Solution Architect

Manifest Solutions is currently seeking a Solution Architect for a position in Columbus, OH.

• Serves as the architecture lead and primary technical design authority for assigned projects and initiatives.
• Owns the end-to-end solution design from discovery through implementation and transition to operations.
• Facilitates architecture discovery, technical design workshops, and solution review sessions.
• Evaluates solution alternatives and recommends approaches based on business value, risk, cost, complexity, maintainability, and supportability.
• Ensures architectural decisions, dependencies, risks, assumptions, constraints, and exceptions are identified and communicated.
• Ensures delivered solutions can be effectively implemented, operated, maintained, and supported.
• Participates in business workshops and project meetings to identify stated and unstated technical requirements, dependencies, constraints, risks, and solution opportunities.
• Translates business processes, objectives, requirements, and decisions into solution components and technical requirements.
• Recognizes when business decisions create implications for integrations, data, security, environments, infrastructure, licensing, performance, support, or regulatory compliance.
• Asks probing questions, challenges incomplete assumptions, and identifies when additional technical specialists must be engaged.
• Explains technical options, tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations in language appropriate for business and technical audiences.
• Owns the development, maintenance, and approval coordination of Solution Design Documents for assigned initiatives.
• Produces architecture artifacts such as system context, application, integration, data flow, environment, deployment, and network diagrams.
• Documents design decisions, scope, assumptions, constraints, dependencies, risks, exceptions, unresolved items, and ownership.
• Maintains traceability between business requirements, non-functional requirements, architecture decisions, and solution components.
• Ensures designs contain sufficient detail to support implementation planning, security review, provisioning, testing, deployment, and operational transition.
• Updates the solution design when requirements, implementation decisions, or technical conditions change.
• Designs solutions involving new and existing applications, SaaS platforms, cloud services, on-premises systems, and third-party technologies.
• Defines application interactions, integration patterns, data exchanges, and dependencies across the end-to-end solution.
• Applies approved API, middleware, event-driven, managed file transfer, batch, and data integration patterns.
• Evaluates integration and interoperability needs across cloud, on-premises, and partner-hosted environments.
• Ensures application and integration designs align with approved enterprise standards, reference architectures, and target-state direction.
• Identifies opportunities to reuse existing capabilities, reduce unnecessary duplication, and support application rationalization objectives.
• Defines environment requirements for development, testing, quality assurance, user acceptance, training, production, and disaster recovery, as applicable.
• Identifies hosting, compute, storage, database, middleware, network, cloud service, and platform dependencies.
• Documents firewall rules, ports, protocols, DNS, certificates, proxies, load balancing, routing, allowlists, private connectivity, and other network requirements.
• Identifies service accounts, privileged access, user access, authentication, authorization, single sign-on, and identity lifecycle requirements.
• Defines monitoring, logging, alerting, backup, recovery, availability, performance, capacity, and resiliency requirements.
• Identifies provisioning lead times, sequencing, prerequisites, dependencies, and accountable teams.
• Validates technical readiness before build, testing, deployment, and production transition.
• Engages Cybersecurity early to identify applicable security architecture, risk, privacy, and compliance requirements.
• Documents trust boundaries, data classifications, authentication methods, access models, encryption, secrets management, logging, and security monitoring requirements.
• Ensures identified security findings, controls, and remediation requirements are reflected in the solution design.
• Coordinates resolution or formal acceptance of design-related security risks and exceptions through established governance processes.
• Ensures third-party connectivity and access are appropriately designed, reviewed, and documented.
• Leads technical discovery sessions with system integrators, managed service providers, software vendors, and internal technical teams.
• Establishes design expectations and the required level of technical detail for delivery partners.
• Reviews partner-produced architecture, configuration, deployment, integration, and technical design documentation.
• Identifies omissions, inconsistencies, unsupported assumptions, ownership gaps, and conflicts with enterprise standards.
• Challenges recommendations when alternatives may improve security, reliability, supportability, cost, or maintainability.
• Ensures partner designs are incorporated into and consistent with the overall Solution Design Document.
• Tracks open technical questions and drives them to resolution with accountable parties.
• Confirms post-implementation support responsibilities across internal teams, vendors, and service providers.
• Works with Enterprise Architects to align project solutions with technology strategies, target-state architectures, approved standards, and portfolio direction.
• Engages Infrastructure Architects on larger or more complex initiatives requiring specialized cloud, hosting, network, platform, resiliency, capacity, or infrastructure design.
• Incorporates contributions from Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Data, Integration, Application, and other domain specialists into one consistent end-to-end solution.
• Coordinates resolution of cross-domain design conflicts, gaps, dependencies, and decisions.
• Escalates decisions requiring enterprise direction, policy exceptions, or changes to established standards.
• Prepares solution materials for architecture governance review and coordinates required approvals.
• Retains accountability for the completeness and consistency of the overall project solution design. Operational Readiness and Transition
• Defines solution support requirements, ownership boundaries, escalation paths, and operational dependencies.
• Ensures monitoring, alerting, logging, backup, recovery, disaster recovery, service continuity, and support procedures are addressed.
• Partners with application support, infrastructure, service management, and operations teams to prepare for production support.
• Verifies that technical documentation and knowledge-transfer requirements are completed before operational handoff.
• Supports implementation, testing, cutover, stabilization, and resolution of design-related issues.
• Ensures appropriate stakeholders define, validate, and document non-functional requirements, including: Availability, resiliency, scalability, performance, and capacity, Cybersecurity, privacy, identity, and access • Maintainability, observability, monitoring, and supportability, Backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and service continuity, Data retention, records management, and regulatory obligations, Accessibility, interoperability, and user experience, Deployment, release, and environment management
• Solution Design Documents
• System context and end-to-end solution architecture diagrams
• Application, integration, data flow, environment, deployment, and network diagrams
• Architecture decisions, assumptions, constraints, dependencies, risks, and exception documentation
• Environment and technical readiness requirements
• Non-functional requirements and operational readiness inputs
• Technical design review findings and disposition of open issues
• Architecture governance review materials and approval coordination
• Implementation, cutover, and operational transition recommendations
• Complete, accurate, and implementation-ready Solution Design Documents.
• Technical requirements and dependencies identified early enough to prevent avoidable delivery delays.
• Clear architecture decisions, risks, assumptions, exceptions, ownership, and approval status.
• Consistent incorporation of application, integration, infrastructure, network, cybersecurity, data, and operational requirements.
• Partner and provider technical designs reviewed for completeness and alignment.
• Solutions aligned with enterprise standards and approved target-state direction.
• Fewer design-related issues discovered during testing, deployment, and production transition.
• Effective transition of implemented solutions to accountable support and operations teams.
• Architecture artifacts maintained through implementation and stored in the appropriate repositories.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience.
• Minimum eight years of Information Technology experience with emphasis in solution architecture, application architecture, software engineering, systems integration, infrastructure, or technical delivery.
• Demonstrated experience authoring comprehensive Solution Design Documents and end-to-end architecture diagrams.
• Experience designing solutions that span cloud, SaaS, on-premises, and third-party environments.
• Experience with application integration technologies, APIs, middleware, event-driven architectures, managed file transfer, and data exchange patterns.
• Working knowledge of networking concepts, including firewalls, DNS, routing, proxies, ports, protocols, certificates, load balancing, and private connectivity.
• Experience defining application environments, infrastructure dependencies, deployment requirements, and operational support needs.
• Experience reviewing technical designs produced by system integrators, managed service providers, and software vendors.
• Experience identifying non-functional requirements and translating them into actionable solution designs.
• Experience coordinating contributions from infrastructure, cybersecurity, data, integration, application, and operations specialists.
• Ability to identify relevant technical requirements and risks from business-focused discussions.
• Understanding of cybersecurity principles, secure solution design, identity and access management, and data protection.
• Strong communication, facilitation, influence, negotiation, critical thinking, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to challenge incomplete designs, resolve ambiguity, and drive cross-functional technical decisions to closure.
• Ability to manage multiple assignments and self-prioritize work effectively.

Preferred Additional Qualifications

• Experience with application portfolio management, application rationalization, modernization, or cloud migration.
• Experience with Azure Integration Services, MuleSoft, Boomi, Informatica, or comparable integration platforms.
• Experience with microservices, container platforms, and modern cloud-native architectures.
• Experience applying Agile, DevOps, and IT service management practices.
• Experience supporting large-scale technology transformation programs.
• Experience in utility industry systems and business processes.
• Experience with architecture repositories and diagramming tools.
• TOGAF, Azure Architecture, AWS Architecture, SAP Architecture, CISSP, or related architecture certifications.