Solutions Architect

University of Toronto • Toronto, ON

5d • CA$123,756 - CA$158,256 • Hybrid

About The Position

The University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) is seeking a Solutions Architect to provide architecture and operational leadership for its campus-wide computing infrastructure and enterprise technology platforms. This role is responsible for the strategic design, management, and reliable operation of on-premises infrastructure, virtualization, storage, backup and recovery, hybrid cloud services, automation, and secure application and platform services. The Solutions Architect will develop short-term and long-term plans for complex enterprise systems, lead major campus-wide IT projects, and represent UTSC in university-wide technology initiatives. The role contributes to IT modernization by developing architecture roadmaps and standards, reducing technical debt, strengthening security and resilience, and advancing infrastructure as code, automation, observability, and lifecycle management. Additionally, the incumbent will oversee the architecture, operation, and continuous improvement of the department’s DevOps environment, ensuring secure, repeatable, reliable, and supportable development, deployment, and operational processes. The role also provides AI architecture and solutions engineering leadership, including assessing campus needs, translating requirements into technical options, developing proofs of concept, designing integration and data-access patterns, evaluating solutions, and moving AI-enabled services into production. The Solutions Architect collaborates with campus stakeholders, central University groups, InfoSec, privacy, procurement, vendors, and project teams to deliver solutions that balance innovation, risk, cost, and operational requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or an acceptable combination of equivalent education and experience.
• Eight (8) years or more of progressively responsible experience designing, implementing, and managing complex enterprise IT infrastructure environments, including on-premises datacenters and virtualized platforms.
• Demonstrated experience designing and reviewing infrastructure architectures involving virtualization, storage, backup and recovery, high availability, Linux/Unix and Windows platforms, and enterprise application or platform services.
• Proven experience designing, implementing, and maintaining hybrid cloud solutions, preferably Microsoft Azure, integrated with enterprise identity, networking, security, and service management practices.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex campus-wide or enterprise-level technology projects and contributing to IT modernization, platform standardization, automation, legacy system renewal, cloud readiness, and operational risk reduction.
• Demonstrated solutions engineering experience, including requirements analysis, architecture options, proofs of concept, build-versus-buy evaluation, vendor assessment, and transition of solutions into production support.
• Experience with platform engineering or DevOps practices, version control systems such as Git, and infrastructure automation tools such as Ansible, Terraform, or equivalent technologies.
• Strong systems administration knowledge across Linux/Unix and Windows platforms, with proficiency in core network protocols, identity integration, web and application services, and secure infrastructure operations.
• Experience with programming or scripting languages such as Python, PowerShell, or shell scripting, and familiarity with relational databases and application integration.
• Strong understanding of information security principles and demonstrated ability to design secure, resilient, identity-aware, and data-sensitive infrastructure and platform solutions.
• Experience using monitoring, observability, capacity planning, and performance metrics to guide architecture, service reliability, cost, and lifecycle decisions.
• Demonstrated understanding of enterprise AI architecture and AI-enabled solution design, including secure data handling, identity and access controls, system integration, model and service evaluation, governance, operational support, monitoring, cost management, and responsible use of AI.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership to cross-functional teams and work effectively with technical specialists, business stakeholders, vendors, and senior leaders.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, written, and oral communication skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and build consensus in a complex environment.
• Evidence of a commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and the promotion of a respectful and collegial learning and working environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting AI, analytics, data, automation, or research computing platforms in higher education, the public sector, or another complex environment.
• Familiarity with enterprise AI platforms, education-focused AI services, productivity assistants, and developer tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT Edu, Claude for Education, Azure AI services, or comparable platforms, as well as solution patterns involving AI agents, orchestration, retrieval and grounding, multimodal AI, and secure enterprise integration.
• Experience with containers, Kubernetes, container registries, secrets management, and secure software delivery practices.
• Experience working with information security, privacy, procurement, legal, accessibility, or governance groups on technology risk, vendor review, and service adoption.
• Experience developing technical roadmaps, business cases, architecture decision records, standards, or recommendations for leadership review.
• Experience with IT service management platforms and operational workflow automation.

Responsibilities

• Designing and reviewing highly complex virtual computing and storage infrastructure.
• Analyzing, programming, and engineering system features in support of critical virtual computing and storage infrastructure.
• Defining requirements and scope of complex projects with broad impact and long-term consequences.
• Advising on cost, feasibility, and impact of different implementation solutions.
• Removing tripping hazards.
• Costing shop level projects.
• Directing a small group in a limited area, including responsibility for scheduling and/or workflow.

Benefits

• Budget - Continuing Appointment
• Full-Time Schedule
• Hybrid work arrangement

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior