Solutions Architect

6 month contract to hire. Hybrid 2-3 days/week onsite. Must live in Columbus or surrounding area. This is the highest band for salary but I don't have the conversion salary information yet.

Position Summary

The Solutions Architect for Automation & AI proactively and holistically leads and supports domain-level activities that guide the development and management of a portfolio of automation and AI solutions. Solutions include projects, systems (applications, technologies, processes, and information), and shared infrastructure and application services. This role is trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and development teams. The architect is technology-neutral, motivated, and driven by achieving long-term business outcomes, with a strong ability to work effectively in a team environment and lead cross-functional teams.

Understands business goals, objectives, and outcomes, business capabilities, value streams, and business processes and their importance in solution architecture. Provides the necessary leadership, analysis, and design tasks related to supporting the development of technology solutions to ensure that solutions meet business needs and align with architectural governance and standards.

Sub-Function - Automation & AI

• Certifications in automation platforms (UiPath, ServiceNow, Microsoft Power Platform, M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, AI Foundry, nebulaONE, and/or Glean AI, etc.) and AI technologies. Should be a Certified Solutions Architect or equivalent in at least one major automation or AI platform.

• End-to-end automation architectures leveraging cloud and on-premises services for process automation, workflow orchestration, and AI-driven decisioning. Consider integration with legacy systems and multi-cloud scenarios for hybrid automation strategies and business continuity.

• Design and implement automation pipelines using platforms like UiPath, ServiceNow, and Copilot Studio, integrating with APIs, databases, and third-party systems.

• Architect solutions for intelligent automation, including RPA (Robotic Process Automation), workflow automation, and AI-powered bots. Implement process mining, task mining, and analytics to identify automation opportunities.

• Define governance policies and security controls to ensure automation integrity, privacy, and regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PHI, SOX). Implement role-based access, encryption, and auditing mechanisms for automated processes.

• Incorporate machine learning and AI capabilities into automation solutions for predictive analytics, anomaly detection, recommendation systems, and advanced use cases. Leverage platforms like AI Foundry, Copilot Studio, nebulaONE, and/or Glean AI for model training, deployment, and integration.

• Implement monitoring and logging solutions to track automation performance, reliability, and cost. Continuously optimize resource utilization, automate scaling, and identify opportunities for cost savings.

Responsibilities

Understand & Translate Business Needs (30%)

• Translate business and technical requirements into an architectural blueprint to achieve business objectives.

• Work closely with product owners and managers to ensure a robust architectural runway supporting future business requirements throughout the product lifecycle.

• Understand business drivers and capabilities (future and current state) and determine corresponding enterprise solution designs and change requirements to drive targeted business outcomes.

• Example deliverables: requirements traceability document, business process/capability impact assessment, business process diagrams.

Assess Technology (30%)

• Monitor the current-state solution portfolio to identify deficiencies through aging technologies.

• Support product managers in end-of-life product decisions to maintain, refresh, or retire services or systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information.

• Understand emerging technology trends and disruptions in automation and AI, and their practical application to enable new and evolving business models.

• Analyze the technology industry, competitors, and market trends and determine their potential implications for automation and AI solutions.

• Analyze the business-IT environment to detect critical deficiencies, legacy, and technical debt and recommend improvement solutions.

• Consult with application and infrastructure development projects and products to fit systems or infrastructure to architecture.

Apply Technology (25%)

• Lead evaluation, design, and analysis for implementing solution architecture across a group of specific business applications or technologies based on enterprise business strategy, business capabilities, value streams, business requirements, and enterprise standards.

• Manage and develop the architecture for a broader scope of projects or products and manage and design architecture for a single project, product, or initiative.

• Develop a roadmap for the evolution of the enterprise solution portfolio from current to future state, as defined by the solutions architecture.

• Act as a consultant on various automation and AI technologies, platforms, and vendor offerings to drive targeted business outcomes.

• Create contextualized solution development across products, services, projects, and systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information.

• Work closely with the program management office (PMO) or project management office to ensure that plans are executed according to promises throughout the project or product lifecycle.

• Example deliverables: Solution documentation, enterprise target state architecture, application/platform strategy.

Provide Enterprise Guidance (15%)

• Provide deliverables like standard definitions, reference models, and architecture designs to support architectural governance and assess the impact of new and ongoing technology investment on the business and IT estate.

• Support a community of practice (CoP), guiding and helping agile teams' product owners to align with the overall enterprise architecture governance and assurance.

• Design and direct governance activities to ensure the assurance and compliance of solutions architecture.

• Define principles, guidelines, standards, and solution patterns to ensure that solution decisions align with the enterprise's future-state architecture vision.

• Example deliverables: solution scorecard, enterprise reference architecture components.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in business, information systems, or related discipline, or equivalent and extensive related project experience in automation, AI, or a relevant industry is preferred.

• Minimum of seven years of experience in at least four years of IT solution development disciplines, including technical or infrastructure architecture, automation, AI, application development, middleware, database management, or cloud development.

• Exposure to multiple, diverse technologies, platforms, and processing environments.

• Good understanding of strategic and emerging technology trends in automation and AI, and the practical application of existing and emerging technologies to new and evolving business and operating models.

• Good understanding of product management, agile principles, and development methodologies, and capability of supporting agile teams by providing advice and guidance on opportunities, impact, and risks, taking account of technical and architectural debt.

• Experience developing architecture blueprints, strategies, and roadmaps.

• Experience delivering presentations to senior-level executives and technical audiences.

• Organizationally savvy, with the ability to navigate organizational politics.

• Skilled at influencing, guiding, and facilitating decision-making with stakeholders and peers.

• Ability to articulate new ideas and concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.

• Ability to understand situations' long-term ("big picture") and short-term perspectives.

• Ability to translate future-state business capabilities and requirements into solution architecture requirements.

• Ability to propose and estimate the financial impact of solution architecture alternatives.

Skills

• Knowledge of automation platforms (UiPath, ServiceNow, Microsoft Power Platform, M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, AI Foundry, nebulaONE, and/or Glean AI, etc).

• Knowledge of backend development languages (e.g., Python, Java, .NET).

• Knowledge of database technologies (e.g., SQL, NoSQL, MongoDB, Microsoft, Oracle).

• Knowledge of front-end web development languages (e.g., JavaScript, HTML, CSS).

• Knowledge of technology architecture aspects: cloud, integration, network, and security.

• Knowledge of financial models and budgeting.

• Understanding and knowledge of system development life cycle methodologies (e.g., waterfall, agile, DevOps).

• Understanding and knowledge of IT service management (ITSM) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

• Knowledge of modeling languages (e.g., UML, ArchiMate).

• Understanding of IT standards and controls.

• Excellent analytical, planning, organizational, and technical skills.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.