Solutions Architect; Enterprise

The Solutions Architect is the bridge between the business and the development team, turning business needs into scalable, secure solutions across the Microsoft ecosystem. This role partners with business stakeholders to capture requirements, designs end-to-end architectures spanning ERP systems, ADP, Microsoft Fabric, and Azure, builds or prototypes solutions hands-on when needed — including AI-driven automation — and guides developers from design through delivery.

Thriving in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, the Sr. Solutions Architect pairs deep technical expertise with exceptional communication skills and the flexibility to adapt quickly as priorities change. This role requires hands-on experience to develop and deliver solutions while working with developers on establishing development best practices and architecting solutions.

• Partner with business stakeholders, department leaders, and subject-matter experts to elicit, capture, and document business requirements, translating them into clear functional and technical specifications.
• Develop solutions hands-on when needed, building rapid prototypes and proofs of concept that validate approaches, demonstrate value to the business, and give developers a working foundation to build on.
• Design and build AI-enabled solutions that integrate AI models (e.g., Azure OpenAI, Copilot Studio, or other LLM APIs) into business applications and workflows to automate processes and improve efficiency.
• Design end-to-end solution architectures across the Microsoft stack — including Azure, Microsoft Fabric, .NET, and SQL Server — that are scalable, secure, cost-effective, and aligned with business objectives.
• Guide and mentor developers through delivery — leading design sessions, reviewing designs and code, and removing technical blockers — without formal people-management responsibility.
• Serve as the primary technical liaison between the business and IT, clearly communicating options, trade-offs, risks, and recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Evaluate competing approaches (build vs. buy, configure vs. customize) and recommend the option that best balances cost, risk, time-to-value, and long-term maintainability.
• Establish architecture standards, reusable patterns, and best practices, and maintain solution designs, integration specifications, data flow diagrams, and architecture decision records.
• Adapt quickly to shifting priorities while managing multiple concurrent initiatives.
• Ensure solutions meet IES security, compliance, and audit requirements, including Microsoft Entra s controls, protection of sensitive HR and financial data, and change management.
• Assess existing applications and integrations for modernization opportunities, technical debt, and cloud readiness, and develop pragmatic roadmaps for improvement.
• Provide technical estimates, dependencies, and risks to support project planning.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex issues involving architected solutions and integrations.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of professional IT experience, including 5+ years in a solutions architecture, technical lead, or senior engineering role designing enterprise solutions.
• Deep, hands-on Microsoft stack skills — Azure (Functions, Logic Apps, Service Bus, API Management, Key Vault), .NET/C#, and SQL Server — sufficient to build solutions and prototypes independently.
• Experience integrating AI models into applications and automated workflows (e.g., Azure OpenAI or other LLM APIs), including prompt design, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and responsible AI practices.
• Solid understanding of ERP systems (e.g.,…