For a technology call a business leader can actually defend
Hire Solution Architects
A technically sound architecture that solves the wrong business problem still fails, just later and more expensively. Solution architects are tested on that translation gap specifically: turning a business promise into a technology approach, then defending the tradeoffs to the people funding it. Here that judgement is proven on real scenarios before anyone signs off on a hire.
- Profiles typically within two business days
- Replacement Assurance: If an engineer is not the right fit, a replacement from our own team starts within ten business days of your request, at no extra cost
- You interview before placement if you want to
- At least four hours a day inside your core working hours. Two hours plus a daily written handover for the US West Coast
- 14-Day Risk-Free Trial: For your first engineer on a time-and-materials engagement. Up to 14 calendar days or 80 logged working hours, whichever comes first. End within the trial and pay nothing for trial hours. Continue beyond it and those hours are billed at the agreed rate. Unpaid trial work remains ours if you stop
How we evaluate a solution architect
The tasks, the signals and the onboarding, walked through by the people who run them.
90 secSample frame · video pending01Published, not promised
The assessment behind every architect we send.
The solution-architecture bar is published, not assumed: five competencies, the exact task behind each, and the shortcut that ends a candidacy. Most interviews ask which frameworks someone knows. This one asks whether a business promise actually becomes a workable plan.
What we listen forWhether they anchor the design in the actual business goal, not a technology they favour.
A retailer wants to launch same-day delivery in six months. Sketch the technical approach you would propose and why.
- What strong sounds like
- Starts from the delivery promise and its failure modes, then derives the architecture, naming which parts must be built first.
- What gives us pause
- Proposes a microservices rewrite because it is the pattern they know best, without tying it back to the six-month promise.
Requirements Analysis · Trade-off Modelling · Technology Roadmapping
API Gateways · Event-driven Design · Enterprise Messaging
Architecture Decision Records · C4 Diagrams · TOGAF-aligned Artifacts
AWS/Azure/GCP · Kubernetes · Data Platforms
02Who you actually meet
The bench, priced by seniority.
Three seniority tiers, priced honestly, and the engineers who fill each one today. Real names and photos take their place as soon as we can share them, and the standard stays exactly the same.
Engineer
Features scoped tightly enough to ship inside your review bar, every time.
The right first hire when your seniors already set the standard.
$3,200–4,100per month
Senior
The hard module nobody else wants to own, taken end to end.
Ownership of a surface, without adding a manager to your headcount.
$4,400–5,500per month
Lead
The workstream's decisions, made daily, so nothing waits on a meeting.
One accountable voice for a pod or initiative that can't afford to drift.
$5,800–7,200per month
Solution architect
6 yrs · US East overlap
Turned a vague modernization ask into a technology plan the whole leadership team actually signed off on
- Architecture Design
- Build vs Buy
- Stakeholder Communication
Senior solution architect
9 yrs · UK + EU hours
Designed the integration approach connecting five disparate systems acquired through three separate mergers
- Integration Design
- Risk Assessment
- Cloud Migration
Principal solution architect
13 yrs · EU + US split
Owns the technology-selection standard now applied across every major platform decision in the portfolio
- Architecture
- Portfolio Strategy
- Vendor Evaluation
Indicative ranges, representative profiles. Exact figures and named engineers arrive with your shortlist.
Weighing this against a freelancer, a direct hire or a marketplace? See the honest comparison
03From stated problem to first change
Four steps, each closing on evidence.
Translation and stakeholder judgement are what this process actually tests, not a checklist of frameworks recited. Step away at any point and nothing is owed.
Define the business-to-technology gap
We map where your roadmap's business goals and technical approach are actually disconnected. The brief names that gap, not a headcount request.
A brief your leads signMatch against your roadmap
Candidates are screened against your actual business goals, your stack and your stakeholder mix. Three architects who understand your roadmap beat thirty who list architecture on a CV.
Three fits, not thirty CVsAssess on the real tasks
Your team can watch the translation and stakeholder-communication exercises directly. What shows up is judgement under a real tradeoff, not a rehearsed pitch.
Evaluation you can watchOnboard inside your process
Access, context and a first architecture recommendation scoped to a real decision on your roadmap. Continuity cover keeps a departure from ever becoming your planning gap.
A merged change in week one
04Evidence and proof
Architects who made the technology call defensible.
Solution-architecture proof is a business tradeoff actually explained and accepted, not a diagram admired once. Every record here waits for written client approval before production.
Explore case studies
A funding deadline that forced a technology call in one week, not one quarter.
Pillar Learning needed a compliance-ready data pipeline before a funding round closed, with no time for an extended technology bake-off. An embedded solution architect ran a compressed build-versus-buy assessment and landed the platform on a provider that met the deadline without locking in unnecessary long-term cost.
- Time to technology decision
- Under one week
- Deadline met
- Funding round closed on schedule
He explained the build-versus-buy tradeoff in terms our board actually understood before we had to vote on it.
Sample · pending client approval
The integration design held up the first time two of our vendor systems actually disagreed with each other.
Sample · pending client approval
05Three shapes, one standard
Add an architect, a delivery pod, or a practice.
Most teams start with one architect informing decisions inside an existing roadmap. Some need a pod that carries a whole platform decision end to end. Where the system itself needs designing from nothing, we point you to the practice instead.
- Team extension
One named architect
A single solution architect inside your direction and your reviews. The smallest commitment, and the usual way engagements begin.
- Delivery pods
An architecture pod
A pod with its own lead that carries a platform-level decision from business case through to technical approach. You set priorities while the pod carries delivery.
- Software architecture
The practice, not the person
Where the actual need is a system designed from nothing rather than a decision informed, software architecture takes that scope on instead.
06Straight answers
Asked before a solution architect hire is signed.
01What does a solution architect actually do day to day?
Translates business goals into a workable technology approach, weighs build-versus-buy calls, and explains the tradeoffs to people who do not read architecture diagrams. The unglamorous majority of the work is making sure the technology decision actually serves the business one.
02How is this different from hiring a technical architect?
A solution architect works at the business-to-technology boundary, choosing an overall approach and defending it to non-technical stakeholders. A technical architect works one level down, inside a single system's scalability, reliability and long-term design integrity.
03Can we run our own interviews as well?
Yes, the published tasks are built to be reused directly. Several clients now run the stakeholder-communication exercise themselves in later hiring rounds.
04How fast can a solution architect start?
A shortlist arrives within days from a bench evaluated continuously. From there, the actual start date follows how quickly your side can open up planning documents and stakeholder time.
05Who manages the solution architect day to day?
Your leads set the business direction and hold the roadmap. We take on what sits behind the architect instead: continuity, payroll, replacement risk and the handoff if priorities change.
06What if the solution architect is not the right fit?
Tell us within the first weeks and we cover the replacement in full. The next architect is briefed on exactly where the first placement missed, which keeps a repeat mismatch rare.
07Do your solution architects use AI tools?
Yes, for drafting comparison matrices and first-pass documentation quickly. The technology judgement, the tradeoff calls and the accountability for the recommendation stay entirely with the architect.
08How does pricing work for a hired solution architect?
Pricing depends on the scope of the engagement, whether that is one architecture decision or an ongoing seat on your roadmap. The shortlist arrives with a specific monthly rate attached, billed monthly with no placement fee and a notice-period exit.