(Co-Pilot Created)

Solutions Architect – Application Architecture

Location: Pittsburgh, PA – Onsite 5 days/week
Experience: 10+ years
Environment: Financial Services / Banking

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Solutions Architect to support the design and delivery of online applications serving both customer-facing and back-office users.

This person will be responsible for end-to-end application solution design, helping translate functional requirements into the technical architecture needed to successfully build and deliver an application.

This is not primarily a hands-on development role; however, the architect must have a strong technical foundation in Java and Spring Boot, be able to understand and troubleshoot technical problems at the code level, and be willing to assist with coding during critical delivery periods when needed.

The architect will work closely with development teams, BSAs, infrastructure, security, and other technology teams to ensure all components required for delivery are identified, designed, coordinated, and put in place.

Key Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end application solutions based on functional and business requirements.
• Define how applications will work, where components will reside, how systems will interact, and how data will flow through the solution.
• Create architecture and design documentation/artifacts prior to development.
• Provide technical direction to development teams throughout the application lifecycle.
• Perform and/or lead design and code reviews.
• Provide architectural guidance around Java, Spring Boot and React-based applications.
• Help establish and provide guidance around CI/CD pipelines.
• Understand infrastructure requirements and recommend what is appropriate for the application/team, while partnering with the teams responsible for provisioning.
• Identify and coordinate security and infrastructure requirements, including items such as firewall needs. The architect is not expected to personally provision or configure these components but is responsible for understanding what is needed and working with the appropriate teams to get them in place.
• Provide ongoing architectural principles and technical guidance throughout delivery.
• Work closely with strong BSA and development teams to move solutions from requirements through design and delivery.
• Step into hands-on coding when necessary during critical delivery periods.
• Communicate effectively with senior leadership and stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of technology experience.
• Strong backend experience with Java and Spring Boot.
• Experience designing end-to-end application architectures.
• Ability to understand code and technical problems at a hands-on level.
• Experience with application/system design, including application components, integrations and data flows.
• Experience conducting architecture/design reviews and code reviews.
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and the ability to provide guidance on what is appropriate for the development team.
• Understanding of application infrastructure and security dependencies, including coordinating requirements with infrastructure, security and networking teams.
• Experience working with SQL/databases.
• Experience with batch processing.
• Ability and willingness to assist with development/coding when necessary.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to interact directly with senior leadership.
• Ability to work onsite five days per week in a business-casual environment.

Preferred / Nice to Have

• React experience.
• Spring Security experience.
• Flowable experience.
• Kafka / streaming experience.
• Financial services or banking experience.
• Experience with Terminal Journey Manager (TJM). This is a proprietary technology and is expected to be difficult to find in the market.

Environment / Additional Details

• Current environment is on-premises; this is not a cloud-focused role.
• Applications include both user-facing and back-office solutions.
• Current applications are not considered extremely high-volume, although volume is increasing, particularly across retail applications and future mortgage-related applications.
• The environment has dedicated teams responsible for areas such as infrastructure provisioning and security. The Solutions Architect is expected to understand the requirements, provide appropriate architectural guidance, and coordinate with those teams, rather than personally performing all implementation.
• The team has established BSAs and Scrum Masters.
• Interview process is expected to move quickly and may include two rounds.
• The interview process includes a design exercise with no IDE installation required.