Lead Solutions Architect (Chicago)

We are partnering with a leading enterprise financial services organization that is investing heavily in the modernization, scalability, and resilience of its technology landscape. As part of this transformation, they are seeking a Lead Solution Architect to help define future-state architecture across complex business-critical platforms, driving innovation and engineering excellence across the enterprise.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of enterprise-scale technology solutions across multiple application and infrastructure domains.
• Establish architectural direction for modern application ecosystems leveraging distributed services, real-time data exchange, and cloud-native technologies.
• Provide technical leadership throughout the full lifecycle of strategic initiatives, from concept and design through implementation and optimization.
• Create scalable integration strategies connecting applications, data platforms, and operational systems.
• Drive architectural decisions supporting high-volume, mission-critical business services.
• Partner with engineering and platform teams to ensure systems are designed for reliability, performance, security, and operational efficiency.
• Design resilient deployment strategies across hybrid and cloud environments using containerized technologies.
• Review solution designs and provide guidance on development standards, engineering practices, and technology selection.
• Develop target-state architecture roadmaps aligned to business priorities and long-term technology objectives.
• Identify architectural risks and recommend approaches to improve scalability, maintainability, and operational resilience.
• Support modernization efforts involving legacy applications, cloud adoption, and platform transformation initiatives.
• Work closely with senior stakeholders to translate business objectives into practical technology solutions.
• Champion best practices related to software architecture, integration patterns, and enterprise technology governance.
• Provide mentorship and technical leadership to development, engineering, and architecture teams.

Technical Skills

• Extensive experience designing enterprise applications and distributed platforms within complex environments.
• Strong background building solutions based on asynchronous communication, event processing, and service-oriented architectures.
• Expertise with messaging and streaming technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar platforms.
• Experience architecting and deploying cloud-native solutions across AWS and container orchestration platforms.
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes design principles, scalability models, and high-availability architectures.
• Hands-on software development background in Java, Python, C#, or comparable object-oriented technologies.
• Experience delivering highly available systems supporting demanding performance and throughput requirements.
• Knowledge of modern software architecture methodologies including domain-driven design and microservices.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD practices, automation frameworks, and infrastructure provisioning technologies.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code solutions such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or equivalent tooling.
• Knowledge of authentication, authorization, and enterprise identity management frameworks.
• Experience designing solutions across data processing, analytics, integration, and platform services.
• Familiarity with modern data ecosystems, data platforms, and large-scale information management strategies.
• Strong understanding of resiliency, disaster recovery, observability, and operational best practices.
• Excellent communication skills with an ability to influence both technical teams and executive stakeholders.
• Previous experience within financial services or other highly regulated environments would be advantageous.