SOLUTION ARCHITECT – ECOMMERCE

Owethu Managed Services (OMS); Durban; On-site; ZAR 950,000 - 1,450,000; Full time

Job summary

Owethu Managed Services (OMS) in Durban is seeking a Solution Architect – ECommerce to lead architectural design across the ECommerce and retail technology landscape. The role requires deep hands-on development experience and strong collaboration with architects, developers and business stakeholders.

You will shape the organisation's ECommerce and retail technology strategy, design scalable architectures, and guide implementation across enterprise environments.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor's Degree or BTech in Computer Science, Information Systems, Computer Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Mechatronic Engineering or related IT field.
• Strong software development background and enterprise architecture experience are required.
• Experience in customer-facing domains such as ECommerce, POS or FinTech is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Analyse business strategies, priorities, processes and requirements to determine technology solutions.
• Design enterprise-scale applications, services and technical solutions.
• Translate complex requirements into scalable, cohesive designs.
• Manage integration points between multiple applications and systems.
• Ensure solutions are scalable, secure, reliable and future-ready.
• Define non-functional requirements including performance, availability, security, scalability and reliability.

Skills

Solution Architecture

System Architecture Design

Software Development

Enterprise Application Design

Application Integration

API & Integration Architecture

SDLC

Cloud Architecture

On-Premise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture Principles

Architectural Patterns

Technology Stack Selection

Scalability & Performance Design

Non-Functional Requirements Analysis

Security & Reliability Design

Governance, Risk & Compliance

Technology Roadmap Development

ECommerce Platforms

Customer-Facing Digital Platforms

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Bachelor's Degree in Information Systems

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering

Bachelor's Degree in Electronic Engineering

Bachelor's Degree in Mechatronic Engineering

Related IT or technical discipline

Job description

Department: Information Technology (IT) – Architecture Team

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Durban

Department: Information Technology (IT) – Architecture Team

Industry: Retail / ECommerce / Information Technology

Position Overview

We are seeking an innovative, technically strong and experienced Solution Architect – ECommerce to join the IT Architecture team in Durban.

The successful candidate will be responsible for analysing business requirements and available technologies to design, recommend and support the implementation of scalable, cohesive and pragmatic technical solutions.

The role requires a strong software development foundation, Solution Architecture experience, exposure to customer-facing technology domains and the ability to work across complex enterprise environments. The Solution Architect will collaborate with enterprise architects, domain architects, developers, project teams and business stakeholders to shape the organisation's ECommerce and retail technology landscape.

Key Responsibilities - Solution Architecture & Design

• Analyse business strategies, priorities, processes and requirements to determine appropriate technology solutions.
• Design enterprise-scale applications, services and technical solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes.
• Translate complex business requirements into scalable and cohesive technical designs.
• Understand and manage interactions and integration points between multiple applications and systems.
• Design solutions that are scalable, maintainable, secure, reliable and aligned with future business growth.
• Define and manage non-functional requirements, including:
• Performance
• Availability
• Security
• Scalability
• Reliability
• Break complex technical problems into manageable solution components.
• Ensure technical solutions comply with relevant governance, risk and legislative requirements.

Architecture & Technology Strategy

• Participate in the selection of appropriate:
• Technology platforms
• Technology stacks
• Frameworks
• Architectural patterns
• Integration approaches
• Balance individual solution requirements with enterprise architecture standards and guidelines.
• Contribute to technology roadmaps, conceptual models, architectural frameworks and enterprise technology strategies.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends.
• Recommend opportunities for technology optimisation, improvement and innovation.
• Provide architectural direction throughout the Software Development Life Cycle.

Software Development & Integration

• Apply strong software development knowledge when designing technical solutions.
• Provide technical leadership across:
• Development
• Programming
• Application integration
• Testing
• Deployment
• Design and support API and enterprise integration architecture.
• Ensure different applications, platforms and services integrate effectively.
• Work closely with development teams to ensure architectural designs are implemented appropriately.

No specific programming language is mandatory.

ECommerce & Business Domain Management

• Provide architectural leadership within the ECommerce and retail technology landscape.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with business stakeholders.
• Ensure alignment between technical solutions and strategic business objectives.
• Provide technical thought leadership and influence technology decision-making.
• Drive innovation across customer-facing digital platforms.
• Apply knowledge from different business and technology domains to solve complex problems.

Experience in customer-facing domains such as ECommerce, Point of Sale and FinTech is particularly relevant. Exposure across multiple domains such as ECommerce, finance and logistics will be considered a strong advantage.

Team Development & Technical Leadership

• Share Solution Architecture standards and best practices.
• Mentor and coach developers and other technical team members.
• Lead and contribute to architectural discussions.
• Provide technical guidance during solution implementation.
• Support the development of future Solution Architects.
• Promote continuous learning and adoption of appropriate new technologies.

Minimum Requirements - Qualifications

A Bachelor's Degree or BTech in one of the following areas is preferred:

• Computer Science
• Information Systems
• Computer Engineering
• Electronic Engineering
• Mechatronic Engineering
• Related IT or technical discipline

Other technical qualifications or strong self-taught developer/architect backgrounds may be considered where the candidate demonstrates exceptional technical experience.

Experience

• Minimum 5+ years of software/IT solutions development experience.
• Strong software development background is essential.
• Ideally 3+ years in a senior development role or position involving senior technical responsibilities.
• 3–5 years of Solution Architecture experience preferred.
• Candidates with 2+ years of solid architecture experience may be considered where their overall technical and development background is strong.
• Proven experience designing complex or enterprise-scale applications and solutions.
• Experience with application and system integration.
• Experience with cloud and/or on-premise environments.
• Strong exposure to ECommerce or other customer-facing digital domains.
• Retail experience is advantageous.

The ideal career progression would demonstrate increasing technical responsibility, for example Developer → Senior Developer → Technical Lead/Architect → Solution Architect.

Required Technical Competencies

• Solution Architecture
• System Architecture Design
• Software Development
• Enterprise Application Design
• Application Integration
• API & Integration Architecture
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Cloud Architecture
• On-Premise Architecture
• Enterprise Architecture Principles
• Architectural Patterns
• Technology Stack Selection
• Scalability & Performance Design
• Non-Functional Requirements Analysis
• Security & Reliability Design
• Governance, Risk & Compliance
• Technology Roadmap Development
• ECommerce Platforms
• Customer-Facing Digital Platforms

Required Behavioural Competencies

• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• Strong analytical and critical thinking abilities
• Problem-solving and decision-making capabilities
• Methodical and inquisitive mindset
• Strategic thinking
• Innovation and curiosity
• Adaptability to new technologies and business domains
• Leadership and mentoring capabilities
• Time and project management skills
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions

Preferred / Advantageous Experience

• Retail industry experience.
• Point of Sale technology exposure.
• FinTech experience.
• Experience across multiple business domains.
• Multiple cloud platform exposure.
• Enterprise integration experience.
• Development of architectural models and frameworks.
• Technology roadmap development.
• Project management or large programme exposure.
• Mentoring developers or leading architectural discussions.
• Implementation of new enterprise systems and solutions.
• Evidence of learning, prototyping or experimenting with new technologies.

Domain diversity and evidence of continuous learning are considered valuable because they demonstrate adaptability and the ability to work effectively across different technology environments.

Candidate Profile – What We Are Looking For

The ideal candidate is a technically grounded Solution Architect with a strong software development foundation, rather than an architect whose experience is primarily functional, analytical or infrastructure-based.

The candidate should demonstrate:

• Strong hands-on development foundations.
• Progression into senior technical and architecture responsibilities.
• Experience designing complex applications and systems.
• Strong integration knowledge.
• Ability to work with developers to deliver technical solutions.
• Experience translating business needs into technical architecture.
• Customer-facing digital technology experience.
• Curiosity and ability to adapt across different domains.
• Ability to mentor technical teams and influence architectural decisions.

Profiles That May Not Be Suitable

Candidates whose experience is exclusively or predominantly in the following areas may not be suitable:

• Low-code/no-code platforms such as Power Apps, Mendix, OutSystems, AppSheet or Microsoft Flow.
• Data warehousing/BI only, including Snowflake, Tableau, Power BI, Qlik or ETL.
• DevOps/infrastructure only, including Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, Kubernetes, networking, VPNs, firewalls or CI/CD.
• Architecture careers originating exclusively from Business Analysis, Systems Analysis or Project Management with little or no software development experience.
• Candidates with no evidence of meaningful software development experience.

Candidates who have remained exclusively within one technical/business domain throughout their career should be assessed for their ability to adapt and context-switch across different enterprise environments.

Screening Considerations

Repeated short employment periods of less than one year should be flagged for clarification rather than automatically rejected. Recruiters should establish whether the roles were contract-based, project-based, affected by retrenchment or ended for another reasonable explanation.

Where a technically promising CV does not clearly show software development experience, the candidate should be considered for a short qualification call to establish their development background and technologies used before being rejected.