Associate Principal Solutions Architect

Tekion

7d

About The Position

The Associate Principal Solutions Architect drives the adoption and delivery of Tekion’s digital retail platform for OEMs, dealers, and technology partners. This role blends deep automotive domain knowledge, advanced technical skills, and strategic business acumen. The ideal candidate builds bridges across stakeholders to deliver seamless, integrated solutions that enable the future of automotive retail.

Requirements

• At least 8 years in solutions architecture, pre-sales, or lead technical/product roles, with significant experience in digital automotive retail (B2B preferred)
• Strong track record in automotive and financial services domain areas such as desking, F&I, credit, DMS integrations, menu selling, and OEM/Dealer collaboration
• Experience with SaaS or ERP solutions for supply chain, inventory, logistics, or automotive retail
• Demonstrated ability to scope projects, lead technical planning, estimate effort, and resolve technical challenges
• Hands-on experience with digital retail, lending, forms, digital document management, CRM, desking, and online retail workflows
• Proficiency with APIs and integration tools (e.g., Postman), and documentation best practices (Confluence, Jira)
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and stakeholder management skills, including executive-level engagement and technical negotiations
• Proven experience delivering multi-stakeholder projects through collaborative, cross-functional teamwork

Nice To Haves

• Strong understanding of fixed operations (service, parts, repair) is highly preferred

Responsibilities

• Apply deep automotive retail and financial services domain expertise, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of vehicle desking, menu selling, lending and financing processes, and integration with third-party systems including F&I, Credit, and external DMS. Experience with service, parts, and repair (Fixed Operations) processes is a strong plus.
• Serve as a critical business translator between OEM partners and Tekion’s product/engineering teams. Capture complex OEM business needs—such as dealer enrollment, Dealer Portal SSO, OEM accessory ingestion, or secure checkout—and convert them into actionable technical specifications and robust solution designs.
• Lead strategic technical scoping and estimation for new and evolving projects. Define key requirements, identify potential solutions, estimate effort and timelines, and proactively address technical challenges like SSO provisioning or data flows.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and design teams to develop prototypes, proofs of concept, and tightly integrated digital retail experiences—focusing on advanced concepts like digital lending, forms, document handling, and high-trust integrations.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with OEM, dealership, and technology stakeholders. Drive successful integrations and serve as the technical point of contact during solution design, implementation, and ongoing collaboration.
• Demonstrate hands-on technical proficiency, including calling APIs with tools such as Postman, developing architectural documentation (BRDs, PRDs, API specs), and ensuring project materials are organized and up-to-date in Confluence and integrated project systems such as Jira.
• Communicate platform capabilities, solutions, and technical details clearly and effectively to all audiences, including executive-level stakeholders, internal team members, and external partners.
• Deliver product demonstrations and presentations, negotiate technical details, and manage alignment and expectations across all parties involved.
• Travel between 25 to 50 percent to engage with clients, participate in onsite workshops, lead strategy sessions, and support implementations.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and generous stock options
• 100% employer-paid top-tier medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Great benefits including unlimited PTO, parental leave, and free snacks and beverages
• Opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds from Silicon Valley’s most successful companies
• Be part of an early-stage, hyper-growth start-up with opportunities for growth and advancement
• Work on the latest technologies—everything is home-grown and built from the ground up
• A dynamic work environment with a strong sense of community and collaboration
• Open and transparent culture that encourages innovation, rewards performance, and discourages hierarchy
• Exciting opportunities for career growth and development

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees