Senior Solution Architect

The Senior Solution Architect is responsible for the oversight and evolution of key technology and applications including technical planning and strategy with a focus on emerging technology to satisfy future business needs. This role is also responsible for initiating, establishing and evolving patterns and architecture which will be used in the design, development and maintenance of applications that provide services and solutions to business partners.

Who you'll work with

This role reports to the Director, Platform Enablement for Platform Engineering and will work directly with Technology teams to provide oversight and evolution of key technologies and applications.

What you'll do

• Implement new technologies, establish and oversee the adoption of new patterns, practices and standards.
• Develop application and technical architecture for highly complex application software including technology selection, frameworks, tools and integration with third party products.
• Contribute to the design, architecture and development of technical solutions including custom applications required to meet business objectives.
• Introduce architectural, design and implementation standards to be used across all development teams.
• Work with business technology partners to understand functional requirements, develop technical strategies and communicate them to project members to enable effective and quality design.
• Be accountable for the delivery of architecturally sound solutions that are developed according to agreed-upon standards. The assurance is attained through design and code reviews, knowledge transfer & sharing, monitoring quality metrics and trending, and automation/assertion via enabling tools and technology.
• Be responsible for key system design and integration decisions and for communicating decisions to individuals implementing the system.
• Maintain currency in relevant technology trends and industry developments to prepare recommendations for new technology adoption.
• Have a detailed understanding of the large and diverse portfolio of applications/systems architecture including hardware and software platforms, middleware, relational and non-SQL databases, and their capabilities.
• Be responsible for key technical components including maintenance, evolution, identification of performance and or reliability related technical issues, and developing action plans for improvement.

What you'll need

• Strong knowledge of cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• A minimum of 15 years of programming experience developing software applications using an object-oriented programming language or languages.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in providing technical team leadership to a small development team.
• Computer Science or Engineering degree or equivalent education.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills are required. This includes coaching, mentoring, presentation, conflict resolution, negotiation, and expectation management skills.
• Works with minimal supervision and is proactive in soliciting management direction and in escalating significant issues.
• Demonstrates a willingness to take on responsibility and can execute autonomously.
• Recognized by IT staff and customer stakeholders as a leader with the ability to communicate plans across a varied set of stakeholders, and effectively execute on them.
• Has developed a track record of successfully delivering solutions with the ability to effectively prioritize across competing priorities with varying stakeholders.
• Actively seeks opportunities to enhance leadership skills, leads by example, and encourages others to reach their full potential.
• Excels in providing technical leadership in matrix settings - exercising sound/good judgment, management, and problem solving skills.
• Expert in domain specific software development technologies, processes, and application architecture patterns, programming languages, continuous build and integration, Agile software development practices, Service Oriented Architecture.
• Experience successfully delivering solutions with the ability to effectively prioritize across competing priorities with varying stakeholders.
• Experience providing a senior technical and application perspective to business and IT stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to remain hands on and technical, contributing to architecture, prototyping, code reviews, design reviews, and technical problem solving while providing architectural leadership.
• Deep hands on experience designing, deploying, and operating applications on Kubernetes in production environments, including containerization, orchestration, networking, observability, scalability, and resiliency patterns.

Nice to have experience

• Dapr for distributed application development, service invocation, state management, pub/sub, and workflow orchestration.
• Astronomer/Airflow for workflow orchestration, data pipelines, and automation.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Power Platform Solution Architect Expert, TOGAF) are a plus.
• Experience designing and building agentic AI applications and platforms, including orchestration of AI agents, tool integration, workflow management, memory/context patterns, and governance considerations would be an asset.
• Experience extending beyond AI assisted software development tools, including delivery of production AI enabled solutions is preferred.
• Experience building enterprise AI platforms leveraging LLMs, vector databases, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), agent frameworks, and AI governance practices.

What we’re offering

• Numerous opportunities for professional growth and development.
• Comprehensive employer paid benefits coverage.
• Retirement income through a defined benefit pension plan.
• The opportunity to invest back into the fund through our Deferred Incentive Program.
• A flexible work environment combining in office collaboration and remote working.
• Competitive time off.
• Our Flexible Travel Program gives you the option to work abroad in another region/country for up to a month each year.
• Employee discount programs including Edvantage and Perkopolis.

Legal

• Applicants must be legally entitled to work in the country where this role is located.
• Ontario Teachers’ may use AI based tools to assist in screening and assessing applicants for this position. These tools may help us identify candidates whose skills and experience align with Ontario Teachers’ objectives by analyzing information provided in resumes and applications. Our use of AI does not replace human decision making. To learn more about how Teachers’ uses AI with your personal information, please visit our Privacy Centre.