners at 3.2B events/day.
- Embedded security-by-design architecture via threat models on every greenfield design, OAuth2 + OIDC + mTLS service identity, and encryption-at-rest and key-rotation by default, retiring 240+ pre-prod findings closed and holding SOC 2 Type II and GDPR alignment maintained.
- Led stakeholder communication and influence using C4 diagrams calibrated by audience layer, trade-off memos for executive review, and design-review facilitation across product lines, reaching VP and C-level forums and aligned 6 directors on a multi-year platform roadmap.
Confluent
Senior Software Architect
- Built the architecture documentation system including Markdown ADRs in-repo with status lifecycle, C4 diagrams via Structurizr DSL, and sequence diagrams and reference designs in PlantUML, capturing 120+ ADRs authored or reviewed and adopted as the org-wide design baseline.
- Ran the technical leadership and mentorship program through weekly architecture guild and design-review forum, 1:1 mentorship for senior-to-staff candidates, and design-doc coaching with structured feedback, mentoring 18 senior engineers and supporting 9 promotions to staff or principal.
- Drove the evolutionary architecture program via strangler-fig migrations from legacy monolith, fitness functions wired into CI, and quarterly tech-debt budgets agreed with PMs, driving the tech-debt ratio from 34% to 11% across 22 incremental cutovers without rollback.
- Worked closely with Product, Security, and Platform Engineering teams across 4 streaming product lines to coordinate roadmap and architecture trade-offs, security and compliance gates, and hiring rubrics for senior+ engineers, authoring 14 platform RFCs that shaped the org's architecture standard and onboarding 7 architects and senior engineers.