Solution Architect - Hotel Technology & Enterprise Systems – Hybrid AZ

Best Western; Phoenix (AZ); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Best Western is seeking a Solution Architect in Phoenix to shape and govern our hotel technology and enterprise systems. You will translate business needs into practical designs, drive modernization, and ensure alignment with enterprise standards while guiding vendors and delivery teams.

You will lead architecture across cloud, data, identity, APIs, and integration, partner with business and tech stakeholders, and champion secure, scalable solutions that reduce tech debt and cost of ownership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of progressive technology experience, including 5+ years designing and delivering enterprise-scale solutions across software engineering, systems integration, cloud, enterprise architecture, or solution architecture.
• Experience architecting solutions across applications, cloud platforms, APIs, integrations, data flows, identity, and security domains, with strong knowledge of modern integration patterns such as APIs, microservices, event-driven architecture, service orchestration, and enterprise data exchange.
• Experience with cloud architecture, preferably AWS, including cloud-native, hybrid, scalable, resilient, secure, and supportable design patterns.
• Ability to create architecture diagrams, integration maps, dependency models, technical design documents, and executive-ready summaries that translate business requirements into practical architecture solutions and delivery approaches.
• Strong understanding of security, privacy, compliance, resiliency, disaster recovery, monitoring, logging, and operational support considerations.
• Proven ability to communicate effectively with senior leadership, product teams, engineering teams, vendors, and business stakeholders, with strong analytical, problem-solving, facilitation, and decision-framing skills.
• Experience working in Agile, hybrid, or enterprise project delivery environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end solution architecture for hotel technology and enterprise system initiatives.
• Develop current-state, target-state, and transitional architecture models for complex platforms and integrations.
• Design scalable, secure, resilient, and maintainable solutions across cloud, application, data, API, integration, and enterprise platforms.
• Assess architecture patterns, system constraints, technical debt, scalability risks, operational processes, and single points of failure.
• Define and maintain architecture standards, reusable design assets, diagrams, system inventories, integration maps, dependency models, and data-flow documentation.
• Support modernization strategies that decouple legacy business logic, introduce modern integration patterns, reduce high-risk technologies, and account for performance, reliability, security, privacy, compliance, supportability, and total cost of ownership.
• Provide architecture leadership across core hospitality ecosystem, including CRS, distribution, PMS, loyalty, member-facing systems, contact center technologies, and adjacent enterprise platforms.
• Support modernization of reservation and distribution capabilities by evaluating current-state architecture, integration dependencies, data movement, transaction flows, and future-state options.
• Partner with delivery teams to simplify, consolidate, re-platform, or modernize existing solutions and prepare for major transformation initiatives, vendor implementations, platform migrations, and digital capability expansion.
• Design and govern enterprise integration patterns, including REST APIs, event-driven architecture, microservices, middleware, batch processing, third-party connectivity, API gateways, service orchestration, data exchange, and system interoperability.
• Provide architecture oversight for AWS, cloud-native, and hybrid solutions while ensuring alignment with security-by-design principles.
• Provide technical oversight throughout the project lifecycle, from discovery and design through implementation, testing, go-live, and handoff.
• Facilitate architecture workshops, design reviews, technical assessments, stakeholder discovery sessions, and translate requirements into actionable technical solutions.
• Collaborate with project managers, product owners, developers, engineers, security, infrastructure, vendors, and business stakeholders to align delivery approach and execution.
• Identify architecture risks, dependencies, design gaps, delivery constraints, and mitigation options while supporting estimation, planning, sequencing, and delivery quality.
• Serve as a trusted technology advisor to business and technology leadership, helping translate operational needs, platform gaps, regulatory considerations, and business outcomes into architecture direction.
• Present architecture recommendations, tradeoffs, risks, and future-state options in clear business terms that connect decisions to reliability, scalability, cost, guest/member experience, and strategic flexibility.
• Support vendor evaluations, RFPs, Statements of Work, technical due diligence, and leadership decisions related to modernization, build-versus-buy options, integration strategy, and long-term technology direction.
• Mentor engineers, technical leads, analysts, and team members on architecture principles, design patterns, documentation practices, and consistent standards.
• Develop reusable architecture assets, frameworks, and templates that support governance, delivery consistency, and knowledge transfer.
• Contribute to the architecture community of practice and help mature Best Western’s architecture governance model while staying current on emerging technologies, hospitality trends, cloud, integration, security, and modernization practices.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

Solution architecture

Cloud architecture

Security & compliance

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IS/Engineering

Tools

AWS

Okta

API gateways

Data integration

Job description

The Solution Architect shapes and governs the architecture for the company's hotel technology and enterprise systems portfolio. This role partners with business, technology, engineering, and vendor teams to design secure, scalable, resilient, and cost-effective solutions across core hospitality platforms, including reservations, distribution, Property Management Systems, loyalty, contact center, integration, identity, cloud, and data systems.

The position provides both strategic and hands-on architecture leadership by translating business needs into practical designs, defining current- and future-state architecture, guiding modernization, reducing technical debt, and ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and priorities. The ideal candidate brings technical depth, business acumen, delivery leadership, vendor collaboration, and strong executive communication while supporting implementation planning, design reviews, and issue resolution.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Solution Design

• Lead end-to-end solution architecture for hotel technology and enterprise system initiatives.
• Develop current-state, target-state, and transitional architecture models for complex platforms and integrations.
• Design scalable, secure, resilient, and maintainable solutions across cloud, application, data, API, integration, and enterprise platforms.
• Assess architecture patterns, system constraints, technical debt, scalability risks, operational processes, and single points of failure.
• Define and maintain architecture standards, reusable design assets, diagrams, system inventories, integration maps, dependency models, and data-flow documentation.
• Support modernization strategies that decouple legacy business logic, introduce modern integration patterns, reduce high-risk technologies, and account for performance, reliability, security, privacy, compliance, supportability, and total cost of ownership.

Hospitality Platform Modernization

• Provide architecture leadership across our core hospitality ecosystem, including CRS, distribution, PMS, loyalty, member-facing systems, contact center technologies, and adjacent enterprise platforms.
• Support modernization of reservation and distribution capabilities by evaluating current-state architecture, integration dependencies, data movement, transaction flows, and future-state options.
• Partner with delivery teams to simplify, consolidate, re-platform, or modernize existing solutions and prepare for major transformation initiatives, vendor implementations, platform migrations, and digital capability expansion.

Integration, Cloud & Technical Enablement

• Design and govern enterprise integration patterns, including REST APIs, event-driven architecture, microservices, middleware, batch processing, third-party connectivity, API gateways, service orchestration, data exchange, and system interoperability.
• Provide architecture oversight for AWS, cloud-native, and hybrid solutions while ensuring alignment with security-by-design principles.

Delivery Leadership & Governance

• Provide technical oversight throughout the project lifecycle, from discovery and design through implementation, testing, go-live, and handoff.
• Facilitate architecture workshops, design reviews, technical assessments, stakeholder discovery sessions, and translate requirements into actionable technical solutions.
• Collaborate with project managers, product owners, developers, engineers, security, infrastructure, vendors, and business stakeholders to align delivery approach and execution.
• Identify architecture risks, dependencies, design gaps, delivery constraints, and mitigation options while supporting estimation, planning, sequencing, and delivery quality.

Business Partnership & Executive Communication

• Serve as a trusted technology advisor to business and technology leadership, helping translate operational needs, platform gaps, regulatory considerations, and business outcomes into architecture direction.
• Present architecture recommendations, tradeoffs, risks, and future-state options in clear business terms that connect decisions to reliability, scalability, cost, guest/member experience, and strategic flexibility.
• Support vendor evaluations, RFPs, Statements of Work, technical due diligence, and leadership decisions related to modernization, build-versus-buy options, integration strategy, and long-term technology direction.

Mentorship & Practice Development

• Mentor engineers, technical leads, analysts, and team members on architecture principles, design patterns, documentation practices, and consistent standards.
• Develop reusable architecture assets, frameworks, and templates that support governance, delivery consistency, and knowledge transfer.
• Contribute to the architecture community of practice and help mature Best Western’s architecture governance model while staying current on emerging technologies, hospitality trends, cloud, integration, security, and modernization practices.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of progressive technology experience, including 5+ years designing and delivering enterprise-scale solutions across software engineering, systems integration, cloud, enterprise architecture, or solution architecture.
• Experience architecting solutions across applications, cloud platforms, APIs, integrations, data flows, identity, and security domains, with strong knowledge of modern integration patterns such as APIs, microservices, event-driven architecture, service orchestration, and enterprise data exchange.
• Experience with cloud architecture, preferably AWS, including cloud-native, hybrid, scalable, resilient, secure, and supportable design patterns.
• Ability to create architecture diagrams, integration maps, dependency models, technical design documents, and executive-ready summaries that translate business requirements into practical architecture solutions and delivery approaches.
• Strong understanding of security, privacy, compliance, resiliency, disaster recovery, monitoring, logging, and operational support considerations.
• Proven ability to communicate effectively with senior leadership, product teams, engineering teams, vendors, and business stakeholders, with strong analytical, problem-solving, facilitation, and decision-framing skills.
• Experience working in Agile, hybrid, or enterprise project delivery environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with hospitality, travel, distribution, reservation, PMS, loyalty, contact center, payment, identity, guest/member digital platforms, or CRS/GDS/OTA integrations.
• Architecture certifications such as AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect, TOGAF, or equivalent.
• Experience with cloud, identity, API, and integration services such as Okta, OAuth, API gateways, AWS Lambda, ECS, EventBridge, SNS, S3, DynamoDB, Aurora, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, WAF, or similar technologies.
• Experience with PCI DSS, GDPR, PII handling, tokenization, encryption, compliance-sensitive data flows, vendor evaluations, RFPs/SOWs, modernization roadmaps, architecture assessments, documentation tools, AI-assisted modernization, mentoring, or architecture governance practices.

Core Competencies

• Enterprise, solution, cloud, API, and integration architecture.
• Hospitality platform modernization, technical debt reduction, and systems thinking.
• Security-by-design, privacy-aware architecture, and risk mitigation.
• Business and technology alignment, executive communication, delivery leadership, and architecture governance.
• Vendor collaboration, documentation, knowledge transfer, mentorship, and technical leadership.

Work Location and Schedule

• This is a hybrid position, requiring onsite presence Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at our Global Operations Center, with the option to work remote on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This hybrid model fosters intentional collaboration, teamwork, connection, and productivity, while still providing flexibility and work life balance. The office address is 20400 N 29th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85027.