Enterprise/App solutions Architect

Role Name: Enterprise / Application Solutions Architect (Retail and Ecommerce with Google Cloud Platform)

Location: Remote (PST Timezone)

Key Responsibilities:

1. Architecture Operating Pillars

Advisory

• Define enterprise-wide architecture standards, principles, and guardrails.

• Create and maintain reference architectures, patterns, and best practices.

• Drive clarity on system boundaries, data flows, and integration strategies using recognized modeling frameworks.

Enablement

• Support engineering teams through architecture co-creation, design guidance, and handshake reviews.

• Provide hands-on direction during solutioning, technical spikes, and platform migrations.

• Mentor engineering teams to improve architectural maturity across the organization.

2. Solution Architecture Leadership:

• Lead vendor evaluations based on non-functional requirements (performance, scalability, latency, security, cost).

• Define canonical data models, integration patterns, and data governance guidelines.

• Establish API contracts, including versioning, lifecycle guidelines, and boundary definitions.

• Create and maintain architectural artifacts such as: C4 model diagrams
• Application/system landscape diagrams
• Sequence diagrams & process flows
• Integration architecture maps
• Partner closely with enterprise architecture teams to maintain alignment with global standards.
• Provide architectural mentoring to solution engineers and tech leads.

3. Architecture Governance:

Two-Layer Governance Model

• Enterprise Architecture Board Owns global standards, long-term architectural principles, and strategic direction.
• Digital Architecture Review Board (DARB)
• Weekly solution design reviews.
• Ensures compliance with standards, best practices, and platform strategy.

Decision Documentation

• Use Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) to document: Decision context
• Options considered
• Chosen approach
• Impacts and risks
• Future considerations

4. Target Architecture Direction:

Service-Based Architecture Evolution

• Drive transition to a service-based abstraction layer to decouple front-end applications and backend platforms.

• Ensure business logic (payments, inventory, promotions, rollback handling, etc.) resides in independent services, not in Salesforce, frontend apps, or monolithic platforms.

Platform Independence:

• Define stable API contracts that allow: Plug-and-play of CDP, loyalty, commerce, payments, or other platforms.
• Avoiding vendor lock-in.
• Future scalability and modular evolution.

Current Gaps & Transition Support:

• Guide selection and architecture design for: Customer Data Platform (CDP)
• Loyalty platform
• Reduce dependency on Salesforce as an orchestration layer.
• Introduce a new services framework to support future business growth and technical flexibility.

5. Technical Expectations:

E-Commerce & Digital Architecture

Strong understanding of:

• Product catalog & taxonomy
• Cart & checkout flows
• Order lifecycle & fulfillment orchestration
• Payments, fraud, and promotions
• Customer accounts, loyalty, and identity
• Experience designing scalable digital platforms for high-traffic and peak-load seasons.

Cloud & Infrastructure:

• Experience with modern cloud ecosystems: Google Cloud Platform (Google Cloud Platform)
• Cloudflare (edge networks, workers, security)
• Comfortable defining infrastructure patterns that support reliability, performance, and observability.

Platform Expertise (Nice to Have):

• Hands-on exposure to: Salesforce Commerce / Salesforce Platform
• Shopify headless/composable setups
• Not mandatory but beneficial for understanding integration boundaries.

Qualifications:

• 12+ years in architecture roles within digital, retail, or B2C technology environments.

• Proven experience in enterprise architecture, solution architecture, and platform modernization.

• Strong knowledge of integration patterns (event-driven, messaging, REST, graph, async).

• Experience working with product, engineering, security, and business teams.

• Excellent communication and executive storytelling skills.