Solution Architect at Howden in San Diego, CA

At DUAL North America, our core values dictate how we live and work. We are a group with independence and people at its heart and we are a home for talent with a unique culture: the biggest small company in the world.

The focus on being a People First business has always been at the very heart of the Group; Our vision was to create an independent business with a unique culture and one that would survive and thrive as a business controlled by the people working for it. And finding the most talented and entrepreneurial people to join the Group has been and will continue to be key.

DUAL North America, Inc. is seeking a Solution Architect

• Classification: Full time/Exempt

• Reports to: SVP Digital Implementations

• Travel: 10-20%

• Salary: $160,000.00- $180,000.00

• Location: San Diego, CA, Dallas, TX, Chicago, IL, New York, NY, Atlanta, GA, Philadelphia, PA, Hybrid

Role Overview

DUAL North America is seeking a Solution Architect to design practical, scalable, secure, and sustainable technology solutions that connect business needs with modern engineering delivery. This role partners closely with business, product, engineering, security, infrastructure, and enterprise architecture teams to shape solution direction, evaluate options, guide implementation decisions, and ensure solutions align with enterprise standards and long-term technology strategy.

Role responsibilities

Solution Architecture and Design

• • Design end-to-end solutions that are scalable, secure, resilient, maintainable, cost-effective, and aligned to business capabilities.
    • Create solution architecture artifacts, including current-state and future-state views, integration patterns, application designs, data flows, deployment models, and transition plans.
    • Ensure solution designs comply with enterprise architecture direction, security standards, data governance expectations, regulatory obligations, and operational requirements.
    • Evaluate solution options and make recommendations that balance business value, technical feasibility, implementation complexity, risk, and total cost of ownership.
    • Provide architecture guidance throughout the solution lifecycle, from discovery and design through delivery, release readiness, production adoption, and continuous improvement.
• Technical Leadership and Delivery Partnership
  • Collaborate with engineering, infrastructure, cybersecurity, product, and delivery teams to ensure successful implementation of approved architectures.
  • Lead architecture reviews and design sessions to identify risks, dependencies, and optimization opportunities.
  • Recommend technology platforms, tools, and design patterns that improve scalability, maintainability, and operational efficiency.
  • Drive adoption of cloud-native, API-first, event-driven, and modern application design practices where appropriate.
  • Act as a trusted technical advisor to project teams and business stakeholders, helping resolve design tradeoffs and unblock delivery decisions.
• Business Alignment and Stakeholder Engagement
  • Partner with business stakeholders, product owners, delivery leaders, and engineering teams to understand objectives, constraints, dependencies, and desired outcomes.
  • Translate business requirements into actionable solution designs, technical requirements, assumptions, decision records, and implementation guidance.
  • Support business case development by evaluating solution options, costs, risks, and expected business outcomes.
  • Collaborate with project and program teams to ensure architectural alignment throughout delivery.
• Architecture Governance and Risk Management
  • Participate in architecture governance activities by presenting solution designs, documenting key decisions, and ensuring adherence to approved standards and patterns.
  • Review proposed solutions for consistency, interoperability, scalability, maintainability, security, and fit within the broader enterprise technology landscape.
  • Identify and mitigate architecture, technology, security, and operational risks.
  • Manage technical debt and support long-term modernization strategies across the technology landscape.
  • Ensure technology solutions meet performance, availability, recoverability, and security requirements.
• Innovation and Continuous Improvement
  • Monitor emerging technologies and industry trends to identify opportunities that create business value.
  • Drive innovation initiatives involving cloud computing, artificial intelligence, automation, data platforms, and modern architecture practices.
  • Promote reuse, standardization, and architectural best practices across technology teams.
  • Contribute to technology roadmaps that support future business capabilities, platform modernization, and organizational growth.

Key requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field; Master's degree preferred.

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in software engineering, solution architecture, and enterprise architecture Proven experience designing and implementing enterprise-scale technology solutions across complex environments.

• Deep expertise in solution architecture, system integration, application design, cloud technologies, and enterprise technology platforms.

• Strong understanding of modern architecture patterns including microservices, APIs, event-driven architecture, cloud-native solutions, and integration frameworks.

• Experience working with public cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, and/or Google Cloud.

• Strong understanding of cybersecurity principles, governance frameworks, and regulatory requirements.

• Demonstrated ability to lead architecture governance processes and influence technology strategy across multiple teams.

• Experience collaborating with business leaders, product organizations, engineering teams, and executive stakeholders.

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and strategic thinking capabilities.

• Exceptional communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high-quality outcomes in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• TOGAF, Azure Solutions Architect Expert,, or equivalent certifications.

• Experience within insurance, financial services, or highly regulated industries.

• Familiarity with Agile, SAFe, DevOps, CI/CD, and modern software delivery practi

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What we offer: A career that you define. Yes, we offer all the usual rewards and benefits - including medical, dental, vision, a wide variety of wellbeing offers, competitive salary, unlimited PTO, 401k with company match, paid volunteer days and more.

We provide an environment where new ideas are encouraged and celebrated, where people who want to have a real hand in our success thrive. We want people who want to make a difference - not just in the workplace, but in the industry and in the wider community.

EEO Statement: We consider our people our chief competitive advantage and as such we treat colleagues, candidates, clients, and business partners with equality, fairness, and respect. DUAL North America provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. DUAL will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.