Technical Solutions Architect – Commercial Lending & Collateral Platform, Charlotte, NC

Technical Architect – Commercial Lending & Collateral Platform
Location: Charlotte, NC (Onsite)
Experience: 15+ Years
Employment Type: Contract / Long-Term Opportunity

Note: Candidates must be willing to work onsite in Charlotte, NC and collaborate closely with business, architecture, engineering, and lending stakeholders.

Job Summary:

We are seeking an experienced Technical Architect / Solution Architect with 15+ years of experience in software engineering and architecture, including at least 6 years in a Technical Architect or Solution Architect role within banking, commercial lending, financial services, or related platforms.

The organization is modernizing its technology landscape by moving away from vendor-based products toward a custom collateral management platform. The target platform will be modular, composable, API-first, and event-driven, serving as the authoritative master record for collateral and integrating with Loan Origination Systems (LOS) and Loan Servicing Management (LMS) platforms.

The Technical Architect will own the end-to-end technical architecture, from target-state design and platform foundation through phased implementation, migration, integration, and modernization.

Roadmap:

• P0: Core collateral controls and reconciled migration from the legacy platform
• P1: Process and platform automation
• P2: AI/ML capabilities and intelligent automation

Key Responsibilities:

Architecture & Solution Design:

• Define the target-state architecture for the collateral platform, including the core collateral engine, integration hub, data hub, interaction/UI layer, workflow/rules components, and reporting/analytics capabilities.
• Design domain-based microservices covering collateral registry, valuation, perfection, insurance, release, and document management.
• Design configurable rules and workflow engines supporting business triggers, maker-checker controls, approvals, escalations, and exception handling.
• Develop Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), reference architectures, Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs), and technical design standards.
• Present technical designs to architecture review boards and senior technology leadership.
• Ensure architectural decisions align with enterprise standards, security requirements, risk controls, and regulatory expectations.

Integration Architecture:

• Design API, event-driven, and batch integration layers.
• Define integration patterns using REST/GraphQL APIs, Pub/Sub messaging, Kafka or equivalent event platforms, message converters, adapters, batch processing, and retry/repair queues.
• Lead integration architecture with AFS, ACBS, Loan IQ, nCino, customer master systems, credit risk systems, document repositories, LOS, and LMS platforms.
• Reuse existing enterprise API and event hubs and develop a phased strategy for replacing legacy point-to-point interfaces.
• Define integration standards for resiliency, error handling, monitoring, retries, and reconciliation.

Data Architecture & Migration:

• Design the collateral data model and establish a single authoritative collateral record.
• Define data quality, validation, lineage, and reconciliation controls.
• Own the technical migration strategy from the legacy/vendor platform to the custom collateral platform.
• Design incremental data migration, legacy/target coexistence, parallel processing, reconciliation, validation, cutover, and legacy decommissioning strategies.
• Design reporting and analytics data flows and support regulatory reporting requirements.
• Ensure data architecture supports scalability, consistency, availability, and auditability.

Security, Controls & NFRs:

• Build security and controls into the platform architecture.
• Define patterns for RBAC, Segregation of Duties (SoD), IAM/SSO, OAuth2, encryption, secrets management, audit logging, and data retention.
• Define NFRs and technical targets for performance, scalability, resilience, high availability, disaster recovery, observability, monitoring, and reliability.
• Ensure solutions align with enterprise security, technology risk, and U.S. banking regulatory expectations, including OCC and Federal Reserve requirements.

Engineering Leadership & Delivery:

• Establish the initial platform foundation and technical framework.
• Support iterative MVP and product releases using a phased delivery model.
• Define CI/CD, DevSecOps, automated testing, environment management, and release management standards.
• Provide technical leadership to onsite and offshore engineering teams.
• Conduct code reviews, architecture/design walkthroughs, and technical governance sessions.
• Partner with Commercial Lending and Collateral SMEs to translate business capabilities into scalable technical solutions.
• Support technical discovery and assessment of the existing/legacy application.
• Participate in client workshops and communicate proposed architecture, technical risks, dependencies, and implementation strategies to senior stakeholders.

Required Qualifications:

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, architecture, and technical solution delivery.
• At least 6 years of experience as a Technical Architect, Solution Architect, or equivalent architecture leadership role.
• Proven experience architecting and delivering large-scale custom platforms within banking, commercial lending, financial services, credit platforms, or lending technology.
• Strong experience with microservices, Domain-Driven Design (DDD), API-first architecture, event-driven architecture, and distributed systems.
• Hands-on technical expertise with Java/Spring Boot or .NET.
• Strong experience designing REST and/or GraphQL APIs.
• Experience with Kafka or equivalent messaging/event platforms.
• Strong cloud-native architecture experience with AWS or Azure.
• Experience with containers and Kubernetes.
• Strong data architecture experience with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and/or SQL Server.
• Strong understanding of data modeling, ETL/ELT, data quality, data reconciliation, and data migration.
• Proven experience modernizing or replacing legacy/COTS platforms, including coexistence, parallel runs, incremental migration, phased cutover, and decommissioning.
• Experience integrating with lending, credit, or core banking platforms such as AFS, ACBS, Loan IQ, nCino, or equivalent systems.
• Strong understanding of enterprise security architecture, including IAM, SSO, OAuth2, encryption, secrets management, audit logging, RBAC, and Segregation of Duties.
• Strong understanding of NFRs including performance, scalability, resilience, availability, disaster recovery, and observability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to present complex technical concepts to technical and business stakeholders, including CTO/CIO-level audiences and architecture review boards.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with rules/workflow engines such as Drools, Camunda, or Pega.
• Experience with commercial lending/collateral products such as STOC or Broadridge COLLATE.
• Experience with modern frontend architecture using Angular or React.
• Experience integrating with enterprise document management platforms.
• Exposure to AI/ML use cases such as intelligent document extraction, predictive monitoring, and intelligent workflow automation.
• Experience with AI-enabled modernization initiatives.
• Certifications such as TOGAF, AWS Solutions Architect – Professional, Azure Solutions Architect, or Kubernetes certifications.

Key Competencies:

• Pragmatic and scalable architecture design judgment.
• Strong focus on security, controls, and regulatory compliance.
• Hands-on technical depth across modern application architecture.
• Strong understanding of banking and lending technology environments.
• Ability to balance business priorities with technical considerations.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Ability to lead distributed onsite and offshore engineering teams.
• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Ability to drive architecture from conceptual design through implementation and production delivery.
• Experience working within fixed-scope, phased delivery models.
• Strong ownership of technical outcomes, architecture governance, and platform modernization.