How to hire a solutions architect

How to hire a solutions architect, step by step

Here's a step-by-step solutions architect hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a solutions architect job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new solutions architect
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a solutions architect do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your solutions architect job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a solutions architect for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A solutions architect's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, solutions architects from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   The following list breaks down different types of solutions architects and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Solutions Architect	Description	Hourly rate
   Solutions Architect	Solutions Architects generally work for information technology (IT) firms. They are responsible for designing information solutions and integrating such solutions with computer hardware.	$41-74
   Lead Consultant	The lead consultants oversee the work of a consultant team and are responsible for offering clients their advice and recommendations on the given project. They are multi-focus experts that assist the company in improving its business performance by acting as liaisons between clients and the consultancy team... Show more	$38-63
   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.	$40-69

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Cloud
   • Java
   • AWS
   • Infrastructure
   • Analytics
   • Digital Transformation
   • Azure
   • Pre Sales
   • Client Facing
   • Cloud Computing
   • Project Management
   • Emerging Technologies
   • Solution Design
   • API

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage a staff of 15 to 25 resources Sr.
   • Coordinate with scrum masters and development leads to identify risks, gaps and come up with mitigation plan.
   • Lead SDLC implementation activities including training, orientation, workshop facilitation, and resource coordination.
   • Provide strategic direction for VMWARE storage integration for SAN & NAS technology.
   • Plan, design, build custom server racks using both Linux and windows servers to meet client needs.
   • Establish the service identification toolkit, implement the SaaS for legacy and host systems and formulate the service governance board.

   More solutions architect duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your solutions architect job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A solutions architect salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a solutions architect in Tennessee may be lower than in California, and an entry-level solutions architect usually earns less than a senior-level solutions architect. Additionally, a solutions architect with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average solutions architect salary

   $116,327yearly

   $55.93 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level solutions architect salary

   $87,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 18, 2025

   Average solutions architect salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$135,041	$65
   2	Washington	$121,700	$59
   3	New York	$116,558	$56
   4	Oregon	$116,286	$56
   5	New Jersey	$115,541	$56
   6	Virginia	$115,159	$55
   7	Arizona	$114,766	$55
   8	Massachusetts	$110,930	$53
   9	District of Columbia	$110,662	$53
   10	Connecticut	$110,114	$53
   11	Pennsylvania	$109,953	$53
   12	Illinois	$108,929	$52
   13	North Carolina	$108,349	$52
   14	Texas	$107,309	$52
   15	Ohio	$104,500	$50
   16	Georgia	$103,609	$50
   17	Minnesota	$103,278	$50
   18	Utah	$103,090	$50
   19	Michigan	$102,699	$49
   20	Florida	$102,559	$49

   Average solutions architect salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Airbnb	$173,562	$83.44
   2	Stitch Fix	$169,326	$81.41	2
   3	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation	$165,911	$79.76
   4	Flexport	$165,432	$79.53	12
   5	Levi Strauss & Co.	$165,342	$79.49	1
   6	Meta	$164,980	$79.32	102
   7	Lyft	$164,240	$78.96
   8	Apple	$160,409	$77.12	83
   9	eBay	$160,167	$77.00	3
   10	Google	$156,673	$75.32	115
   11	Family Dollar	$155,786	$74.90
   12	PayPal	$155,127	$74.58	7
   13	Pure Storage	$154,017	$74.05	25
   14	Centro	$153,677	$73.88
   15	Safeway	$152,496	$73.32
   16	Instacart	$152,223	$73.18	3
   17	Nike	$151,360	$72.77
   18	McKinsey & Company Inc	$150,543	$72.38	10
   19	Intuitive Surgical	$150,452	$72.33	4
   20	NVIDIA	$150,060	$72.14	184

4. Writing a solutions architect job description

   A job description for a solutions architect role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a solutions architect job description:

   Solutions architect job description example

   Minimum qualifications:
   
   + Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering or equivalent experience.
   
   + 7 years of experience in software engineering in full stack implementations.
   
   + Experience in writing API and architectural specifications and technical artifacts.
   
   + Experience with algorithms and coding problems.
   
   Preferred qualifications:
   
   + Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field.
   
   + Experience as an architect with compute, storage and networking platforms or data center infrastructure software.
   
   + Experience working with diverse, cross-functional teams composed of both technical and non-technical members.
   
   In this role, you will ensure that all software specifications for new products and the systems that support those deployments cause decreased time to deploy and maintain capacity. You will engage with engineering teams and customers on technical requirements and evaluate feasibility based on value to the global server operations team. You will write and review code from time to time in order to validate design requirements.
   
   Behind everything our users see online is the architecture built by the Technical Infrastructure team to keep it running. From developing and maintaining our data centers to building the next generation of Google platforms, we make Google's product portfolio possible. We're proud to be our engineers' engineers and love voiding warranties by taking things apart so we can rebuild them. We keep our networks up and running, ensuring our users have the best and fastest experience possible.
   
   + Provide technical directions for design, development, and validation for systems and platform software for global server operations.
   
   + Assess engineering problems (coding, design, validation) to understand the interplay between program and technical issues, and contribute to shaping technical directions.
   
   + Produce artifacts such as technical specifications, feature requests, code change list, engineering review presentations, technical roadmaps and to technical report.
   
   + Identify design and architectural discrepancies, and address with relevant hardware and software teams thinking upfront in terms of efficiency, scalability, and stability.
   
   + Identify areas of improvement in our software ecosystem and patterns of repeated problems proposing solutions.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find solutions architects for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any solutions architects they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level solutions architects with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   To find solutions architect candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting solutions architects requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   If your interviews with solutions architect applicants aren't enough to make a decision, you should also consider including a test project. These are often the best, most straightforward, and least bias-prone ways of determining who will likely succeed in the role. If you don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new solutions architect

   Once you've selected the best solutions architect candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new solutions architect first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a solutions architect?