If you want to hire an in-house member, the search process will take a while as you have limited access to professionals in your area. However, if you are open to new opportunities and can consider hiring a remote team member, you will increase your chances of hiring the right person. One crucial thing that we also want to mention related to the IT solutions architect is their certifications, which are needed to validate their skills and qualifications.
Don’t overlook the value a solutions architect can bring to your enterprise. The Solution Architect’s role within the IT organization in devising technical solutions that tackle business challenges is fundamental. They collaborate with stakeholders, interpret requirements, and develop comprehensive solutions that combine various technological elements. Dispelling misconceptions about the role of a Solution Architect is a good starting point for gaining a precise understanding of their responsibilities. A widespread misunderstanding is that they are the most skilled developers or experts, extraordinarily adept in the project’s technology stack. While possessing a profound understanding of project technologies and demonstrating coding expertise is essential, these are not the only nor the definitive attributes of a Solution Architect.
What Does a Solution Architect Do?
The solution architect must understand all of these constraints and consider the technical and business factors that ultimately need to align with the project’s goals. The implementation stage covers the entire process of software development, including writing specifications and quality assurance. At first, a software architect works with the tech team to elaborate on all possible options of how the idea can be made a reality.
- Solutions architects will also be in regular communication with IT specialists and enterprise architects to develop and implement complex technology and business solutions.
- In pursuing project success, Solutions Architects wield their expertise to estimate crucial project outcomes.
- The highest paid solutions architects are located in San Jose and San Francisco, where the reported average salaries are $144,000 and $132,000 per year, respectively.
- It can be 30 minutes, it can be 5 minutes; it’s just a conversation; a person talking to another person, and I gain a lot of respect from this kind of approach.
- For example, in the US, an expert can get between $142K – 238K yearly, whereas in Ukraine, a professional with the same qualifications can get between $68K – 90K per year.
The certifications are aimed at assessing the overall knowledge, abilities, and experience of specialists and at proving their proficiency. The technical architect is often confused with the solution architect too. However, a technical architect is responsible for overseeing technical engineering and implementation.
For Organizations
Multiple programming languages, libraries, frameworks, standards, and architectural patterns are available, and each has different tech stack requirements. Here comes the solutions architect’s responsibility to choose the best suitable one. Experienced and dedicated solutions architect clearly communicates their technological vision to their development team. The solution architect assists the team and leads the project through implementation. The salary of a solutions architect varies a lot and depends on multiple factors. For example, in the US, an expert can get between $142K – 238K yearly, whereas in Ukraine, a professional with the same qualifications can get between $68K – 90K per year.
Post-COVID, so much more is digital, and organizations have gone back to an open market. So there’s a hybrid-first model, where people are expecting offline experiences to reflect digital experiences, and vice versa. Allow us to be your technical aid in another of your successful business venture. Mail, Chat, Call or better meet us over a cup of coffee and share with us your development plan. Suppose, let us take an example – You are developing a medicine delivery app; the solutions architect will make sure the app should be HIPPA compliant. Enterprise and software architects work together to ensure that the organization has effective development life cycles and fully utilizes development resources.
Analyzing Existing Systems and Recommending Improvements
A solutions architect in a client-facing role will also need to understand how to manage customer satisfaction and set proper expectations for the end-product. Besides that, it’s important that solution architects consider the project from a long-term perspective and understand that the solution might need to scale and adapt to possible changes in the future. So, being the one who knows the ultimate target, they guide the development process accordingly. In addition, the solution architect is responsible for ensuring that all requirements are met during development.
They’re the ones moving needles to upgrade their enterprise solutions from a legacy to more modern architecture; to move fast, and fail small, and deliver better solutions. There is no set career path to becoming an SA, but most come from a background in architecture, project management, or software development. Along with developers, engineers need to understand and interpret the product requirements to build the apps, systems, and solutions to achieve the desired outcome. They also need to be able to resolve problems and address bugs that might arise during the development process. Solutions architects will use various tools to develop their designs and diagrams. These tools – such as the LeanIX EAM – help SA’s map design IT infrastructure, produce diagrams and facilitate the to-be architecture.
Solutions Architect Education and Experience
As we navigate an epoch characterized by rapid technological advancements, the role of a Solution Architect becomes instrumental in steering organizations toward their envisioned digital objectives. Solutions architects must what does solution architect do be prepared to work with leaders, managers, and employees across every business unit. And if you’re working on a product team, you might also be expected to work with clients to understand expectations and requirements.
Designing a solution requires understanding how different parts of the business work together. The architect must recognize the corporate strategy and realize all business processes that define how a company achieves its strategic goals. As a result, solution architects constantly deal with analytical work and move between various business layers. Basically, they take separate requirements to the global company’s infrastructure and turn these requirements into real solutions. In other words, solution architects create a bridge between planning at the enterprise level and developing specific software products that will help a company make these plans a reality. One of the most sought-after roles in software development companies is as a solution architect.
Solution Architect Technical Skills, Experience, and Background
Remember that even though this started out as a Gen Z trait, members of that generation will become new decision makers, and new influencers, in purchases. This is when the CMO may reach out to a Solution Architect, and ask for help engaging everyone at the C-suite level. At first, not by proposing solutions, or discussing the capabilities of tools, but more about advice on how to approach the conversation. Other than this, if you are developing a live music streaming app like Spotify, you must have a valid license and copyrights.
For instance, if you want to create a simple one-page website, a coding team and a project manager will be able to do this without additional guidance from a solution architect’s side. The enterprise architecture tool is designed to help solutions architects manage the transformation and risk of an organization’s IT landscape. This tool leverages technology to make decisions quickly, map designs, and manage possible outcomes and risks of the chosen solution. Successful solutions architects need a strong combination of hard and soft skills to achieve competency in the role. Hard skills include a deep knowledge of business processes and solutions, while soft skills include good communication.
What Skills Are Needed to Be a Solutions Architect?
They are responsible for defining the scope, identifying potential opportunities, and selecting appropriate technologies and platforms to achieve the desired outcomes. Considering that this role entails negotiating with stakeholders, understanding the needs of all parties, managing risks, and product delivery, the lack of communication skills can create a real bottleneck. The position requires working closely with enterprise and software architects, business analysts, and project teams.
What Is Solutions Architect? Major Roles & Responsibilities Defined!
While the practice can be managed in-house, there are companies that provide solution architecture consulting as a specific set of services. A solution architect is also responsible for the continuous maintenance of a system developed. This person makes sure that there is a secure and stable IT environment for a software solution to work properly. Solution architects also ensure that such a solution will remain relevant in terms of the business value it should deliver. This article will provide solutions architect job description, how their role is different from other similar positions, and what kind of projects require input from these specialists.
Overseeing the Implementation and Integration of Solutions
A solution architect already has a broader range of responsibilities than either of the other positions and if your business wants to get the best out of this role, it should be a dedicated position. However, in most cases, a particular solution will be better suited to solve your business problems than others. This is why a good solution architect is critical to your company’s success.
