Staff Solution Architect

The Staff Solution Architect is a critical connector across Live Oak’s technology landscape, responsible for designing and driving end-to-end solution architectures for major initiatives that span complex systems and multiple business units. Reporting to the Director of Enterprise Architecture, this role translates business needs into cohesive, well-architected solutions that bring together software engineering, data, infrastructure, and vendor capabilities into a unified whole.

This is someone who sees the complete picture—who can take the individual puzzle pieces owned by different teams and vendors, assemble them into a compelling technical narrative, and ensure everyone involved understands how the parts connect. The Staff Solution Architect doesn’t need to have every answer, but they know exactly who to bring to the table to get to the right one. They then document and communicate that answer with the clarity and precision the organization needs to execute confidently.

By bridging the gap between business strategy, technical architecture, and delivery execution, this role directly accelerates Live Oak’s ability to ship high-quality solutions that are sound from a business, information, and technical standpoint.

What You'll Do at Live Oak 

Solution Design & Architecture

• Lead end-to-end solution architecture for major projects involving complex, multi-system environments and cross-functional business units.

• Conduct architectural evaluations and analyze the existing technology environment to inform solution design decisions.

• Define solution prototypes, reference architectures, and integration patterns that ensure consistency, scalability, and maintainability.

• Evaluate and recommend technologies, platforms, and vendors, balancing innovation with pragmatism and long-term sustainability.

• Ensure all solution designs comply with enterprise architecture standards, principles, and strategic guidelines.

Cross-Functional Orchestration & Collaboration

• Serve as the connective thread between internal software engineering, data, IT, and infrastructure teams and external vendors, ensuring all parties are aligned on the solution vision.

• Define collaboration frameworks that bring the right people together at the right time to resolve technical questions and design challenges.

• Facilitate solution design sessions, technical reviews, and architecture discussions that drive toward clear, well-documented outcomes.

• Partner closely with project management to align integration strategies with project objectives, timelines, and budgets.

Documentation & Communication

• Tell the story of how individual components come together into a cohesive solution—translating complex technical architectures into clear narratives for diverse audiences including executive leadership, business partners, and engineering teams.

• Develop and maintain comprehensive solution documentation including architecture diagrams, integration maps, decision records, and technical specifications.

• Communicate technical aspects, risks, trade-offs, and progress with clarity and confidence to stakeholders at all levels.

Delivery & Risk Management

• Define procedures and processes that ensure successful solution delivery from design through implementation.

• Identify, evaluate, and mitigate technical risks across the solution lifecycle, including performance, security, and user experience considerations.

• Oversee solution development to ensure adherence to architectural intent, quality standards, and regulatory requirements.

• Analyze and address technical and business requirements, ensuring solutions are right-sized for the problem at hand.

How You’ll Do It

• By orchestrating—not dictating. You pull the right people into the room, facilitate productive discussions, and synthesize diverse inputs into a clear path forward.

• By communicating with precision and empathy. You translate technical complexity into language that resonates with engineers, business leaders, and vendors alike, using influence and negotiation to drive alignment.

• By taking responsibility for projects from inception to completion, managing expectations across a broad set of stakeholders and influencing outcomes without direct authority.

• By developing innovative problem-framing approaches that enhance efficiency and help teams see challenges from new angles.

• By maintaining a relentless focus on detail—understanding that the success of a complex solution depends on constant, consistent evaluation of every component, no matter how small.

• By staying current with emerging technologies, industry trends, and architectural best practices in financial services, and recommending adoption where it creates genuine value.

• By executing and adapting established processes through cross-functional collaboration to achieve organizational goals, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed for continuous improvement.

• By building trust and credibility through deep technical knowledge, strong people skills, and a track record of delivering well-managed, well-documented solutions.

• Maintain a high standard of regulatory awareness including BSA, AML, CIP, and OFAC

Required Experience 

• 10+ years of professional experience in technology roles within financial services, with demonstrated progression in solution architecture, systems architecture, or technical leadership.

• Strong understanding of the banking and financial services landscape, including payments, lending, regulatory compliance, and core banking systems.

• Proven experience designing and delivering end-to-end solutions in complex, multi-vendor, multi-system environments.

• Extensive knowledge of integration architecture patterns including APIs (REST, GraphQL), messaging systems, event-driven architecture, and enterprise integration platforms.

• Broad technical fluency spanning application development, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), data architecture, infrastructure, and security.

• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence rather than authority, building consensus across diverse teams and stakeholders.

• Excellent communication skills with a proven ability to articulate complex technical concepts to audiences ranging from engineers to executives.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with a track record of resolving ambiguous, multifaceted challenges.

• Experience with modern architectural patterns including microservices, domain-driven design, event sourcing, and distributed systems.

• Mastery of the software development lifecycle with the ability to provide credible technical guidance across disciplines.

Preferred Experience 

• Experience with emerging technologies including blockchain, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and advanced data platforms.

• Familiarity with industry standards and compliance in Service Integration & Management (SIAM).

• Experience with architecture governance frameworks, technology radar processes, and architectural decision records (ADRs).

• Relevant certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, TOGAF, or ITIL.

• Fintech or digital banking experience with exposure to modern lending, payments, or deposit platforms.