". . Built from blocks. Driven by vision . ."
If there’s one job title that has evolved more in the past 3 years than most people realise, it’s Solution Architect.
When I first joined Entasis Partners, I expected architecture roles to be largely static. Classic design documents, integration patterns, technology choices, and governance frameworks.
But the more candidates I screened and the more clients I supported, the clearer it became.
The Solution Architect of 2025 is a completely different profile to the Solution Architect of 2020!!
· Expectations have changed
· Delivery models have changed
· Transformation programmes have changed
· And hiring managers now look for a blend of depth, breadth, and soft skills that simply didn’t surface this strongly a few years ago.
Below are the key skills that consistently separate the strongest Solution Architects from the rest - based on hundreds of conversations across financial services, consulting, public-sector and product-led environments.
1. Translating strategy into reality
Hiring Managers want architects who can take a business strategy, sometimes vague, sometimes conflicting .. and translate it into:
- Architectural decisions
- Roadmaps
- Trade-offs
- Clear and actionable delivery guidance
We want the architects who can confidently say “Here’s what we should do, here’s why, and here’s how we’ll get there.”
2. Making complexity simple
One of the biggest compliments Hiring Managers give after an interview is, “They explained something complex in a way everyone understood.”
Modern architecture sits across:
- multiple teams
- multiple capabilities
- multiple delivery functions
- multiple stakeholders
If an architect can’t simplify complexity, alignment falls apart. And alignment is the difference between elegant delivery and expensive chaos.
3. Comfortable with Patterns (not just Platforms)
Yes, cloud matters. Yes, modern integration patterns matter. Yes, event-driven architecture matters.
Strong Solution Architects understand the principles behind the platforms - meaning they’re valuable long after a specific technology evolves.
They understand:
- orchestration vs choreography
- coupling vs cohesion
- synchronous vs asynchronous flows
- governance vs autonomy
- resilience vs speed
Patterns are the foundation .. tools sit on top.
4. Designing for change (not just delivery)
Clients want Solution Architects who build for what the organisation will need later, not just what the project needs today.
This includes:
- Observability
- Telemetry
- Scalability
- Extensibility
- Clean integration points
- Clear domain boundaries
5. Stakeholder Leadership (NOT Stakeholder Management)
This is the most underrated skill in the market. Architects now spend as much time influencing as they do designing.
Strong candidates know how to:
- manage expectations
- push back (professionally)
- guide decision-making
- negotiate trade-offs
- align product, engineering, risk, finance, data, and operations
The ability to build trust is now as valuable as technical depth.
6. Governance without Blockers
Governance has evolved. The architects clients want, understand how to:
- set guardrails
- reduce friction
- remove ambiguity
- guide teams without micromanaging them
Governance isn’t about control - it’s about ensuring good decisions happen consistently.
7. Broad enough to see the whole (and deep enough to back it up)
A modern Solution Architect needs to operate at two altitudes:
High-level clarity:
- domains
- capabilities
- dependencies
- flows
- outcomes
Low-level credibility:
- integration patterns
- cloud fundamentals
- identity and access
- security considerations
- data flows
Both matter. Clients look for architects who can zoom in and out without losing confidence or coherence.
8. Curiosity and continuous Learning
This one sounds soft, but it’s the one we see consistently in the best candidates.
We want Solution Architects who stay curious. They learn fast, never assume how things used to be is how things should be, and they adapt their thinking to new threats, new technologies, and new business models.
Curiosity is now a competitive advantage.
What this means for Hiring
When clients tell us they cant find the right architecture talent, it’s rarely because the market is short on skills. It’s because the role itself has evolved faster than most job descriptions (and many applicants haven’t evolved with it).
We want Solution Architects who combine technical breadth + design maturity + behavioural intelligence + business literacy.
And from what we are seeing across the market, this blend is becoming the new baseline rather than the exception.
Great architecture isn’t just built by skilled technologists, it’s built by architects who understand people, systems, decisions, and change.
These are the candidates we get most excited to introduce to clients.
