Solution Architect – Retail Applications & Digital Solutions

Job Description

Solution Architect – Retail Applications & Digital Solutions

Location

Niles, IL

Hybrid with WFO 3 days a week – Tuesday to Thursday @ office in Niles.

• Role Overview
• We are seeking an experienced Solution Architect to define and guide the architecture of retail applications and digital solutions. The role will work closely with customer stakeholders, in-house technology teams, and offshore delivery teams to design scalable, secure, reliable, and maintainable solutions aligned with business requirements.
• The candidate will provide technical leadership across application development, system integrations, cloud platforms, data architecture, and application modernization, ensuring consistency in solution design and adherence to enterprise technology standards.
• Key Responsibilities
• Solution Architecture & Design
• Define end-to-end solution architecture based on business requirements, existing systems, and enterprise standards.
• Translate functional and non-functional requirements into technical architecture, design specifications, and implementation guidelines.
• Evaluate solution options, assess feasibility, and recommend appropriate technologies and architectural patterns.
• Define application components, integration patterns, data flows, security mechanisms, and deployment architecture.
• Ensure solutions are scalable, resilient, secure, maintainable, and cost-effective.
• Application & Integration Architecture
• Design solutions involving web applications, APIs, cloud services, databases, workflow automation, and enterprise systems.
• Define integration approaches across applications, data platforms, and third-party systems.
• Establish standards for API design, authentication, error handling, logging, monitoring, and exception management.
• Guide application modernization, re-platforming, and migration initiatives.
• Ensure effective integration with existing retail and distribution systems.
• Technology Leadership & Governance
• Provide technical guidance to development teams and review solution designs, code quality, and implementation approaches.
• Establish reusable architectural patterns, technical standards, and best practices.
• Conduct architecture and design reviews at key stages of implementation.
• Identify technical risks, scalability constraints, performance bottlenecks, and architectural gaps.
• Ensure adherence to security, compliance, availability, performance, and disaster recovery requirements.
• Guide technology selection and evaluate trade-offs involving cost, complexity, maintainability, and business value.
• Performance, Reliability & Operational Excellence
• Define non-functional requirements and measurable acceptance criteria for application performance, availability, scalability, and security.
• Review performance test results and recommend architectural improvements where required.
• Define monitoring, logging, alerting, backup, and recovery approaches.
• Support root-cause analysis of complex production issues and recommend long-term architectural solutions.
• Promote design practices that improve application stability, reduce recurring incidents, and simplify maintenance.
• Stakeholder & Delivery Collaboration
• Work with business analysts, PM, product owners, and customer technology teams to validate solution requirements.
• Collaborate with onsite stakeholders and offshore development teams to ensure consistent understanding of architecture and design decisions.
• Provide technical estimates, identify dependencies, and support delivery planning.
• Review implementation progress and resolve architecture-related blockers.
• Communicate technical options, risks, and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Required Skills & Experience
• 12+ years of experience in software engineering, application architecture, or technology solution delivery, with demonstrated experience in solution architecture.
• Strong experience designing enterprise applications, APIs, integrations, and cloud-based solutions.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure services and cloud architecture.
• Experience with Angular, .NET/C#, SQL Server, REST APIs, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Experience with Microsoft Power Platform, including Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dataverse, is desirable.
• Understanding of identity management, single sign-on, role-based access control, application security, and data protection.
• Experience with performance engineering, scalability, availability, monitoring, and production support.
• Familiarity with CI/CD, source control, automated testing, and DevOps practices.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, technical documentation, and stakeholder communication skills.
• Preferred Domain Experience
• Retail, consumer goods, beverage distribution, or supply chain applications.
• Point-of-sale (POS), demand forecasting, inventory management, order management, sales operations, and distribution systems.
• Enterprise application integrations and cloud-based digital transformation.
• Application modernization and migration from legacy or low-code platforms to web-based solutions.
• Key Deliverables

Deliverable Expected Output

Solution Architecture Document End-to-end architecture, components, technology choices, and design rationale

High-Level & Low-Level Designs Component designs, data flows, APIs, integration patterns, and implementation details

Architecture Diagrams Application landscape, deployment topology, integrations, and data-flow diagrams

Non-Functional Requirements Defined performance, scalability, availability, security, and recovery requirements with measurable acceptance criteria

Integration Specifications API contracts, authentication, error handling, retry mechanisms, and interface dependencies

Technical Standards & Guidelines Reusable patterns, coding guidelines, security standards, and architecture principles

Technical Risk & Dependency Register Architecture risks, constraints, dependencies, mitigation actions, and ownership

Architecture Review Outcomes Design review findings, decisions, action items, and resolution tracking

Performance & Reliability

Recommendations Assessment findings and actionable improvements for identified bottlenecks or operational issues

Modernization Roadmaps Recommended architecture improvements, migration approach, sequencing, and indicative effort where applicable

• Success Measures
• Solutions meet agreed functional and non-functional requirements.
• Architecture decisions and technical dependencies are identified early, reducing rework and delivery delays.
• Applications demonstrate improved performance, scalability, reliability, and maintainability against agreed baselines.
• Reusable components and integration patterns reduce duplication and implementation effort.
• Architecture reviews and technical standards improve consistency across applications.
• Production issues attributable to architectural weaknesses are reduced over time.
• Solutions align with business priorities, enterprise standards, and agreed cost and delivery constraints.