Application Solutions Architect, Sr.

Southern Company • Atlanta, GA

19h

About The Position

Southstar Technology Solutions – Applications Solution Architect, Senior Purpose This position provides technical and business leadership to Southstar Energy Technology Solutions (SSE Tech Solutions) within the SCS Technology Organization (TO). The role partners with Infrastructure Services, Database Services, Development Strategies and Standards, and other TO teams to deliver modern, secure, and scalable solutions. The Solutions Architect leads end-to-end solution delivery and architectural governance for large, complex initiatives—including consolidation, data migration, and integrations—while mentoring teams and resolving issues to ensure superior performance and reliability.

Requirements

• B.S. in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent; advanced degree or professional certifications (e.g., Azure/AWS solutions architect) preferred.
• Strong understanding of REST/SOAP web services and secure integration patterns.
• Experience with identity federation protocols (SAML, WS-Fed, OAuth2/OIDC) and enterprise SSO.
• Hands-on experience with ETL/ELT and data movement tooling (e.g., SSIS, SRRS/SSRS; Azure Data Factory/Synapse; streaming/CDC).
• Experience integrating systems of record including Oracle CC&B, C2M, and adjacent platforms.
• Cloud expertise across Microsoft Azure (preferred) and familiarity with AWS and Google Cloud.
• Familiarity with modern web frameworks and front-end patterns (e.g., Bootstrap, responsive design) to inform end-to-end solution choices.
• Container technologies and platforms experience (e.g., Red Hat/OpenShift, Kubernetes) for scalable deployment and portability.
• Data architecture design across ODS, data lake/lakehouse, dimensional modeling, and semantic layers to serve both operational and analytical use cases.
• Performance and cost optimization at scale, including serverless, autoscaling, storage tiering, partitioning, and caching strategies.
• Expert knowledge of computing infrastructure and architectural design, including reliability, observability, and resilience engineering.
• Strong application development literacy and enterprise design thinking; ability to evaluate build/buy and vendor solutions.
• Ability to build productive relationships across business and TO; influence with a strategic, outcome-focused lens.
• Exceptional analytical, conceptual, and problem-solving abilities; communicate clearly (verbal and written) to executive and technical audiences.
• Ability to prioritize and execute independently in a fast-paced environment; manage multiple, concurrent initiatives.
• Ability to present ideas in clear business language; plan work and coordinate cross-functional teams effectively.
• Sound knowledge of data privacy practices and laws; model Southern Company Values (Safety First, Intentional Inclusion, Act with Integrity, Superior Performance).

Nice To Haves

• Leading consolidation, data migration, and complex integration programs across hybrid/cloud environments.
• Designing data architectures that balance operational needs and analytical workloads using modern patterns and platforms.
• Evaluating and implementing reporting and analytics platforms (ODS vs. lake/lakehouse) to meet business SLAs and cost targets.
• Deploying and managing workloads on container platforms (e.g., OpenShift/Kubernetes) with DevSecOps practices.
• Knowledge of energy industry trends and Southstar Energy business context.

Responsibilities

• Lead the collaborative development of near- and long-term network, compute, application, and data architectures for SSE Tech Solutions.
• Engage continuously with Southstar Energy Services business leaders and technology/governance teams to translate business outcomes into technology capabilities.
• Provide early solution shaping during project initiation, contributing to proposals and business cases with clear architecture options, risks, and cost implications.
• Identify, evaluate, and communicate the strategic implications of emerging technologies (e.g., IoT, IT/OT convergence, digital labor, container platforms) and align adoption roadmaps with enterprise standards.
• Own architecture reviews across vendor platforms, custom solutions, integrations, and data exchanges through TVP and ARB processes; drive periodic optimization for performance, resilience, and data availability.
• Provide leadership and oversight for technology lifecycle management, standards, and enterprise strategies; coach teams and guide code review practices for internal and vendor-delivered solutions.
• Partner with Data & Analytics stakeholders to embed data acquisition, storage, sharing, governance, reporting, and analytics in new development and major upgrades.
• Design and govern data architectures that support both analytical (BI/AI/ML) and operational workloads, selecting appropriate patterns (data lakehouse, ODS, CDC/streaming, dimensional marts) based on business needs.
• Define reporting and analytics platform vision—evaluating ODS versus data lake/lakehouse implementations—considering performance, cost, and time-to-insight.
• Lead integration strategies across systems of record (e.g., Oracle CC&B/C2M) using secure APIs, messaging, ETL/ELT, and event-driven patterns.
• Architect for cost and performance at scale: right-size compute/storage, leverage serverless and container orchestration, and apply caching/partitioning to meet SLAs while optimizing spend.
• Champion security-by-design: identity federation, zero trust principles, data protection, and compliance with applicable privacy laws and enterprise policies.
• Support solutions from ideation through implementation; plan work, coordinate cross-functional teams, and drive consensus across stakeholders.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees