Solutions Architect

Company Description

McFadyen Digital is the leading advisor and implementer of eCommerce Marketplace solutions.  During 15 years of implementing marketplaces, we’ve built dozens of platforms that cumulatively generate billions of dollars of gross merchandise value (GMV).  We’re honored to have supported 10% of the Fortune 500 with their digital marketplace initiatives.  Over 250 global brands like ABB, AB InBev, ACCO, Albertsons, American Red Cross, American Eagle Outfitters, US Army, US Agriculture Dept, (and many more) have entrusted their digital transformations to McFadyen. We operate global offices across the US, Brazil, and India. McFadyen Digital has been a trusted employer for 37 years and believes that people are the most important part of our company.  We’re proud of our Great Place to Work certification.    

Learn more about us at our website: www.mcfadyen.com

Job Description

Responsibilities

Top 5 responsibilities

Solution Architecture Leadership: Lead the development of architectures for complex solutions, ensuring consistency with specified requirements agreed with both external and internal customers. Establish policy and strategy for the selection of solution architecture components, and coordinate design activities to ensure consistency. Ensure alignment across business, application, data, and technology architecture layers.

Solution Delivery Excellence: Facilitate availability and optimum utilization of resources while ensuring projects are carried out in accordance with agreed architectures, standards, methods, and procedures. Lead systems design activities for strategic, large, and complex systems development programs.

Consultancy & Client Engagement: Take responsibility for understanding client requirements, managing client relationships, and developing consultancy services across a wide range of topics. Engage with clients from initial proposal through solution delivery to disengagement. Act as a trusted advisor to client stakeholders, providing architecture assessments, roadmaps, and innovative technical recommendations.

Knowledge Management & Sharing: Develop and champion organizational knowledge management approaches, processes, and supporting technologies. Organize knowledge assets and facilitate sharing, collaboration, and communication of knowledge across teams.

Emerging Technology Leadership: Monitor the external environment to evaluate emerging technologies and their potential impacts, threats, and opportunities for our clients. Create technology roadmaps and share insights across the organization. Stay current on emerging technologies and lead internal knowledge-sharing and innovation initiatives.

Additional Responsibilities

Architecture & Standards Development:

• Take full responsibility for balancing functional, service quality, security, compliance, and systems management requirements within complex projects.
• Ensure appropriate standards (corporate, industry, national, and international) are adhered to.
• Within business change programs, manage target design, policies, and standards, working proactively to maintain a stable, viable architecture.
• Drive adoption of and adherence to relevant policies, standards, strategies, and architectures.

Systems Design & Implementation:

• Lead the definition, implementation, and review of systems development management frameworks.
• Develop organizational policies, standards, and guidelines for systems design.
• Champion systems design principles and appropriate lifecycle models, whether predictive or adaptive.
• Develop effective implementation and procurement strategies consistent with requirements, architectures, and constraints.
• Evaluate the quality of others' systems designs to ensure adherence to standards and identify corrective actions when needed.

Software Architecture & Design:

• Select, adopt, and adapt appropriate software design methods, tools, and techniques.
• Specify and design large or complex software components, conducting impact analysis on major design options.
• Develop organizational policies, standards, and guidelines for software design and architectures.
• Ensure that system designs balance functional, quality, security, and systems management requirements.
• Specify prototypes/simulations to enable informed decision-making.

Security & Compliance:

• Ensure architectures include robust security, privacy, and compliance measures such as role-based access control (RBAC), row-level and column-level security (RLS/CLS), encryption, GDPR, PCI-DSS, and CCPA.
• Implement best practices for secure software development, including DevSecOps methodologies.
• Provide governance and oversight for security-related decisions, ensuring adherence to industry standards and best practices.
• Familiarity with modern authentication and authorization protocols (OAuth 2.0, OIDC) and secure API design principles.

Client & Team Leadership:

• Manage the provision of consultancy services and/or management of a team of consultants.
• Provide organizational leadership and guidelines to promote specialist knowledge development.
• Actively mentor junior team members on functional/technical areas, helping them perform efficiently.
• Support Delivery Managers and Project Managers in forecasting staff, budget, and other resource needs.
• Take ownership of assigned tasks and deliverables, demonstrating leadership qualities.

Business Development & Client Success:

• Drive or support business development, including sales calls and preparing technical responses with estimated scope, costs, and resources.
• Strategize with sales prospects and existing clients on innovative technology solutions.
• Actively search for opportunities to expand business within existing accounts.
• Ensure client satisfaction by understanding requirements and delivering value.
• Maintain a network of recognized experts who can deliver expert advice in relevant areas.

Continuous Learning & Innovation:

• Stay on top of technology trends and developments (out of self-driven passion).
• Enhance skills on technology stack modules with at least 24 hours of training per year.
• Obtain relevant certifications and specializations.
• Explore and keep up to date with current trends relevant to the e-commerce domain.
• Contribute towards improving overall efficiencies of processes.

Qualifications

Top 5 Qualifications

• Development experience in one or more of the following technologies – Java, PHP, JavaScript/TypeScript (React, Vue, Next.js, Node.js), or Python.
• Proven experience designing cloud-native, microservices-based architectures using API-first and event-driven approaches.
• Hands-on experience with major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) including serverless computing, containerization, and infrastructure as code.
• Experience with both relational and NoSQL database technologies, data streaming, and modern data architecture patterns.
• Knowledge of DevSecOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, observability, infrastructure as code, and automated testing.

Other Qualifications

• Experience with modern frontend architectures including PWAs, micro-frontends, and headless/composable approaches.
• Hands-on experience with container orchestration (Kubernetes, ECS), service mesh technologies (Istio, Linkerd), and GitOps workflows.
• Experience implementing commerce solutions on at least one of the following: Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Magento/Adobe Commerce, commercetools, Elastic Path, VTEX, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, ATG Oracle Commerce, or similar platforms.
• Experience with marketplace solutions such as Mirakl, Marketplacer, or custom-built marketplace architectures.
• Knowledge of digital experience platforms (DXPs) and composable commerce approaches using MACH principles (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless).
• Experience integrating modern commerce solutions with retail systems (OMS, PIM, CRM) using APIs, webhooks, and event-driven architectures.
• Familiarity with AI/ML implementation in commerce contexts, such as personalization, search optimization, demand forecasting, or inventory management.
• Experience implementing or designing solutions that leverage generative AI capabilities.
• Understanding of data mesh architecture and experience building data platforms that support real-time analytics.
• Experience with real-time messaging and streaming platforms (Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS Kinesis).
• Proven experience in architectural governance, creating technology roadmaps, and building architecture decision records (ADRs).
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts to business stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring and coaching technical teams on best practices and modern development approaches.
• Ability to build consensus across teams and facilitate architectural decisions in collaborative environments.
• Strong business acumen with understanding of e-commerce metrics, performance indicators, and optimization strategies.

Additional Information

What we can offer you  

• A career with thought leaders who literally wrote the book on Marketplace Best Practices.  
• A career in the fast-paced world of retail eCommerce, digital marketplaces and platform businesses.   
• A career with first movers who are deploying new business models and strategies worldwide.  
• A career in a flat management structure without a rigid hierarchy and bureaucracy.  
• A career in a culture that rewards creativity and innovation, risk-taking and teamwork.  

Your Core Values: Client Focus, Owning the Outcome, Adaptable, Caring 

Keywords: eCommerce, Digital Commerce, Marketplace, Composable Commerce, MACH, Microservices, Cloud-native, API-first, Headless, AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, DevOps, CI/CD, React, Next.js, TypeScript, Shopify Plus, commercetools, GraphQL, Mirakl, Event-driven, Serverless, Data Mesh, GenAI, Personalization 

McFadyen’s goal is to ensure that our clients are able to maximize the return on their technology investment by providing better service to their clients, partners and internal teams. At McFadyen we truly believe our employees are our most valuable asset. Across our locations in the US, Brazil, and India, we offer a world class work culture that enables top notch delivery for some of the world’s most influential companies.   

McFadyen Digital is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity / expression, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law, where applicable.