Solution Architect

Job Description

Manifest Solutions is currently seeking a Solution Architect for a position in Columbus, OH.

Serves as the architecture lead and primary technical design authority for assigned projects and initiatives.

Owns the end-to-end solution design from discovery through implementation and transition to operations.

Facilitates architecture discovery, technical design workshops, and solution review sessions.

Evaluates solution alternatives and recommends approaches based on business value, risk, cost, complexity, maintainability, and supportability.

Ensures architectural decisions, dependencies, risks, assumptions, constraints, and exceptions are identified and communicated.

Ensures delivered solutions can be effectively implemented, operated, maintained, and supported.

Participates in business workshops and project meetings to identify stated and unstated technical requirements, dependencies, constraints, risks, and solution opportunities.

Translates business processes, objectives, requirements, and decisions into solution components and technical requirements.

Recognizes when business decisions create implications for integrations, data, security, environments, infrastructure, licensing, performance, support, or regulatory compliance.

Asks probing questions, challenges incomplete assumptions, and identifies when additional technical specialists must be engaged.

Explains technical options, tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations in language appropriate for business and technical audiences.

Owns the development, maintenance, and approval coordination of Solution Design Documents for assigned initiatives.

Produces architecture artifacts such as system context, application, integration, data flow, environment, deployment, and network diagrams.

Documents design decisions, scope, assumptions, constraints, dependencies, risks, exceptions, unresolved items, and ownership.

Maintains traceability between business requirements, non-functional requirements, architecture decisions, and solution components.

Ensures designs contain sufficient detail to support implementation planning, security review, provisioning, testing, deployment, and operational transition.

Updates the solution design when requirements, implementation decisions, or technical conditions change.

Designs solutions involving new and existing applications, SaaS platforms, cloud services, on-premises systems, and third-party technologies.

Defines application interactions, integration patterns, data exchanges, and dependencies across the end-to-end solution.

Applies approved API, middleware, event-driven, managed file transfer, batch, and data integration patterns.

Evaluates integration and interoperability needs across cloud, on-premises, and partner-hosted environments.

Ensures application and integration designs align with approved enterprise standards, reference architectures, and target-state direction.

Identifies opportunities to reuse existing capabilities, reduce unnecessary duplication, and support application rationalization objectives.

Defines environment requirements for development, testing, quality assurance, user acceptance, training, production, and disaster recovery, as applicable.

Identifies hosting, compute, storage, database, middleware, network, cloud service, and platform dependencies.

Documents firewall rules, ports, protocols, DNS, certificates, proxies, load balancing, routing, allowlists, private connectivity, and other network requirements.

Identifies service accounts, privileged access, user access, authentication, authorization, single sign-on, and identity lifecycle requirements.

Defines monitoring, logging, alerting, backup, recovery, availability, performance, capacity, and resiliency requirements.

Identifies provisioning lead times, sequencing, prerequisites, dependencies, and accountable teams.

Validates technical readiness before build, testing, deployment, and production transition.

Engages Cybersecurity early to identify applicable security architecture, risk, privacy, and compliance requirements.

Documents trust boundaries, data classifications, authentication methods, access models, encryption, secrets management, logging, and security monitoring requirements.

Ensures identified security findings, controls, and remediation requirements are reflected in the solution design.

Coordinates resolution or formal acceptance of design-related security risks and exceptions through established governance processes.

Ensures third-party connectivity and access are appropriately designed, reviewed, and documented.

Leads technical discovery sessions with system integrators, managed service providers, software vendors, and internal technical teams.

Establishes design expectations and the required level of technical detail for delivery partners.

Reviews partner-produced architecture, configuration, deployment, integration, and technical design documentation.

Identifies omissions, inconsistencies, unsupported assumptions, ownership gaps, and conflicts with enterprise standards.

Challenges recommendations when alternatives may improve security, reliability, supportability, cost, or maintainability.

Ensures partner designs are incorporated into and consistent with the overall Solution Design Document.

Tracks open technical questions and drives them to resolution with accountable parties.

Confirms post-implementation support responsibilities across internal teams, vendors, and service providers.

Works with Enterprise Architects to align project solutions with technology strategies, target-state architectures, approved standards, and portfolio direction.

Engages Infrastructure Architects on larger or more complex initiatives requiring specialized cloud, hosting, network, platform, resiliency, capacity, or infrastructure design.

Incorporates contributions from Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Data, Integration, Application, and other domain specialists into one consistent end-to-end solution.

Coordinates resolution of cross-domain design conflicts, gaps, dependencies, and decisions.

Escalates decisions requiring enterprise direction, policy exceptions, or changes to established standards.

Prepares solution materials for architecture governance review and coordinates required approvals.

Retains accountability for the completeness and consistency of the overall project solution design. Operational Readiness and Transition

Defines solution support requirements, ownership boundaries, escalation paths, and operational dependencies.

Ensures monitoring, alerting, logging, backup, recovery, disaster recovery, service continuity, and support procedures are addressed.

Partners with application support, infrastructure, service management, and operations teams to prepare for production support.

Verifies that technical documentation and knowledge-transfer requirements are completed before operational handoff.

Supports implementation, testing, cutover, stabilization, and resolution of design-related issues.

Ensures appropriate stakeholders define, validate, and document non-functional requirements, including: Availability, resiliency, scalability, performance, and capacity, Cybersecurity, privacy, identity, and access • Maintainability, observability, monitoring, and supportability, Backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and service continuity, Data retention, records management, and regulatory obligations, Accessibility, interoperability, and user experience, Deployment, release, and environment management

Solution Design Documents

System context and end-to-end solution architecture diagrams

Application, integration, data flow, environment, deployment, and network diagrams

Architecture decisions, assumptions, constraints, dependencies, risks, and exception documentation

Environment and technical readiness requirements

Non-functional requirements and operational readiness inputs

Technical design review findings and disposition of open issues

Architecture governance review materials and approval coordination

Implementation, cutover, and operational transition recommendations

Complete, accurate, and implementation-ready Solution Design Documents.

Technical requirements and dependencies identified early enough to prevent avoidable delivery delays.

Clear architecture decisions, risks, assumptions, exceptions, ownership, and approval status.

Consistent incorporation of application, integration, infrastructure, network, cybersecurity, data, and operational requirements.

Partner and provider technical designs reviewed for completeness and alignment.

Solutions aligned with enterprise standards and approved target-state direction.

Fewer design-related issues discovered during testing, deployment, and production transition.

Effective transition of implemented solutions to accountable support and operations teams.

Architecture artifacts maintained through implementation and stored in the appropriate repositories.

Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience.

Minimum eight years of Information Technology experience with emphasis in solution architecture, application architecture, software engineering, systems integration, infrastructure, or technical delivery.

Demonstrated experience authoring comprehensive Solution Design Documents and end-to-end architecture diagrams.

Experience designing solutions that span cloud, SaaS, on-premises, and third-party environments.

Experience with application integration technologies, APIs, middleware, event-driven architectures, managed file transfer, and data exchange patterns.

Working knowledge of networking concepts, including firewalls, DNS, routing, proxies, ports, protocols, certificates, load balancing, and private connectivity.

Experience defining application environments, infrastructure dependencies, deployment requirements, and operational support needs.

Experience reviewing technical designs produced by system integrators, managed service providers, and software vendors.

Experience identifying non-functional requirements and translating them into actionable solution designs.

Experience coordinating contributions from infrastructure, cybersecurity, data, integration, application, and operations specialists.

Ability to identify relevant technical requirements and risks from business-focused discussions.

Understanding of cybersecurity principles, secure solution design, identity and access management, and data protection.

Strong communication, facilitation, influence, negotiation, critical thinking, and stakeholder-management skills.

Ability to challenge incomplete designs, resolve ambiguity, and drive cross-functional technical decisions to closure.

Ability to manage multiple assignments and self-prioritize work effectively.

Preferred Additional Qualifications

Experience with application portfolio management, application rationalization, modernization, or cloud migration.

Experience with Azure Integration Services, MuleSoft, Boomi, Informatica, or comparable integration platforms.

Experience with microservices, container platforms, and modern cloud-native architectures.

Experience applying Agile, DevOps, and IT service management practices.

Experience supporting large-scale technology transformation programs.

Experience in utility industry systems and business processes.

Experience with architecture repositories and diagramming tools.

TOGAF, Azure Architecture, AWS Architecture, SAP Architecture, CISSP, or related architecture certifications.

Full-time