Solutions Architect

Solutions Architect does practical support and coordination using defined steps; this page offers 20 task examples. Each task includes likely timing, typical partners, and a short note on risks. Each one shows where we found it, and comes with an AI prompt you can copy and use straight away.

20evidenced tasks
20ready prompts
8tools of the trade
15-1299.08O*NET-SOC code
435,370hold this job (US, BLS 2025)
$116,580median pay/yr (US)
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What it pays

Government survey numbers — not estimates, not ads.

Half of all Computer Occupations, All Other in the U.S. earn more than $116,580 a year — the middle 80% land between $55,940 and $188,470. About 435,370 people in the U.S. do this work. Figures are for the U.S. occupation group “Computer Occupations, All Other”. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, published 2025.) In India, Professionals earn about ₹38,298 a month on average — around ₹4.6 lakh a year (government PLFS survey via ILOSTAT, occupation-family figure).
$116,580typical pay / year
435,370people in this work
$188,470+top 10% earn
₹4.6 lakha year in India (family avg)
Think you get this job?Six quick questions on how it really works — with a hint and the reason behind every answer.
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The work, task by task

These are the real jobs-to-be-done, not a wish list. Each task shows where we found it, and the prompt underneath is written for that exact task.

Analysing6

Understand specific system requirements

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Map the new billing service requirements to the existing platform: list required APIs, data stores,…
Map the new billing service requirements to the existing platform: list required APIs, data stores, scalability targets, and nonfunctional constraints, then highlight three integration risks and mitigation options for Monday morning.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWSjob descriptionsO*NET

Troubleshoot system issues

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Diagnose the intermittent timeout affecting the payments API: gather recent logs, reproduce the failure…
Diagnose the intermittent timeout affecting the payments API: gather recent logs, reproduce the failure pattern in a staging cluster, list probable root causes with evidence, and propose two fixes for review by the on-call lead today.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2Apache Airflowjob descriptionsO*NET

Implement system architecture designs

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Produce the system architecture diagrams and a deployment checklist that map the new payment service to our…
Produce the system architecture diagrams and a deployment checklist that map the new payment service to our cloud regions, include API contracts, data flow for user authentication, and a hardware sizing estimate so the platform team can provision by next Wednesday.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWS CloudFormationESCOjob descriptions

Maintain system security and integrity

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Audit the network segments and IAM roles for the customer portal, produce a prioritized list of security…
Audit the network segments and IAM roles for the customer portal, produce a prioritized list of security fixes with impact estimates and remediation owners, and schedule an emergency patch window with the ops team for Friday morning.
The tools that do the workAnsiblejob descriptionsO*NET

Develop application-specific software.

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Design the application components for the mobile claims workflow, specify required services, database schema…
Design the application components for the mobile claims workflow, specify required services, database schema changes, and API endpoints, and draft acceptance criteria so the dev team can start a two-week sprint on Monday.
The tools that do the workAJAXjob descriptionsO*NET

Develop solutions to system problems

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Investigate the intermittent order processing failures, propose three remedial architectures with tradeoffs,…
Investigate the intermittent order processing failures, propose three remedial architectures with tradeoffs, simulate expected throughput for each, and recommend the one to implement in the next maintenance window.
The tools that do the workApache Airflowjob descriptionsO*NET
The daily work14

Evaluate new technologies for system integration

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Evaluate Confluent, Kong, and HashiCorp for integrating our CRM, billing, and inventory systems this quarter;…
Evaluate Confluent, Kong, and HashiCorp for integrating our CRM, billing, and inventory systems this quarter; map required adapters, estimate implementation effort in person-days, and recommend one with risks, costs, and a migration outline for the CTO by next Wednesday.
The tools that do the workAnsiblejob descriptionsO*NET

Verify stability, interoperability, portability, security, or scalability of system architecture.

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Run an interoperability and scalability review of the payment processing architecture against the order…
Run an interoperability and scalability review of the payment processing architecture against the order service and analytics pipeline, list incompatibilities, required configuration changes, and security gaps, and propose mitigation steps for operations to implement before peak sales week.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWSAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2O*NET

Direct the analysis, development, and operation of complete computer systems.

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Lead the end-to-end delivery of the new customer data platform: define component responsibilities, produce a…
Lead the end-to-end delivery of the new customer data platform: define component responsibilities, produce a phased development plan with acceptance criteria, assign owners for API, storage, and ingestion, and set the go-live readiness checkpoints for the program manager.
The tools that do the workApache AirflowO*NET

Design and conduct hardware or software tests.

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Design and run the functional and performance test plan for the new microservice stack, produce test scripts…
Design and run the functional and performance test plan for the new microservice stack, produce test scripts for API, latency, and throughput, capture failures with logs and reproduce steps, and hand the results and fixes to the dev team by Friday.
The tools that do the workApache AirflowO*NET

Configure servers to meet functional specifications.

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Configure the three application servers to meet the spec: set JVM memory, connection pool sizes, TLS certs,…
Configure the three application servers to meet the spec: set JVM memory, connection pool sizes, TLS certs, and load balancer targets; validate against the functional checklist and record the final configuration for the ops runbook.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2O*NET

Perform security analyses of developed or packaged software components.

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Perform a security analysis of the authentication and data access components in the customer portal,…
Perform a security analysis of the authentication and data access components in the customer portal, enumerate vulnerabilities, rank by exploitability and impact, and provide remediation steps and a patch schedule to secure the release branch.
The tools that do the workApache CassandraO*NET

Develop or approve project plans, schedules, or budgets.

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Produce a project plan, schedule and budget for the payment gateway modernisation for Acme Retail, include…
Produce a project plan, schedule and budget for the payment gateway modernisation for Acme Retail, include milestones, resource burn rates, risk register and three budget scenarios, then send to Maria in PMO and Tom in finance for approval by next Thursday.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWSO*NET

Communicate project information through presentations, technical reports, or white papers.

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Draft a 12-slide technical briefing and a four-page executive summary on the proposed event-driven order…
Draft a 12-slide technical briefing and a four-page executive summary on the proposed event-driven order processing design, include sequence diagrams, performance targets and migration impacts, then circulate to Priya in product, James in operations, and the CTO by Friday morning.
The tools that do the workAdobe AcrobatO*NET

Address system administration issues

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Investigate the intermittent disk I/O alerts on the billing cluster, capture current metrics, list…
Investigate the intermittent disk I/O alerts on the billing cluster, capture current metrics, list configuration drift versus baseline, propose three remediation steps with rollback plans, and assign actions to Ravi and Claire with a 48-hour SLA.
The tools that do the workAnsiblejob descriptions

Resolve network concerns

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Diagnose the latency spikes between datacentre A and B affecting API calls, run traceroutes and flow…
Diagnose the latency spikes between datacentre A and B affecting API calls, run traceroutes and flow captures, map traffic through the routers, recommend firewall or routing changes, and brief Network Ops and the app owners by end of day tomorrow.
The tools that do the workApache Airflowjob descriptions

Test system solutions for functionality

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Run the acceptance test plan for the new authentication service: execute the functional, load and failover…
Run the acceptance test plan for the new authentication service: execute the functional, load and failover tests against the staging cluster, capture results, flag any defects with reproduction steps, and approve release to production if all critical tests pass by Wednesday.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2job descriptions

Align software with system architectures

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Review the application stack and confirm the CRM integration conforms to the target reference architecture,…
Review the application stack and confirm the CRM integration conforms to the target reference architecture, produce a gap list with priority, map required configuration changes and estimate effort for engineering to implement over the next quarter.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWS CloudFormationESCOsee the evidence ↗

Business process modelling

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Map the current order-to-cash flow end-to-end, showing actors, decision points, systems touched, data…
Map the current order-to-cash flow end-to-end, showing actors, decision points, systems touched, data exchanged and SLA targets, highlight failure modes and security controls, and produce a BPMN diagram and one-page executive summary for Monday 10:00 AM review.
The tools that do the workApache AirflowESCOsee the evidence ↗

Assess ICT knowledge

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Run a ninety-minute capability assessment with the application, infrastructure and operations leads, score…
Run a ninety-minute capability assessment with the application, infrastructure and operations leads, score their skills against required ICT competencies, capture evidence and gaps, and deliver a ranked training and hiring plan with costed recommendations by Friday COB.
The tools that do the workAmazon Web Services AWSESCOsee the evidence ↗

Says who?

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The logs, files & records this job keeps

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Same family of work — each with its own tasks and prompts.

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