Remote Solution Architect jobs

About the Solution Architect role

What the work looks like

• Lead discovery workshops with customer business and IT stakeholders to capture requirements and constraints.
• Produce architecture diagrams and design documents covering integrations, data flows, security and scalability.
• Evaluate build, buy and configuration options and recommend an approach with its tradeoffs and costs.
• Guide implementation teams through technical decisions and review their work against the design.
• Present the proposed solution to customer architects and executives and defend it under technical questioning.

What employers ask for

• Cloud architecture on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud
• Cloud architect certification, such as AWS Solutions Architect
• Integration patterns, APIs and data architecture
• Security, identity and networking fundamentals
• Architecture diagramming and technical documentation
• Workshop facilitation and executive presentation

Doing this job remotely

Design work, diagrams and reviews are done comfortably from a home office, and most customer workshops now run over video. Customer-facing architects still travel for major workshops and design sessions, and schedules follow the customer's time zone. Work for public sector customers may be limited to US citizens or require a clearance.

Where it comes from and where it leads

Solution architects typically have years behind them as software engineers, systems engineers, consultants or implementation leads. They move on to principal or chief architect, enterprise architect, practice leadership in services, or technical leadership in pre-sales.