Solutions architect is one of the most overloaded titles in the industry — at one company it's the senior technical person designing internal systems before engineering builds them, at another it's a pre-sales engineer shaping proposals for prospective customers, and at a third it's the person governing architecture decisions across multiple teams without writing much code. Knowing which one a listing actually means is the first thing to do before you read any further.
Three jobs are hiding in the same keyword
Internal / Enterprise Architect — designs the technical architecture for systems being built or migrated inside one organisation. Primary work: producing architecture decision records, reviewing engineering proposals, defining integration patterns, governing non-functional requirements across teams. The role sits between product and engineering leadership; it influences but rarely writes production code directly. Found mostly at larger companies with multiple product teams or complex system landscapes.
Pre-Sales / Customer-Facing Solutions Architect — works with prospective or existing customers to design solutions using the company's product or platform. Primary work: discovery calls, solution design documents, proof-of-concept builds, responding to RFPs, technical objection handling. This is a customer-facing role with a strong communication requirement alongside the technical one. Very common at cloud providers, enterprise software vendors, and API-based infrastructure companies.
Technical Lead with Architect Title — a senior individual contributor who leads technical direction for one or a small set of engineering teams, often in an organisation that uses "architect" as a seniority designation rather than a distinct role. Primary work: system design, code review, defining technical standards, mentoring, prototyping. More hands-on than the other two types. Common at product companies that haven't built a formal architecture function.
Four employer types cover most of the market
Cloud platform and infrastructure vendors. AWS, GCP, Azure, and the ecosystem of companies building on top of them. The solutions architect here is almost always customer-facing — helping customers design and migrate to the platform. Volume of these roles is high, travel requirements vary (remote has become normal for most of this work), and compensation is strong.
Enterprise software and SaaS companies. B2B product companies that need someone to bridge their product's technical capabilities and their customers' existing infrastructure. The role sits inside sales engineering or a dedicated professional services function. Strong communication and customer empathy required alongside the architecture skills.
Large technology organisations. Internal architecture functions at banks, telecoms, healthcare systems, large retailers. More governance-focused, slower-moving, more process-oriented than product companies. The role here tends to be more about standards, review boards, and long-lived documentation than rapid iteration.
Technology consulting firms. Boutique consulting shops and larger firms that place solutions architects with clients across industries. Good breadth, client-driven pace, variable technical depth. Useful for building a wide range of domain exposure quickly; harder to build deep specialisation.
What the stack actually looks like
The honest answer is that it depends entirely on the type of role. Customer-facing solutions architects at cloud vendors need deep familiarity with one cloud platform (AWS/GCP/Azure), strong diagramming and documentation practice, and the ability to translate business requirements into technical designs. Internal architects at product companies usually have a cloud background plus strong distributed systems knowledge — event streaming, service mesh, API design, database selection tradeoffs, observability architecture. Pre-sales roles also require CRM tooling fluency (Salesforce is standard) and the ability to produce polished solution documents on short timelines. Across all types: written communication is a core skill, not a secondary one.
Six things worth checking before you apply
- Internal versus customer-facing. This is the most important axis and the listing should make it clear. If it doesn't, ask in the screen — the day-to-day differs enormously.
- Hands-on versus governance. Does this role write code? Review PRs? Or does it produce documents and attend review meetings? Neither is better, but you need to know what you're signing up for.
- Travel expectations. Pre-sales architect roles that describe themselves as "remote" sometimes mean "work from home most of the time but travel to customers quarterly." That's a different thing. Worth confirming.
- Team structure and influence model. How many teams does this architect serve? What authority do they have when teams disagree with their recommendations? Architecture without authority is a different job from architecture with authority.
- Whether coding is on the table. Some companies want architects who prototype, spike, and occasionally write production code. Others explicitly don't. The expectation shapes the job and the type of candidate who succeeds.
- Communication load. Pre-sales roles involve a lot of calls, demos, and written proposals under time pressure. Internal architect roles involve stakeholder management across engineering and product leadership. Both are communication-heavy in different ways.
The bottleneck is different at every level
Junior solutions architect roles are rare — the title usually indicates senior IC or above. Most people arrive here from a prior engineering career, often in backend, cloud, or infrastructure. The candidates who land these roles credibly have typically been doing architecture informally for years before getting the title: leading system design discussions, writing decision records, mentoring peers.
At senior levels, the differentiator is breadth plus communication. Deep technical knowledge is assumed; what's harder to find is someone who can translate it clearly to non-technical stakeholders, document it in a way that survives the person writing it, and stay influential without line authority over the teams involved.
What the hiring process usually looks like
Solutions architect processes vary more by type than any other role in this list. Customer-facing roles at enterprise software companies: (1) Application; (2) Recruiter screen; (3) Technical interview covering the relevant platform or product domain; (4) Solution design exercise — sometimes take-home, sometimes live with a whiteboard; (5) Leadership or cultural fit round; (6) Offer. Internal architect roles at larger organisations often add a presentation round where you walk through a previous architecture decision. Pre-sales roles may include a mock customer discovery call.
Red flags and green flags
Red flags:
- "Light travel" with no definition of what that means. In pre-sales, light travel often means monthly trips.
- Architecture role with "reports to VP Sales." This is almost always a pre-sales function even if it's titled otherwise — worth knowing before you accept.
- No mention of tooling or deliverable format. Architecture roles produce things — decision records, diagrams, solution documents, RFP responses. Listings that don't say what you'll produce often haven't thought it through.
- "Hands-on architecture" in a company with fifty-plus engineers but no mention of a formal architecture review process. Usually means "we need a senior engineer and called it architect."
Green flags:
- Clear role type — internal, pre-sales, or technical lead — in the listing itself.
- Described deliverables: ADRs, solution documents, architecture review processes, customer design sessions.
- Team structure explained: how many teams served, how authority or influence works, what the escalation path looks like.
- Transparent compensation, particularly important at companies where the role straddles technical and commercial.
- A named engineering or architecture blog showing real decisions.
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Frequently asked questions
Do solutions architects write code? It depends on the type of role. Pre-sales architects at platform companies often write proof-of-concept code for customer demos. Technical lead architects at product companies write production code or do significant prototyping. Internal governance architects at large organisations usually don't. The listing should say, and it's worth asking directly if it doesn't.
What cloud certifications help for solutions architect roles? AWS Solutions Architect — Professional is the most widely recognised credential for cloud-focused roles, and the exam design is actually well-aligned with the judgment calls the role requires. Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect and Azure Solutions Architect Expert serve the same function for their respective ecosystems. That said, certifications open screening filters — they don't substitute for the demonstrated ability to design real systems.
How is a solutions architect different from a principal engineer? The distinction varies by company. In some organisations, principal engineer and solutions architect are parallel tracks with similar seniority — one leans toward code, the other toward design and communication. In others, solutions architect is specifically the customer-facing or pre-sales function, while principal engineer is the internal technical leader. The most reliable signal is the company's org chart, not the title.
Can I move into solutions architecture from a backend engineering background? Yes, and it's one of the most common paths. Backend and cloud engineering backgrounds translate well because the architecture decisions in those domains — service boundaries, data flow, integration patterns, reliability tradeoffs — are exactly what solutions architects spend their time on. The new skill to develop is communication: producing architecture documents, running design sessions, and influencing without line authority.
RemNavi pulls listings from company career pages and a handful of remote job boards, then sends you straight to the employer to apply. We don't host the listings ourselves, and we don't stand between you and the hiring team.
Related resources
- Remote AWS Cloud Engineer Jobs — Cloud infrastructure that forms the foundation of most modern architectures
- Remote Backend Developer Jobs — Common career path into solutions architecture
- Remote DevOps Engineer Jobs — Infrastructure and delivery counterpart to architecture design
- Remote .NET Developer Jobs — Enterprise backend context where solutions architects are common
- Remote Data Engineer Jobs — Data architecture is a key specialisation within the solutions architect domain