Hiring Architects
IN THIS SECTION, YOU WILL: Get ideas and tips about developing architects’ career paths.
KEY POINTS:
- Hiring architects requires active ownership due to the variability in how the role is defined across organizations, making recruiter-only approaches insufficient.
- A well-rounded hiring process should evaluate technical ability, collaboration and communication skills, leadership, and cultural fit.
- A typical hiring structure involves multiple interview stages, increasing in depth and covering technical, leadership, and cross-functional collaboration aspects.
- Written assessments (like architecture documentation) and optional code reviews are tools to gauge communication and practical technical experience.
- Involving non-technical leaders (CTO, CPO, CFO) is essential for evaluating broader collaboration potential and minimizing stakeholder misalignment risk.
Hiring Process
Developing and hiring architects requires constantly raising the bar to ensure a strong and diverse team structure. Having more architects does not necessarily leads to a better team. Having good alignment and diversity of perspectives is even more important for an architecture team than for other groups.
It is vital to take more active ownership of hiring architects. Due to the vast diversity of how different companies define the architect’s role, recruiters may need help understanding the role’s requirements.
While you will need to design your hiring process, the hiring process should ensure a solid evaluation of the candidates:
- Technical skills: An architect must possess a solid technical background in the relevant areas, such as software development, infrastructure, cloud computing, and security. The process can assess their expertise through technical questions, tests, or case studies.
- Communication and collaboration skills: Architects often work with stakeholders, including business leaders, developers, and project managers. Therefore, the process could evaluate the candidate’s ability to communicate effectively, work in a team, and manage stakeholders.
- Leadership and problem-solving abilities: As a senior team member, an architect should have strong leadership skills and the ability to solve complex problems. The process could assess the candidate’s experience leading teams, making critical decisions, and resolving technical challenges.
- Cultural fit: The process could also evaluate the candidate’s fit with the company’s culture, values, and mission. The cultural fit is vital to ensure the candidate shares the same vision and will likely thrive in the organization.
In terms of steps, I typically work with some version of the following process (after standard recruitment screening):
Step 1: Initial Screening Interview with Chief Architect
- Typical duration 60 min
- In this step, assessing the candidate’s overall fit for the role is crucial, determining whether they possess the necessary skills, experience, and qualifications.
- Overall, the initial screening aims to identify the most promising candidates who possess the necessary skills, experience, and fit for the role of a senior solutions architect and who should proceed to the next stage of the interview process.
- Extra focus on:
- Cultural fit
- Leadership and problem-solving abilities
Step 2: In-Depth Interview with Senior/Principle/Enterprise Architects
- Typical duration 90 min
- Extra focus on:
- Evaluating the candidate’s technical skills
- Assessing the candidate’s communication and collaboration skills
- Understanding the candidate’s leadership and problem-solving abilities
Step 3: In-Depth Interview with Architects and Senior Engineers
- Typical duration 90 min
- Preparation:
- A document describing a recent solution architecture of a candidate, providing the content for discussion and helping estimate the candidate’s written skills.
- (Optional) open-source code review of a candidate
- Extra focus on:
- Any topics identified during Step 2 as areas that needed to explore further.
For senior positions, I typically introduce an additional step of meeting senior leadership:
Step 4: Non-technical stakeholders evaluation
- Interview with Engineering Leaders
- Interview with Product and Business Function Leaders (e.g., CPO, CMO, CFO)
- Interview with a CTO
- Extra focus on:
- Leadership abilities
- Communication and collaboration skills
With the described steps, you can get a solid overview of all critical aspects of superglue architects. In particular, the involvement of people outside architecture or engineering is crucial to minimize risk related to a lack of interest and ability to engage with all relevant stakeholders.
Questions to Consider
- Do you actively own the hiring process for architects in your organization, or rely heavily on recruiters?
- How well does your current hiring process assess both technical expertise and cultural fit?
- Are non-technical stakeholders involved in your hiring decisions for architecture roles?
- What steps do you take to ensure diversity of thought and background when building architecture teams?
- How do you evaluate leadership and problem-solving abilities during interviews?
- Are you assessing written and communication skills through architecture documentation or code reviews?
- *How consistent and structured is your interview process across different candidates?
- Is your process designed to surface potential “superglue” architects who excel in collaboration and leadership?
- How do you ensure alignment between your hiring standards and the organization’s values and strategic goals?
- Are technical skills overemphasized or underemphasized relative to stakeholder engagement and collaboration?
Appendix 2: Tools for Growing Architects ← Managing & Growing Architects |
Appendix 2: Tools for Growing Architects Onboarding Architects: An Overlooked Yet Critical Step → |