Senior Solution Architect

Senior Solution Architect

Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Type: Contract-to-Hire (6+ Months, Likely Full-Time)
Work Model: Onsite
Interview Process: Virtual

About the Role

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Solution Architect to help enterprise clients accelerate digital transformation through modern, scalable, and cloud-native technology solutions. In this role, you will combine strategic thinking with hands-on technical leadership to design, guide, and deliver enterprise-grade architectures that solve complex business challenges.

You will work closely with business stakeholders, engineering teams, and technology leaders to define solution strategies, modernize applications, and establish architecture standards that drive innovation, operational excellence, and long-term business value.

What You'll Do

Design and Deliver Enterprise Solutions

• Architect secure, scalable, resilient, and cloud-native applications for mission-critical business initiatives.
• Translate business objectives and technical requirements into end-to-end solution architectures.
• Create architecture blueprints, technical roadmaps, reference architectures, and integration strategies.
• Design modern distributed systems using microservices, event-driven architectures, APIs, messaging frameworks, and AI-powered services.
• Lead application modernization, cloud migration, and platform transformation initiatives.

Drive Technical Leadership

• Partner with engineering teams to guide implementation and ensure architectural integrity.
• Review technical designs, identify risks, and resolve complex technical challenges.
• Establish architectural standards, reusable patterns, governance frameworks, and engineering best practices.
• Mentor developers, architects, and technical leaders across multiple teams.
• Promote scalability, security, observability, maintainability, and automation throughout the software development lifecycle.

Partner with Business and Executive Stakeholders

• Build trusted relationships with business leaders, product owners, and executive stakeholders.
• Align technology investments and architecture decisions with strategic business goals.
• Support technology evaluations, modernization assessments, and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analyses.
• Contribute to enterprise planning, technology strategy, and innovation initiatives.
• Provide guidance on emerging technologies, cloud platforms, and AI-driven opportunities.

Support Enterprise Architecture and Governance

• Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture teams to align solutions with long-term technology strategy.
• Participate in Architecture Review Boards (ARBs) and governance processes.
• Evaluate technical debt, technology risks, and modernization opportunities.
• Develop future-state technology roadmaps and transformation strategies.
• Ensure architecture documentation and compliance with enterprise standards.

Champion Innovation

• Drive adoption of AI, automation, DevSecOps, and cloud-native engineering practices.
• Explore emerging technologies and their business applications.
• Improve engineering productivity through intelligent automation and AI-assisted development.
• Foster a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and technical excellence.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, solution architecture, or enterprise application development.
• Experience progressing from senior engineering roles into architecture and technical leadership positions.
• Proven experience designing enterprise-scale, cloud-native applications.
• Experience leading architecture decisions across multiple concurrent initiatives.
• Experience collaborating with executive stakeholders and cross-functional technical teams.

Preferred Technical Qualifications

Programming

• Java
• Python
• Modern object-oriented programming languages

Cloud Platforms

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Architecture & Design

• Microservices architecture
• Event-driven systems
• Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
• API-first architecture
• Enterprise integration patterns
• Distributed systems

Integration Technologies

• REST APIs
• JSON and XML
• API Management platforms
• Enterprise messaging systems
• Apache Kafka or similar event-streaming platforms

DevOps & Cloud Engineering

• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation, or equivalent)
• CI/CD pipelines
• Git
• Azure DevOps
• GitHub

Data Technologies

• SQL
• Relational databases
• Data modeling
• Query performance optimization

Operating Systems

• Linux
• Shell scripting

AI & Emerging Technologies

• Generative AI
• Agentic AI
• AI-assisted software development
• Intelligent automation

Nice to Have

• TOGAF or equivalent Enterprise Architecture framework experience.
• Cloud migration and modernization expertise.
• API Management platforms such as Apigee, Kong, MuleSoft, or Azure API Management.
• Kafka, Event Hubs, or similar event-streaming technologies.
• Security architecture, IAM, and DevSecOps experience.
• Observability platforms such as Splunk, Dynatrace, Datadog, Grafana, or Prometheus.
• Experience in regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, or government.
• Agile, Scrum, and SAFe environments.
• Leadership experience across geographically distributed engineering teams.