Digital Solutions Architect–Madison, WI

Role Overview

The Digital Solutions Architect is a generalist, applications-focused architecture role responsible for designing scalable, secure, and resilient solutions that align with business needs and enterprise technology standards. This position partners closely with business stakeholders, technology teams, and third-party vendors to translate requirements into well-architected application solutions, primarily within an AWS environment.

This role sits within an architecture function that operates ahead of delivery teams, providing architectural direction, reusable patterns, and guidance rather than day-to-day execution. Success in this role requires strong technical judgment, adaptability, and the ability to navigate cross-team and vendor collaboration within a matrixed environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with business, technology, and external vendor teams to design application-focused solution architectures that address business needs
• Assess proposed business initiatives and determine architectural impact, dependencies, and integration considerations
• Lead analysis of business drivers to define solution architecture requirements
• Develop and evaluate architectural options, including build vs. buy recommendations
• Create and document reusable architecture patterns and best practices for development teams to follow
• Ensure architectures align with decoupled design principles, scalability, resilience, and security best practices
• Provide architecture guidance to agile delivery teams throughout the SDLC
• Review existing application and integration architectures and contribute to technology roadmaps
• Identify system dependencies, integrations, and high-level data flows
• Collaborate with other architects and technical specialists to align solutions with enterprise standards
• Incorporate modern security practices into solution design, including IAM, data protection, and Zero Trust principles
• Evaluate emerging cloud technologies and recommend fit-for-purpose solutions
• Support developers with ad hoc architecture and technology guidance related to tools and platforms
• Work effectively with multiple internal teams and third-party partners, adapting to differing operating models and constraints

Technical Environment (Representative, Not Exhaustive)

• AWS-centric architecture using services such as Lambda, SQS, SNS, and EC2
• API-driven integrations using platforms such as AWS-native services or MuleSoft
• Service-oriented and event-driven architectures with decoupled design patterns
• Limited container usage today (EKS in place; potential future use of ECS)
• Security best practices including IAM, data loss prevention, and threat modeling

Qualifications

Required Skills & Experience

• Experience designing and supporting enterprise application architectures in a cloud environment (AWS preferred)
• Strong understanding of application architecture, integration patterns, and service-oriented design
• Working knowledge of security best practices, including IAM and data protection
• Experience creating architectural patterns and reference designs for developer reuse
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Experience collaborating with third-party vendors and external partners
• Ability to adapt and operate effectively within complex organizational and political environments

Preferred Background

• Hands-on experience with modern architectures such as serverless, microservices, and event-driven systems
• Familiarity with API management and integration platforms
• Exposure to architecture frameworks such as TOGAF, Zachman, or similar (not required)
• Some coding experience (JavaScript and Python preferred; ability to read Java is helpful)

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field preferred but not required
• Approximately 5+ years of relevant solution architecture, application engineering, or design experience (flexible based on demonstrated competency)
• At least 1 year of hands-on experience designing or supporting solutions in AWS