Architects' Career Paths
IN THIS SECTION, YOU WILL: Get ideas and tips about developing architects’ career paths.
KEY POINTS:
- A strong engineering background is essential for architects to make informed technology decisions and build effective relationships with developer teams.
- Moving from an engineering role to an architecture role involves broadening scope, increasing diversity, and developing strong communication and influencer skills.
- Career tracks can include Senior Architects (broader responsibilities), Principal Architects (specialized focus), and Enterprise Architects (aligning technical strategy with business objectives).
- Architecture roles can lead to tech leadership positions such as Engineering Director or Chief Technology Officer (CTO), leveraging strategic vision, decision-making, and leadership skills.
In any job, a career path is a sequence of jobs or roles that a person takes on throughout their professional life. It typically involves progression from entry-level positions to higher-level roles with increasing responsibilities and compensation. Career paths can be linear, with a clear upward trajectory, or non-linear, with lateral moves and changes in direction.
In this section, I elaborate on possible career paths of architects. In the Appendix, you can also find additional resources for managing, developing, and hiring architects.
Solid Engineering Background
My view of architecture has a strong engineering bias. Architects’ career paths ideally stem from a strong engineering background. While there may be exceptions, an architect without significant real-world exposure to software engineering challenges cannot obtain enough practical knowledge to make informed technology decisions and build effective relationships with developer teams.
Architects with a strong engineering background have hands-on experience with coding, debugging, and problem-solving, which is crucial for understanding the technical complexities and constraints of any project. This practical knowledge allows them to make more informed and realistic decisions about technology stacks, architectural patterns, and system design.
When architects have a solid engineering foundation, they can earn the trust and respect of developer teams more easily. Developers are more likely to follow the guidance and recommendations of someone who has walked in their shoes and understands their daily challenges. An engineering background equips architects with the technical language and concepts necessary to communicate effectively with developers. This shared language helps bridge the gap between high-level architectural visions and the detailed implementation work carried out by development teams.
Engineers are trained to think critically and solve complex problems. This skill set is invaluable for architects, who must navigate technical challenges, identify potential issues, and devise robust solutions that align with business goals.
While the path to becoming a successful architect is multifaceted, a strong engineering background provides a solid foundation upon which to build the necessary additional skills and knowledge.
Entering Architecture Space
While a strong engineering background is essential, architects must also develop additional skills to succeed in their roles. Stepping from an engineering position to an architecture role requires three significant changes:
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Broader Scope: Architects must look beyond individual components to see the system as a whole, considering the interactions and dependencies between various parts. This holistic view is essential for creating cohesive and scalable solutions that integrate seamlessly with the entire ecosystem of the organization.
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Higher Diversity: The work becomes more varied, encompassing different technologies, processes, and organizational needs. Architects need to be versatile, adapting to various domains and understanding how different technologies and processes can be leveraged to solve complex problems. This diversity also includes interacting with different teams and stakeholders, each with unique perspectives and requirements.
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Changing Skills: Communication and influencer skills become crucial to success, as architects need to articulate their vision and persuade others to follow it. They must effectively communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, build consensus, and drive strategic initiatives. This shift emphasizes the importance of soft skills alongside technical expertise.
Architects have multifaceted responsibility that requires them to be not only technically proficient but also adept at understanding and aligning with business goals and user requirements.
Career Progression in IT Architecture
An architect’s path can take many different directions, and the roles of this path can have many different names.
People typically enter an IT architecture space as hands-on solution architects. From that position, I usually envision three tracks of progression (Figure 1):
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Generalist Track (Senior Architects): These architects are generalists with broader responsibilities who can dig deep into complex issues and identify suitable courses of action. They often navigate from one critical area to another, guided by the organization’s direction. Senior Architects play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between different technical teams and ensuring the overall architectural integrity of projects.
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Specialized Track (Principal Architects): Senior architects with a specialized track focused on an organization’s strategic interest (e.g., data, distributed systems, frontend). Principal Architects dive deep into their specialized areas, providing thought leadership and driving innovation. They often set standards, define best practices, and mentor other architects and engineers.
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Enterprise Track (Enterprise Architects): Positioned closer to product, management, strategy, and business functions, Enterprise Architects frequently serve as the right hand to senior engineering leaders. They are responsible for aligning the technical strategy with the business objectives, ensuring that the architecture supports the organization’s overall goals. Enterprise Architects often work on cross-functional initiatives and play a key role in strategic decision-making.
Figure 1: An example of IT architect career paths.
More important than a formal title is the continuous search for relevance and the ability to make an impact. Successful architects are those who continuously learn, adapt, and drive meaningful change within their organizations. They focus on adding value through innovative solutions, effective communication, and strategic alignment with business goals. Whether formally recognized or not, their influence and contributions are pivotal to the success of their teams and the broader organization.
Career Progression Beyond IT Architecture
A career in IT architecture also opens possibilities of pursuing tech leadership positions such as Engineering Director or Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The reason for this is multifaceted.
Firstly, architects develop a strategic vision that aligns technology with business goals, a critical skill for any tech leadership role. They gain experience in making high-stakes decisions that impact the entire organization, which is directly relevant to positions like Engineering Director or CTO.
Secondly, architects often work closely with senior management and various departments, providing them with a broad perspective on organizational dynamics and strategic planning. This experience is invaluable for leadership roles that require a holistic understanding of both technology and business.
Thirdly, architects’ roles require strong leadership and mentorship abilities, as they often guide and influence engineering teams. These skills are essential for higher-level leadership positions, where the ability to inspire and manage large teams is crucial.
Lastly, the transition from an architect to a tech leadership role is a natural progression as both roles require a deep understanding of technology, strategic vision, and the ability to drive innovation within an organization. This career path leverages the architect’s experience in building robust systems and their ability to foresee and mitigate potential risks, ensuring the technology infrastructure supports the organization’s long-term goals.
To Probe Further
- Appendix: Resources for Managing, Growing, and Hiring Architects
- Appendix: Architect Archetypes
- Software Architect Archetypes, by Gergely Orosz, 2023
Questions to Consider
- Reflect on career paths in architecture. How can an engineering background impact effectiveness of an architect?
- Reflect on your career progression in architecture. How can you continuously stay relevant and make an impact in your role?
- If you were involved in the hiring process for architects, how would you assess a candidate’s technical skills, communication and collaboration skills, leadership and problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit?
- What strategies would you implement to ensure you continuously raise the bar in developing and hiring architects in your organization?
- How could you demonstrate your communication and collaboration skills as an architect? Can you share an instance where these skills are crucial?
- How would you describe your leadership and problem-solving abilities? Can you share an example of how you’ve used these skills in your work?
- Reflect on the cultural fit between you and your organization. How do your values align with those of the company?
- What steps would you include in your hiring process for architects to ensure a solid evaluation of the candidates?
- How would you ensure diversity of perspectives within your architecture team, and is this important?
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