What does a senior solutions architect do?

Senior Solutions Architects are responsible for creating programs or systems that would address the clients' needs. They are expected to be familiar with different tools and systems. This would help them create the best solutions for their clients. Senior Solutions Architects are technologically-savvy. They are expected to be updated with the current trends and innovations in technology. They should also be familiar with these innovations in case these innovations are needed in the company. Senior Solutions Architects are expected to have experience in solving different technical and technological challenges. They should have a solutions-driven mindset.
Senior solutions architect responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior solutions architect resumes:
- Mentore and manage offshore development teams to deliver application enhancements with focus on framework usage and java performance.
- Project manage the end-to-end delivery of customer deployments with product engineering, professional engineering services, and infrastructure & operations teams.
- Utilize the latest technologies including ASP.NET, MVC, iOS, WebAPI, AWS, and JAX-RS.
- Evaluate peak utilization windows base on monthly SCRT reports.
- Utilize AWS S3 and EC2 for scalability reliability and performance.
- Evaluate use of various tools / applications to develop and deliver MDM solution.
- Work with business partners to develop MDM work streams and data steward/data governance structure.
- Work on creating a global set of API's for tracking sessions using SSO token.
- Create tools and processes for rapid creation and deployment of complex systems for POC testing.
- Design different sizing like small / medium and large application environment to be migrate to Linux.
- Create family of solutions that integrate SAN and NAS for NT, Linux, Unix, and OpenVMS.
- Collaborate to create a customize proof of concept (POC) procedure that insure the desired results at customer locations.
- Implement orchestration layer using different Microservices.
- Justify improvement projects with ROI calculations.
- Integrate Unica with salesforce for lead optimization.
Senior solutions architect skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Senior Solutions Architects are proficient in Cloud, AWS, and Java. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Creativity.
We break down the percentage of Senior Solutions Architects that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Cloud, 9%
Defined and executed upon business transformation strategies from software/license/maintenance to turn-key, full service provider employing market driven cloud service strategies.
- AWS, 8%
Design Stream Data platform to enable real-time and shared data using Apache Kafka (desired to attach to AWS).
- Java, 6%
Mentored and managed offshore development teams to deliver application enhancements with focus on framework usage and java performance.
- Infrastructure, 5%
Project managed the end-to-end delivery of customer deployments with product engineering, professional engineering services, and infrastructure & operations teams.
- Amazon Web Services, 5%
Hosted the SQL Server and Redshift databases on Amazon Web Services VPC.
- Digital Transformation, 4%
Collaborate with the business architects in development of the Digital Transformation initiatives.
Most senior solutions architects use their skills in "cloud," "aws," and "java" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential senior solutions architect responsibilities here:
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a senior solutions architect to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "architects must understand the content of designs and the context in which they were created." Senior solutions architects often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "evaluated existing data visualization products and identified ways to expand capabilities internally or through acquisition. "
Communication skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling senior solutions architect duties is communication skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "architects share their ideas, both in oral presentations and in writing, with clients, other architects, and workers who help prepare drawings." According to a senior solutions architect resume, here's how senior solutions architects can utilize communication skills in their job responsibilities: "established coe communication process & created an inventory of all java related application within the dio organization 4. "
Creativity. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of senior solutions architects is creativity. This skill is critical to many everyday senior solutions architect duties, as "architects design the overall look of houses, buildings, and other structures." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "integrated via restful api with inventory management and crm systems. "
Organizational skills. A big part of what senior solutions architects do relies on "organizational skills." You can see how essential it is to senior solutions architect responsibilities because "architects often manage contracts." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical senior solutions architect tasks: "design business process mapping solutions in line with organizational goals and objectives, meeting benchmarked standards and stakeholder expectations. "
Technical skills. A commonly-found skill in senior solutions architect job descriptions, "technical skills" is essential to what senior solutions architects do. Senior solutions architect responsibilities rely on this skill because "architects need to use cadd technology to create plans as part of building information modeling (bim)." You can also see how senior solutions architect duties rely on technical skills in this resume example: "provide technical oversight and subject matter expertise to bi team on key initiatives data integration: gathered requirements for business rules. "
Visualization skills. Another skill commonly found on senior solutions architect job descriptions is "visualization skills." It can come up quite often in senior solutions architect duties, since "architects must be able to envision how the parts of a structure relate to each other." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day senior solutions architect responsibilities: "provided multiple visualization interfaces for various users and business partners. "
The three companies that hire the most senior solutions architects are:
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Senior solutions architect vs. Senior infrastructure engineer
A senior infrastructure engineer specializes in designing and developing systems and infrastructures based on client preferences and industry standards. They have the duty to identify and understand the project's needs, streamline project requirements, produce drafts, create prototypes and models, and establish tests to identify potential issues and ensure the projects' quality. Additionally, a senior infrastructure engineer has the authority to make decisions, train and supervise junior engineers, establish goals and timelines, provide technical support, and implement policies and guidelines.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between senior solutions architects and senior infrastructure engineer. For instance, senior solutions architect responsibilities require skills such as "infrastructure," "digital transformation," "analytics," and "client facing." Whereas a senior infrastructure engineer is skilled in "customer service," "powershell," "troubleshoot," and "windows server." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Senior infrastructure engineers earn the highest salaries when working in the hospitality industry, with an average yearly salary of $123,360. On the other hand, senior solutions architects are paid more in the start-up industry with an average salary of $139,751.On average, senior infrastructure engineers reach lower levels of education than senior solutions architects. Senior infrastructure engineers are 13.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.5% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior solutions architect vs. Architect and developer
An Architect And Developer is focused on the technical design, architecture, and development of products. They generally work as a part of the development team.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that senior solutions architect responsibilities requires skills like "cloud," "aws," "infrastructure," and "digital transformation." But an architect and developer might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "application development," "c++," "design patterns," and "application architecture."
On average, architects and developer earn a lower salary than senior solutions architects. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, architects and developer earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $125,314. Whereas senior solutions architects have higher pay in the start-up industry, with an average salary of $139,751.In general, architects and developer achieve similar levels of education than senior solutions architects. They're 0.1% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.5% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for senior solutions architects in the next 3-5 years?
Dak Kopec Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Coordinator, BA Interior Architecture and Design and Master of Design Program, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas
Senior solutions architect vs. Senior consultant, information technology
A senior consultant of information technology is primarily responsible for developing strategies and procedures to optimize a company's information technology systems and infrastructure. It is their duty to assess existing networks and systems to identify their strengths and weaknesses, develop solutions in problem areas, perform risk assessments, and provide advice on how to achieve the best information technology practices. Furthermore, as a senior consultant, it is essential to lead the efforts and serve as a role model for the workforce, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, senior solutions architects are more likely to have skills like "aws," "infrastructure," "digital transformation," and "analytics." But a senior consultant, information technology is more likely to have skills like "architecture," "strong analytical," "process improvement," and "itil."
Senior consultants, information technology make a very good living in the finance industry with an average annual salary of $117,869. On the other hand, senior solutions architects are paid the highest salary in the start-up industry, with average annual pay of $139,751.Most senior consultants, information technology achieve a similar degree level compared to senior solutions architects. For example, they're 2.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior solutions architect vs. Solutions engineer
A solutions engineer is an individual who assists customers in identifying their computer software needs and generates customized business software solutions for them. Solutions engineers collaborate with other department engineers to create practical demonstrations of proposed solutions and showcase them to the other members of the team. They are required to test the installed software and fix programming bugs that create errors with the system. Solutions engineers also maintain customer relations by providing post-installation follow-ups.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between senior solutions architects and solutions engineers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a senior solutions architect might have more use for skills like "analytics," "web services," "sr," and "solution architecture." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of solutions engineers require skills like "architecture," "sales process," "python," and "troubleshoot. "
Solutions engineers enjoy the best pay in the start-up industry, with an average salary of $118,808. For comparison, senior solutions architects earn the highest salary in the start-up industry.solutions engineers reach lower levels of education compared to senior solutions architects, in general. The difference is that they're 10.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of senior solutions architect
Updated January 8, 2025











