Sr. Solution Architect – Customer Technology

USG Corporation•Chicago, IL

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

USG Corporation is an industry-leading manufacturer of building products and innovative solutions. USG is evolving its digital customer experience and translating the objective of being the easiest to do business with, into a sustainable technology roadmap. The digital transformation includes upgrading our technology stack and augmenting our teams, developing new digital platforms, and integrating an agile operating model to deliver exceptional customer experiences. The program supports all USG regions, building solutions for customers in the US, Canada, and LATAM. USG is building the data and technology foundation for a next-generation digital platform and this role sits at the center of that transformation. As Sr. Solution Architect, you will translate complex business requirements into technical solution architecture and drive decisions, own the roadmap that delivers them, and serve as the connective tissue between business stakeholders and development teams. This is not a purely technical role. You will spend as much time in conversation with business leaders as you will in architecture design sessions. You think in solutions and processes, communicate in plain language, and know how to make a complicated technical landscape legible to people who don't live in it. You will report directly to the Senior Director of Technology and operate as a senior technical voice across the organization and expert in Customer Technology, preparing and influencing decisions on data platform architecture, web platform capabilities and integration strategy. USG offers a hybrid workplace. The office location is Chicago, IL. Minimal travel may be required.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in technology roles, with at least 5 years in a lead solution architecture, enterprise architecture, or application development role
Demonstrated track record of translating business strategy into technical architecture and phased delivery roadmaps
Proven experience architecting and integrating customer-facing technology solutions end-to-end spanning CMS, PIM, CRM, eCommerce, Digital Asset Management (DAM), and Customer Data Platform (CDP)
Relevant experience working in global organizations, with the ability to adapt architectures to align with standardized tech stacks, governance, and regional requirements
Experience working across complex enterprise environments and integration‑heavy ecosystems
Ability to design architecture for digital solutions at enterprise scale
Excellent skills in producing clear, actionable architecture documentation and solution diagrams (using tools such as Lucidchart, Visio, or Miro), with a proven track record of instructing cross-functional development and data teams
Practical application of MACH architecture principles (Microservices, API‑first, Cloud‑native, Headless) and event-driven, asynchronous patterns to decouple core systems and enable composable platforms
Experience designing data architectures that support operational needs and downstream analytical use cases
Exceptional communication skills, able to synthesize complex technical concepts for both technical and non-technical audiences, drive consensus, and deliver results in a matrixed global environment
Demonstrated technical leadership through mentoring developers, developing and reviewing designs, and elevating architectural maturity across delivery teams
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate architecture decisions, trade‑off and integration strategies to technical and executive stakeholders

Nice To Haves

Experience with event streaming and CDC patterns in enterprise environments
Experience with architecting in Azure cloud environments
Exposure to Oracle EBS and ERP modernization or coexistence strategies
Experience designing or governing integration platforms or middleware layers (iPaaS, Kafka, ESB)

Responsibilities

Translate business requirements, commercial goals, and customer experience needs into technical solution architecture and respective decisions and phased roadmaps
Partner with business stakeholders across sales operations, marketing and customer service to understand capability needs before they become requirements
Own the architecture narrative, producing clear, compelling documentation and presentations that make technical decisions accessible to executive audiences
Identify where technology is a constraint on business growth and propose solutions that remove that constraint
Ensure solutions align with USG’s global technology stack, architecture standards, and compliance requirements, collaborating effectively with international IT and business teams
Define and own the solution architecture across the data platform, web platform, eCommerce, Salesforce platform, integration, and martech domains
Develop comprehensive architecture documentation, process flows, and data models to guide and instruct developers and data teams
Define and harmonize platform, process, and data architecture across the customer technology stack, ensuring consistency and best practices from user interface through backend data flows
In collaboration with the parent company Knauf, set architecture standards and patterns that development teams build against, evaluate emerging technologies and vendors against the organization's strategic direction and existing investments
Ensure architecture decisions account for scalability, security, operational complexity, and total cost of ownership
Produce and maintain a technology roadmap that sequences capability delivery against business priorities
Work with product and technical leads to translate architecture and solution concept into delivery backlog, sequencing, and delivery milestones
Identify and surface technical dependencies, risks, and decision gates that affect delivery timelines
Own architecture through delivery, not just the design phase
Serve as a senior technical advisor to the Senior Director of Technology and broader leadership
Build credibility with both business and IT stakeholders through clear thinking and consistent follow-through
Challenge proposals from vendors, colleagues, and partners with rigor and intellectual honesty
Mentor developers and analysts on architecture thinking and systems design