SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT - Retail

Happiest Minds • Chicago, IL

6d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Solutions Architect will define and guide the architecture of retail applications and digital solutions, working with customer stakeholders, in-house technology teams, and offshore delivery teams. The role translates business and technical requirements into scalable, secure, reliable, maintainable, and cost-effective solution designs aligned with enterprise standards.

The architect provides technical leadership across application development, integrations, cloud platforms, data architecture, and application modernization. The role also supports implementation through design reviews, technical guidance, delivery planning, performance and reliability recommendations, and clear communication of technical options, risks, dependencies, and trade-offs.

The position is hybrid, with work from the Niles, Illinois office three days per week, Tuesday through Thursday. Key deliverables include architecture documents and diagrams, high- and low-level designs, non-functional requirements, integration specifications, technical standards, risk and dependency registers, review outcomes, performance recommendations, and modernization roadmaps.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in software engineering, application architecture, or technology solution delivery, including demonstrated solution architecture experience.
• Strong experience designing enterprise applications, APIs, integrations, and cloud-based solutions.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure services and cloud architecture.
• Experience with Angular, .NET/C#, SQL Server, REST APIs, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Understanding of identity management, single sign-on, role-based access control, application security, and data protection.
• Experience with performance engineering, scalability, availability, monitoring, and production support.
• Familiarity with CI/CD, source control, automated testing, and DevOps practices.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, technical documentation skills, and stakeholder communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Microsoft Power Platform, including Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dataverse.
• Experience in retail, consumer goods, beverage distribution, or supply chain applications.
• Experience with point-of-sale (POS), demand forecasting, inventory management, order management, sales operations, or distribution systems.
• Experience with enterprise application integrations and cloud-based digital transformation.
• Experience modernizing applications and migrating from legacy or low-code platforms to web-based solutions.

Responsibilities

• Define end-to-end solution architecture based on business requirements, existing systems, and enterprise standards.
• Translate functional and non-functional requirements into technical architecture, design specifications, and implementation guidelines.
• Evaluate solution options and feasibility, recommend technologies and architectural patterns, and define application components, integrations, data flows, security mechanisms, and deployment architecture.
• Design solutions involving web applications, APIs, cloud services, databases, workflow automation, and enterprise systems.
• Define integration approaches and standards for API design, authentication, error handling, logging, monitoring, and exception management.
• Guide application modernization, re-platforming, and migration initiatives, including integration with existing retail and distribution systems.
• Provide technical guidance to development teams and review solution designs, code quality, and implementation approaches.
• Establish reusable architectural patterns, technical standards, and best practices; conduct architecture and design reviews.
• Identify technical risks, scalability constraints, performance bottlenecks, and architectural gaps; ensure alignment with security, compliance, availability, performance, and disaster recovery requirements.
• Define non-functional requirements and measurable acceptance criteria for performance, availability, scalability, and security.
• Review performance test results and recommend architectural improvements.
• Define monitoring, logging, alerting, backup, and recovery approaches.
• Support root-cause analysis of complex production issues and recommend long-term architectural solutions.
• Work with business analysts, project managers, product owners, and customer technology teams to validate requirements.
• Collaborate with onsite stakeholders and offshore development teams to ensure shared understanding of architecture and design decisions.
• Provide technical estimates, identify dependencies, support delivery planning, review implementation progress, and resolve architecture-related blockers.
• Communicate technical options, risks, and trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed