What Type of Solutions Architect Does Your Company Need?
Two companies can hire a solutions architect and expect completely different results. One might need someone to help close technically complex deals, while another needs an expert to design customer implementations.
Before recruiting, identify where you need architectural ownership.
The distinction matters when setting your hiring requirements. A strong pre-sales architect may excel at navigating complex customer evaluations, while a delivery architect may bring deeper experience with production environments and implementation constraints.
If your main priority is product demonstrations and technical sales support, a solutions engineer may be a better match.
For companies needing deeper architectural ownership, South can help identify candidates whose experience matches the actual work involved.
How Should a Solutions Architect Fit Into Your Team?
A solutions architect needs a clear place in your organization, especially when several departments contribute to customer solutions.
Depending on the position's focus, they may report to a CTO, VP of Engineering, Head of Solutions Engineering, or implementation leader.
Before hiring, establish four important boundaries:
- Architecture decisions: Can the architect approve technical designs independently, or does engineering leadership provide final approval?
- Implementation ownership: Will they guide developers through execution, contribute code, or remain responsible for architectural direction?
- Customer communication: Will they work directly with technical buyers and customer stakeholders, or collaborate primarily with internal teams?
- Cross-functional handoffs: Who takes responsibility when a proposed solution moves from technical evaluation into production?
These decisions determine the level of autonomy, technical depth, and stakeholder management experience your candidate needs.
They also help prevent scope problems after hiring, when a solutions architect discovers that several teams expect them to own the same project from different directions.
Should You Hire a Mid-Level or Senior Solutions Architect?
A mid-level solutions architect can be a good fit when your company already has established technical standards and senior engineering leadership available for complex decisions.
A senior solutions architect becomes more valuable when the position requires independent design authority, experience navigating difficult customer requirements, and responsibility for decisions affecting multiple systems or teams.
The level of ownership should determine seniority. Someone expected to establish architectural standards or lead critical customer implementations will generally need more experience than someone working within an established architecture.
How to Evaluate Solutions Architect Candidates
A candidate's certifications and previous employers provide useful context, but the strongest hiring signal is how they approach a realistic architecture challenge.
Consider giving shortlisted candidates a scenario based on your product and customer environment.
For example:
Your company sells a B2B software platform. A prospective customer needs to connect it with several existing systems, meet strict security requirements, and complete implementation within eight weeks. How would you approach the solution?
Ask the candidate to explain their discovery process, outline an architecture, identify potential risks, and present their recommendation.
Use a simple evaluation scorecard:
Look for candidates who can justify their decisions. A good architect should be comfortable discussing alternatives, explaining trade-offs, and changing a recommendation when new information becomes available.
For a customer-facing role, this exercise also reveals how effectively the candidate can communicate with U.S.-based teams and clients.
What Should a Solutions Architect Accomplish in the First 90 Days?
Hiring a solutions architect should create measurable improvements in how your company designs, validates, or delivers technical solutions.
The first 90 days provide an opportunity to establish those expectations.
First 30 Days: Understand the Architecture and Business Priorities
Your new hire should become familiar with your product, existing infrastructure, customer requirements, and engineering processes.
For a pre-sales position, this includes understanding common technical objections and how customer evaluations are handled. For a delivery position, the emphasis may be on identifying implementation risks and recurring integration challenges.
Days 31–60: Take Ownership of Technical Solutions
By the second month, the architect should begin independently handling work within their assigned scope.
That could mean developing technical proposals for qualified opportunities, reviewing customer integration designs, documenting architectural decisions, or coordinating implementation plans with engineering.
The priority is establishing clear ownership and dependable technical decision-making.
Days 61–90: Demonstrate Business Impact
By the third month, the architect should be contributing to outcomes that matter to the hiring team.
Depending on the position, useful performance indicators include:
- Time required to complete technical evaluations
- Number of architecture-related escalations to engineering
- Time between approved solution design and implementation readiness
- Frequency of integration problems requiring architectural rework
- Quality and consistency of technical documentation and handoffs
Choose a few indicators that match the role's responsibilities and measure improvements against your existing baseline.
Related Roles to Consider
Depending on your company's technical priorities, you may need a different specialist or someone who works alongside your Solutions Architect.
- Software Architect: Best for companies that need someone to define application architecture, establish technical standards, and guide software development decisions.
- Cloud Engineer: Focuses on building, configuring, and maintaining cloud infrastructure across AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
- Integration Engineer: A good fit when your main priority is connecting applications, developing integrations, and maintaining reliable data flows between systems.
- DevOps Engineer: Helps engineering teams automate deployments, manage infrastructure, and improve production reliability.
- Data Architect: Designs the data structures, storage systems, and integration patterns needed to support reporting, analytics, and business applications.
The right hire depends on where your team needs ownership. A Solutions Architect is generally the stronger choice when the position requires translating complex business requirements into technical designs across multiple systems, especially in customer-facing environments.
South can help you find qualified Latin American professionals across these technical roles, based on your team's priorities.
Hire a Solutions Architect in Latin America With South
Finding a solutions architect with the right combination of technical judgment, practical experience, and customer communication can require a highly targeted search.
South helps U.S. companies hire full-time, pre-vetted solutions architects from Latin America, matched to their technology stack, seniority requirements, and business needs.
Whether you need someone supporting complex technical sales cycles or leading customer architecture and implementation, we can help you find candidates with relevant experience and the English proficiency needed to collaborate with your team.
You'll also benefit from overlapping U.S. working hours, one consolidated monthly invoice, no minimum commitments, and a free replacement if the hire doesn't work out.
Schedule a call with South to find a solutions architect who fits your technical requirements and hiring budget.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does a Solutions Architect Need to Write Code?
It depends on the position. Some solutions architects create prototypes, test integrations, or contribute to technical implementations. Others focus primarily on architectural design, documentation, and technical guidance.
Companies should establish coding expectations before recruiting so candidates understand the required level of hands-on involvement.
Can One Solutions Architect Handle Both Pre-Sales and Implementation?
Yes, particularly at growing companies with manageable customer volumes. A hybrid solutions architect can maintain technical continuity throughout the customer journey.
As deal complexity and implementation workloads increase, separating these responsibilities may provide better coverage and clearer accountability.
Are Cloud Certifications Necessary When Hiring a Solutions Architect?
Certifications from AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud can help demonstrate relevant knowledge, particularly when your customers or technology partnerships require specific credentials.
However, employers should also evaluate practical architecture experience, integration decisions, and the candidate's ability to work with real technical constraints.
What Information Should I Prepare Before Hiring Through South?
Start with your primary cloud platforms, integration requirements, customer environment, seniority expectations, and whether the role focuses on pre-sales or implementation.
It also helps to define who the architect will report to and which architectural decisions they'll own.
South can use those requirements to focus the search on candidates whose backgrounds match your needs.
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