Solutions Architect Job Descriptions, Average Salary, Interview Questions

Overview

The Solutions Architect manages large teams who are developing high-level frameworks that align an organization’s IT infrastructure with business processes/data to improve the efficiency and productivity of business operations.

The person in this role will be responsible for envisioning and developing new digital products. The person will execute day-to-day product development activities across design, development, stakeholder communication, technology vendor management, and delivery.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborating with product development teams to provide a high-level vision of enterprise solutions and development initiatives
• Understanding and communicating the Enterprise strategy to Application, Data, and Solutions Architects along with other non-technical stakeholders
• Collecting, generating, and analyzing innovative ideas and technologies to use across the business
• Provide strategy to meet Audit Approach Manual (AAM) 22852 Certification for all products and solutions in Audit and Assurance portfolio.
• Prepares large enterprise system development cost estimates, budgets, and schedules
• Participating in the strategy for building and maintaining the development platform along with modeling, design, and coding practices
• Monitors architecture and design creation process and reviews the project artifacts
• Promoting Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment processes and DevOps capabilities
• Evaluate results within business unit to determine if organizational objectives are being met

Required qualifications:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business Administration, or related discipline. While an advanced degree is preferred, the value is placed on the extent of the relevant experience and accomplishments
• 10+ years Industry experience, in architecture and delivery of software products and solutions
• 3+ years of experience designing and implementing Azure cloud environments, architectures, and operational models. Including developing cloud-ready solutions
• 2+ years of experience in planning, analyzing, designing, architecting, and supporting Audit and Assurance products and solutions
• 5+ years in a data engineering role with demonstrable experience with Cognitive computing, data integration, data mining, Natural Language Processing, Hadoop platforms, and automating machine learning components
• 3+ years of experience within a Sr Architecture role within large Scaled Agile program
• One or more programming languages (C#, Python); One or more databases (SQL, No SQL), Web front end technologies (Angular, ReactJS etc.), .NET Application frameworks, Business Intelligence solutions (Power BI), Enterprise integration patterns (MOM, SOA etc.), Machine learning & AI, Big Data analytics, Azure cloud provider, Container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes etc.)
• Work is non-standardized and widely varied, involving many complex and significant variables including significant time spent planning, evaluating complex solutions and issues, and negotiating outcomes. Strong analytic ability and inductive thinking are frequently required to devise new approaches to situations where previously accepted solutions have proven inadequate. Supervision typically consists of periodic coaching, advice, and feedback. Management of a team within a business line
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future

Preferred qualifications:

• Knowledge about PCAOB regulations & standards, accounting standards like US GAAP & IFRS is a plus
• Certified Cloud Solution Architect by one or more cloud providers (Azure, AWS, GCP) preferable

ABC Company is looking for a Senior Solutions Architect in (City, State) who is passionate about helping our customers build infrastructures and applications at scale. Our solutions architects are experienced technologists with technical breadth and depth coupled with strong interpersonal skills. As a solutions architect, you will work directly with some of our largest and fastest growing customers to enable innovation through continuous deployment of cloud native technology stacks and advanced cloud solutions.

Our solutions architects build architectures and provide prescriptive guidance across application architecture, networking, storage, operating systems, virtualization, and Big Data. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of large scale distributed computing solutions, and experience leading deep architecture discussions, and hands on experience. You will partner with Sales, Professional Services, and other ABC Company teams to craft highly scalable, flexible and resilient cloud architectures that address customer business problems and accelerate the adoption of our services.

Roles and responsibilities

• Ensure customer success in designing, building and migrating applications, software, and services on the ABC Company platform
• Lead deep architectural discussions and design exercises to create world-class solutions built on ABC Company while ensuring solutions are designed for successful deployment in the cloud
• Be an ABC Company evangelist. Educate customers of all sizes on the value proposition of ABC Company.
• Author or otherwise contribute to ABC Company customer-facing publications such as whitepapers, blogs, and proof of concepts
• In partnership with the sales team, formulate, and execute a sales strategy to exceed revenue objectives through the adoption of ABC Company
• Build deep relationships with senior technical individuals within customers to enable them to be cloud advocates
• Capture and share best-practice knowledge amongst the ABC Company solutions architect community

Basic qualifications

• 2+ years of design, implementation, or consulting experience in applications or infrastructures
• 4+ years within specific technology domain areas (e.g. software development, cloud computing, systems engineering, infrastructure, security, networking, data, and analytics)
• 7-10+ years design, implementation, or consulting experience with distributed applications
• 5+ years of experience in application, infrastructure, database, and networking architectures
• Experience working with external customers (pre-sales, consulting, technology/software sales)
• Technical degree required; Computer Science or Math background desired

Preferred qualifications

• Hands on working knowledge of software development tools and methodologies
• Experience architecting/operating solutions build on ABC Company
• Experience migrating or transforming legacy customer solutions to the cloud
• Communication and presentation skills with a high degree of comfort speaking with executives, IT Management, and developers
• Demonstrated ability to adapt to new technologies and learn quickly
• Willingness to travel up to 20%

Job summary

• Under limited guidance, works at the business unit level developing the end-to-end solution architecture for significant initiatives in partnership with key business and IT stakeholders
• Expose current state architecture and identify options for future state architecture
• Works closely with business and IT stakeholders creating solutions that balance competing interests and concerns
• Develop plans for and facilitate the migration from current to selected future state by providing technical leadership to multiple initiatives
• Mentor those in less senior positions

Job specific information

• This position is for a Software Architect on the Global Clearance Solutions team
• The ideal candidate will have experience in software architecture for distributed enterprise systems with an emphasis on Cloud Native design utilizing Micro Services
• The candidate should be experienced in implementing IT architectural visions by collaborating among other architects across the enterprise
• Candidate will need the ability to travel (approximately 30%) for domestic and international meetings and sometimes with short notice

Essential duties/responsibilities

• Accountable for delivering high-value architecture and design artifacts for all solutions in the Clearance domain area
• Collaborate with Enterprise and Solution Architects and leadership to lead domain visioning roadmaps, ensuring that they align with the strategic direction
• Responsible for architectural solutions to ensure Operational Excellence across all systems
• Collaborate with Advisors and Scrum Teams to determine solutions and provide mentorship
• Provide support, guidance, and oversight with Advisors and Scrum Teams for PHLD, detailed design, and program integration during implementation activities
• Consult and guide the organization in the architectural strategies and the Renewal modernization efforts
• Develop architecture design for Renewal based architecture in the global Clearance domain space
• Combine strategic and tactical visions. Assist in facilitation of the tactical solution while ensuring alignment with IT strategy
• Architect and lead initiatives for Non-Functional Requirements across organization

Skillsets & experience required

• Experience with modern server technology stacks such as Java, Angular, Springboot, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry
• Proven history of Software Architectural Design in a distributed environment using Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) methodologies
• Demonstrated history of architecting and implementing Micro-services-based systems and patterns is preferred
• Experience working with management and collaborating among cross-organization teams
• Excellent knowledge in database design concepts and SQL
• Implementation experience in Spring boot and Pivotal Cloud Foundry
• Demonstrated knowledge of next-gen UI designs, coding, testing of web-based applications using Angular
• Proven ability to rapidly deliver artifacts, prototypes and proof-of-concept work to validate a proposed architectural approach
• Experience driving Quality Driven Management (QDM) practices and leading Quality Action Teams
• Demonstrated history of architecting and implementing Micro-services-based systems and patterns is preferred
• Knowledge of Clearance systems, customs regulations, and processes is a plus
• SPARX modeling experience is a plus
• TOGAF certification is a plus

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, information Systems, business, and/or equivalent formal training or work experience
• Five (5) years equivalent work experience in information technology or engineering environment
• A related advanced degree may offset the related experience requirement
• Ability to lead, working collaboratively and creatively with business and IT stakeholders
• Strong human relation and communication skills