Solutions Architect

Job Description

Job Description

The Solution Architect is responsible for evaluating stakeholder requirements, business objectives, operational needs, enterprise capabilities, architectural constraints, and technical dependencies to formulate practical, scalable, secure, and supportable solution recommendations. The role serves as the primary bridge among requirements analysis, enterprise architecture, platform architecture, engineering organizations, and business stakeholders by transforming mission and business needs into actionable solution approaches.

The Solution Architect assesses current-state capabilities, identifies functional and technical gaps, evaluates alternatives, and develops recommendations that balance business value, implementation complexity, operational impacts, organizational readiness, risk, cost, and long-term sustainability. The role helps organizations determine not only what is being requested, but whether existing enterprise capabilities can satisfy the need, what gaps must be addressed, and what solution approach provides the most effective path forward.

Working closely with Enterprise Architects, Platform Architects, Platform SMEs, engineering teams, cybersecurity organizations, operations personnel, service owners, and business stakeholders, the Solution Architect supports working groups, governance bodies, architectural reviews, and investment discussions by providing objective analysis and solution recommendations grounded in both business priorities and technical realities.

Success is measured by the organization's ability to make informed decisions, address capability gaps, leverage existing investments, and implement solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes while minimizing unnecessary complexity, duplication, risk, and technical debt.

Requirements

Responsibilities:

• Analyze business, mission, operational, technical, security, compliance, and stakeholder requirements.
• Facilitate discussions with stakeholders to clarify objectives, constraints, assumptions, priorities, and expected outcomes.
• Evaluate completeness, feasibility, and implementation implications of proposed requirements.
• Translate business needs into actionable solution requirements and architectural considerations.

Capability Assessment and Gap Analysis

• Assess current-state business, application, data, platform, infrastructure, and operational capabilities.
• Identify capability gaps, process deficiencies, technology limitations, organizational constraints, and modernization opportunities.
• Determine whether existing enterprise capabilities can satisfy stakeholder requirements.
• Document findings and develop recommendations for addressing identified gaps and deficiencies.

Solution Formulation and Alternative Analysis

• Develop solution concepts and candidate approaches that address identified business needs and capability gaps.
• Evaluate multiple alternatives and analyze associated benefits, risks, dependencies, implementation complexity, operational impacts, and costs.
• Facilitate analysis of alternatives, trade studies, and decision-support activities.
• Recommend solution approaches that balance mission value, technical feasibility, organizational readiness, and long-term sustainability.

Recommendation Development and Decision Support

• Develop decision-ready recommendations supported by objective analysis and documented rationale.
• Clearly communicate benefits, tradeoffs, constraints, risks, assumptions, and implementation considerations.
• Support working groups, review boards, architecture governance processes, and executive decision forums.
• Assist leadership in understanding the implications of competing solution approaches before committing resources.

Architecture and Platform Collaboration

• Collaborate with Enterprise Architects to validate enterprise alignment and capability impacts.
• Work with Platform Architects and Platform SMEs to evaluate technical feasibility, platform alignment, scalability, security, integration, and operational considerations.
• Coordinate with engineering, operations, cybersecurity, and service management teams to validate recommendations and implementation assumptions.
• Promote reuse of approved enterprise capabilities, services, platforms, and architectural patterns whenever practical.

Implementation Planning Support

• Assist project and program teams in translating approved solutions into implementation plans.
• Identify dependencies, sequencing considerations, resource requirements, organizational impacts, and transition needs.
• Support planning activities associated with deployment, adoption, operations, sustainment, and continuous improvement.
• Help reduce implementation risk through early identification of technical, organizational, and operational challenges.

Required Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, Engineering, Business Information Systems, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• At least 10 years of experience supporting solution architecture, systems engineering, enterprise architecture, business analysis, service design, technology modernization, or related technology transformation initiatives.
• Experience analyzing business, mission, operational, technical, security, compliance, and organizational requirements and translating those requirements into actionable solution approaches.
• Demonstrated experience assessing current-state capabilities, identifying capability gaps, evaluating constraints, and developing recommendations that align business needs with technical realities.
• Experience developing conceptual, logical, and physical solution architectures spanning applications, data, infrastructure, platforms, cybersecurity, integration services, and operational capabilities.
• Experience conducting gap assessments, root cause analysis, business process analysis, capability assessments, and solution evaluations within complex enterprise environments.
• Experience evaluating solution alternatives and performing trade studies that consider business value, implementation complexity, organizational readiness, supportability, risk, lifecycle costs, and long-term sustainability.
• Experience identifying opportunities to leverage existing enterprise capabilities, shared services, platforms, and reusable architectural patterns to satisfy stakeholder requirements.
• Experience supporting intake, discovery, requirements elicitation, stakeholder engagement, solution assessments, and decision-support activities across multiple business and technology domains.
• Experience formulating recommendations supported by technical analysis, business considerations, operational impacts, implementation constraints, and strategic objectives.
• Experience working closely with enterprise architects, platform architects, engineers, cybersecurity teams, operations organizations, service owners, program managers, and business stakeholders.
• Experience developing architecture artifacts, capability assessments, gap analyses, solution recommendations, decision papers, implementation roadmaps, and executive-level briefings.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain complex concepts, alternatives, risks, dependencies, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Preferred Skills

• Experience supporting engineering and operations, working groups, platform teams, Architecture Review Boards (ARBs), Technology Review Boards (TRBs), governance forums, investment reviews, or comparable decision-making bodies.
• Experience conducting capability assessments, gap analyses, Analysis of Alternatives (AoA), trade studies, modernization assessments, technology evaluations, and business case development.
• Experience supporting enterprise modernization, digital transformation, cloud migration, service delivery improvement, platform rationalization, or technology lifecycle management initiatives.
• Experience facilitating stakeholder workshops, requirements sessions, architecture reviews, operational assessments, and executive decision-support activities.
• Experience developing business capability models, process flows, service blueprints, solution roadmaps, transition plans, implementation strategies, or modernization plans.
• Experience supporting large-scale, geographically distributed, mission-critical, highly available, or regulated enterprise environments.
• Experience identifying opportunities to improve interoperability, reduce redundancy, strengthen service delivery, and optimize technology investments.
• Professional certifications in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, business analysis, systems engineering, project management, IT service management, cloud architecture, or related disciplines.

Methods, Frameworks, and Tooling

The Solution Architect is expected to operate across organizational, business, service, operational, application, data, infrastructure, and platform domains. Successful candidates should demonstrate broad familiarity with enterprise technologies, architecture methods, service management practices, and solution delivery approaches.

• Experience working across multiple technology domains including infrastructure, networking, cloud platforms, enterprise applications, software development, data and analytics, cybersecurity, service management, and systems integration.
• Agile delivery methodologies, requirements management, backlog prioritization, roadmap development, and iterative solution delivery.
• ITIL practices including service portfolio management, demand management, service design, service lifecycle management, governance, and continual improvement.
• Two or more major cloud service providers and associated enterprise services, including commercial and government cloud environments.
• CI/CD, version control, automation, configuration management, and release management practices.
• Enterprise architecture, modeling, and visualization tools such as Sparx Enterprise Architect, Visio, ArchiMate, or comparable platforms.
• Performance analysis, capacity planning, monitoring, observability, reporting, and operational analytics capabilities.
• Architecture frameworks, capability modeling, business architecture, service architecture, systems engineering, and decision-support methodologies.

Soft Skills

• Analytical thinking: Breaks down complex business and technical problems into understandable components and identifies practical paths forward.
• Requirements discipline: Distinguishes between true business requirements, stakeholder preferences, assumptions, and implementation constraints.
• Problem solving: Identifies capability gaps, operational challenges, architectural deficiencies, and organizational barriers and develops actionable recommendations.
• Solution formulation: Develops practical solution alternatives that balance mission needs, technical feasibility, operational realities, risk, cost, and sustainability.
• Critical thinking: Challenges assumptions, validates information, evaluates alternatives objectively, and identifies unintended consequences before decisions are made.
• Business alignment: Understands organizational objectives and ensures recommendations deliver measurable mission and business value.
• Systems thinking: Understands how decisions affect business processes, applications, platforms, infrastructure, security, operations, governance, funding, and customer outcomes.
• Consensus building: Brings together stakeholders with competing priorities and helps organizations reach informed, balanced decisions.
• Decision-support mindset: Develops objective, evidence-based recommendations and clearly communicates trade-offs, risks, dependencies, and impacts.
• Pragmatism: Focuses on implementable solutions rather than theoretical architectures or technology preferences.
• Influence: Gains credibility through analysis, reasoning, communication, and demonstrated understanding of organizational challenges.
• Accountability: Takes ownership of recommendations and remains focused on successful implementation, adoption, and business outcomes.
• Clear communication: Explains complex issues, alternatives, impacts, and recommendations in language appropriate to technical and business audiences.
• Documentation discipline: Produces accurate, decision-ready assessments, recommendations, architecture artifacts, and supporting analysis that can be leveraged throughout implementation and operations.

Benefits

• SES provides a competitive salary and the following benefits:
• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• AD&D
• STD
• LTD
• Company paid Life Insurance
• 401k with employer contribution
• Paid Time Off
• Pet Insurance