Solution Architect

About the Role

We are seeking a highly experienced Solution Architect to lead the design, modernization, and delivery of complex enterprise systems across cloud, application, and data domains. In this role, you will assess existing architectures, define future-state blueprints, guide engineering teams, and ensure solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned with industry-leading standards.

This position is ideal for technology leaders who are passionate about cloud-native architecture, microservices, API strategy, DevSecOps, event-driven systems, platform engineering, and driving technical excellence across multiple teams.

Key Responsibilities

1. Architecture & Technical Strategy

• Assess current systems, architectures, and integrations to identify gaps and opportunities for modernization.
• Design and document end-to-end architectures spanning cloud, application, data, and security layers.
• Develop reference architectures, integration patterns, and best-practice guidelines for engineering teams.
• Lead cloud architecture decisions across AWS/Azure/GCP, including networking, security, identity, compute, containers, and serverless.
• Drive architectural governance, solution reviews, dependency mapping, and technical risk mitigation.
• Define API, microservices, and event-driven communication patterns (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, messaging).

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2. Delivery, Engineering Excellence & Modernization

• Guide teams through cloud migration, legacy decomposition, and modernization initiatives.
• Support the implementation of microservices, containers (ECS/Kubernetes), serverless (Lambda), streaming platforms (Kafka/Kinesis), and data pipelines.
• Promote DevSecOps practices, CI/CD automation, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/CloudFormation/CDK), and observability standards.
• Champion resilient architecture principles: scalability, redundancy, security, performance optimization, and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate with engineers to ensure architecture translates into high-quality, production-ready implementations.

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2. Collaboration, Leadership & Mentorship

• Work closely with product owners, engineering leads, business stakeholders, and security teams to align technology with strategic goals.
• Mentor and coach engineers, contributing to capability uplift and architectural maturity across teams.
• Facilitate architectural workshops, design sessions, and cross-team technical alignment.
• Communicate complex technical strategies in a clear, business-aligned manner.

Requirements & Qualifications

Must-Have Skills

• 10–12+ years' experience in software engineering, solution architecture, or technical leadership roles.
• Strong expertise in AWS, Azure, or GCP cloud services (compute, networking, RDS/Aurora, IAM, VPC, serverless, container orchestration).
• Proven experience designing and implementing microservices, distributed systems, and event-driven architectures.
• Hands-on proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, CDK) and CI/CD tooling.
• Solid understanding of domain-driven design (DDD), API-first strategy, integration patterns, and security fundamentals.
• Experience with databases (SQL/NoSQL), data streaming, caching technologies, and high-volume transaction systems.
• Familiarity with observability best practices (CloudWatch, ELK, OpenTelemetry, X-Ray, Grafana).
• Strong analytical skills, system-level thinking, and ability to influence senior technical stakeholders.

Highly Desirable Skills

• Experience leading modernization of legacy/monolithic systems into cloud-native architectures.
• Exposure to Kubernetes, service meshes, and platform engineering.
• Knowledge of performance optimization, fault tolerance, and enterprise-grade resilience patterns.
• Experience with AI/ML integration or architecting systems to support AI-readiness (optional).

Education:

• Bachelor's degree, higher certificate, or diploma in Computer Science, Software Engineering, IT, or a related field.
• Equivalent practical experience also considered.

Additional Information

• Contract Duration: 12 Months (with possibility of renewal)
• Salary: Negotiable
• Location Options: Johannesburg / Cape Town / Remote
• Eligibility: Must be located in South Africa or hold a valid South African work permit