Technical Architect · Brooklyn, NY · Green Card

Small parts that compose into anything.

Twenty-six years designing platforms where the primitives do the work. I build the metadata layers, languages and composition engines that let product teams ship without writing platform code — and the internationalization underneath that makes it correct everywhere it lands. Founding architect on two 0→1 platforms; teams led across the UK, US and India.

Open to architect and principal engineering roles

Shipping since1998

Accounting, payroll, CRM, HCM, PaaS

Locales handled283

Culturally-aware formatting in production

Markets supported140

Countries served by platforms I architected

Named inventor1 patent

Composition of applications at runtime

What I do

Five things I've done repeatedly, at enterprise scale, and would do again.

Core discipline

Metadata platforms & domain-specific languages

Designing the notation a platform is configured in, and the compiler and resolution rules behind it: unifying divergent type systems under one DSL, layering algorithms that merge defaults, localizations and per-client customization deterministically, and extensibility models that keep customized deployments upgradeable rather than forked.

DSL design
Compilers
Type systems
Multi-tenancy
Extensibility

Specialism

Internationalization & localization at scale

The part most teams discover too late. Culturally-aware formatting across hundreds of regions, translatable metadata and code resources, translation pipelines product teams can run themselves, and the workshops and reference material that get a whole engineering org using them correctly instead of hard-coding assumptions.

i18n
l10n
Unicode
Translation tooling
Enablement

Foundations

Distributed systems & cloud

Service decomposition, caching and search performance, event-driven and serverless designs, containerized delivery and the CI/CD to support it.

Node.js
AWS
Docker
Kubernetes

Leadership

Growing teams and architects

Leading distributed teams across three countries, setting architectural direction and roadmap, running enablement workshops, and mentoring engineers into ownership.

Architecture
Mentoring
Enablement
Roadmap

Track record

0 → 1, in regulated domains

Founding architect twice over, including a statutory payroll product filing directly with HMRC. Comfortable where correctness is legally non-negotiable.

Greenfield
Compliance
Data modelling

Projects - WORK IN PROGRESS

Code I've published, and write-ups of problems I've solved.

Case study

[ Title — the metadata layering problem ]

A write-up of the pattern, not the product: how a platform resolves defaults, tenant overrides and locale variants into one deterministic result, and what breaks when the merge order isn't total.

Architecture
l10n
Original diagrams

Case study

[ Title — designing for 283 locales ]

What "culturally aware" actually costs, the assumptions engineers encode without noticing, and how to build a formatting layer teams can't misuse.

i18n
l10n
Original diagrams

Repository

paullevitt.dev

This site. Vanilla HTML, CSS and JavaScript, Parcel for the build, zero runtime dependencies, deployed to Cloudflare Pages.

JavaScript
Modern CSS
Parcel

Repository

[ Repo name ]

One sentence on the problem it solves, one on the interesting decision inside it. Reviewers care about the second sentence.

TypeScript

Profile

github.com/PJLevitt1977

Everything else.

All repositories →

Stack

Highlighted items are where I'm deepest — the rest I've shipped with and can pick back up quickly.

Languages

Node.js
TypeScript
JavaScript
SQL
C#
VB.NET
Python
Go
Java
Embedded C#

Interface

JavaScript
React
Angular
HTML
Web Components
Micro-frontend
Modern CSS
ASP.net
Dojo
jQuery

Platform & cloud

Docker
Redis
SQS
DynamoDB
S3
Postgres
SQL Server
AWS
Lambda
Kinesis
Kubernetes
SOLR
MongoDb

Practice

CI/CD
GitHub
Jenkins
Jira
Confluence
Technical writing

Experience

Lifion by ADPNew York, NY
2018 — 2024

Technical Architect

Architectural direction and roadmap for a global no-code HCM platform, leading multiple teams and cross-functional initiatives. Focus on platform internationalization, search and authentication performance, conversational interfaces, and micro-frontend integration across a large product portfolio.

Node.js
i18n
l10n
TypeScript
JavaScript
React
Angular
Micro-frontend
Docker
Redis
SQS
DynamoDB
S3
Postgres
AWS
Lambda
Kinesis
Kubernetes
SOLR
CI/CD
GitHub
Jenkins
Jira
Confluence
Distributed Systems
Service Oriented Architecture
Technical writing

Lifion by ADPBristol, UK
2010 — 2017

Technical Architect & Co-founder

Founding technical architect, scaling the platform and its engineering teams across the UK, US and India. Owned the metadata architecture, the internationalization foundations, and the extensibility model. Member of the enterprise architecture committee contributing to company-wide initiatives.

Node.js
C#
VB.net
i18n
l10n
JavaScript
MongoDb
SQL Server
React
Docker
Redis
CI/CD
Stash
Jenkins
Jira
Confluence
Technical writing

Vizual Business ToolsSomerset, UK
2007 — 2010

Software Engineer, Core Architecture

Low-code platform engineering and HCM product features built on top of it, including extensible workflow design and processing, and automated documentation generation from product metadata.

C#
VB.net
JavaScript
SQL Server
ASP.net
CI/CD
Jenkins
TFS
Sharepoint
Technical writing

Benchmark SoftwareSomerset, UK
1998 — 2007

Research & Development Director

Joined as a placement student in the third year of a sandwich degree and was appointed to the board by the end of it, continuing full-time through my final year. Responsible for accounting, payroll, CRM and bespoke client solutions across the UK and Ireland — including taking both a statutory HMRC-filing payroll product and a CRM from zero to release, and working with clients directly from requirements through implementation.

C#
VB.net
VB6
MS Access
Embedded C#

Recognition & education

Patent: Named inventor, US 10,558,436 B2 — Dynamically composing products using capsules; Granted February 2020 · Assigned to ADP, Inc. · Public record
Degree: BSc Software Engineering — sandwich course; University of the West of England, Bristol · 2000 · Industry placement completed as a board director
Community: Parent Liaison, PS-10 Extended Day Executive Board; Brooklyn, NY · 2025 — present

Looking for an architect who thinks in primitives?

Happy to talk about platform architecture, metadata-driven design, or getting internationalization right before it becomes expensive. Based in Brooklyn, authorized to work in the US without sponsorship.

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