Applications Architect

Description

We are looking for an experienced Applications Architect to support enterprise technology initiatives within the automotive industry in Southern California. This is a Long-term Contract position requiring an onsite presence four days per week, where you will partner with business and IT leaders to shape scalable cloud and data architecture solutions. The role focuses on aligning technical design with strategic goals, strengthening security and governance practices, and guiding delivery teams toward high-quality, reusable solutions.

Responsibilities:

Partner with business and technology stakeholders to create architecture approaches that support enterprise objectives and encourage reuse across cloud-based solutions.

Define architectural direction by contributing to technology standards, capability roadmaps, and solution design practices in collaboration with IT leadership.

Lead technical solution design for application, compute, storage, integration, and platform needs, ensuring compatibility across environments and external services.

Work closely with analysts, project managers, engineers, and developers to translate project needs into practical architecture recommendations and implementation plans.

Support architecture governance by preparing materials for review processes and guiding stakeholders through approval decisions.

Develop diagrams, workflows, and technical models using tools such as Visio and Draw.io to clearly communicate solution designs.

Design secure data architectures for databases, warehouses, lakes, and APIs, with attention to confidentiality, access controls, privacy requirements, and enterprise security principles.

Evaluate products, platforms, and vendor offerings, recommend suitable technologies, and identify risks related to architecture, delivery, or implementation.

Improve data platform effectiveness by optimizing schemas, storage approaches, pipeline performance, orchestration, and data quality standards while reinforcing governance expectations.

Ensure initiatives follow established delivery methodologies and quality expectations, while contributing reusable patterns, frameworks, and components for application teams.

Requirements

Experience serving as an applications or solutions architect in complex enterprise environments, preferably within automotive or similarly regulated industries.
Strong knowledge of cloud architecture, application integration, compute and storage design, and multi-platform solution planning.
Hands-on expertise in data architecture, including database design, data warehouses or lakes, schema development, metadata standards, and pipeline optimization.
Solid understanding of security, compliance, confidentiality, and data protection controls at the database, API, and consumption layers.
Ability to engage senior stakeholders, lead architecture discussions, and align technical decisions with long-term business strategy.
Proficiency with architecture documentation and modeling tools such as Visio, Draw.io, or similar platforms.
Familiarity with software evaluation, vendor assessment, development lifecycle governance, and quality assurance practices.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience in architecture and enterprise technology design.

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