Kaplan
Website:
kaplan.com
Job details:
JD — Senior Solution Architect (Microsoft)
Senior Solution Architect
(Microsoft & Enterprise Landscape)
#EA/Structure/Roles
About the Role
Kaplan International Pathways is a leading provider of global education centered around our students. Technology is at the heart of what we do, and our Solution Architecture capability ensures that our diverse IT systems align with our overall business strategy.
We are looking for a permanent Solution Architect to act as the guardian of our enterprise architecture patterns.
Kaplan International Pathways is undertaking a strategic consolidation of service onto the core SaaS, PaaS, and Cloud platforms, including the Microsoft stack and Azure service including Fabric, PowerApps, Purview, and more. In this role, you will be the primary authority for ensuring that our diverse portfolio, ranging from custom PHP applications to off-the-shelf SaaS, integrates neatly within and consolidates effectively around this core backbone.
You will sit within the Application Engineering and Architecture team, ensuring that projects are built right the first time. You act as the bridge between high-level business strategy and low-level engineering execution, ensuring that we move quickly while enforcing mandatory guardrails for consistency, security, and compliance that our vendors and dev teams adhere to.
- Location: Hybrid (Based in our Bengaluru Office).
- Team: Application Engineering & Architecture.
Key Responsibilities
Designing the Future State
Your primary goal is to drive architectural consistency and help define the direction for our technology estate, aligned with our AI and data initiatives, and ensuring we reduce technical debt.
- Microsoft Stack Strategy:
- Lead the architectural alignment with Microsoft 365 and Azure (PaaS/IaaS/Serverless).
- Champion our "Buy-not-Build" strategy through checks-and-balances against unnecessary custom development/engineering, ensuring we leverage native cloud capabilities (e.g., Azure Functions, Logic Apps) before building custom code.
- Architecture Governance & Standards:
- Own the Architecture Decision Record (ADR) repository and C4 Model standards.
- You review and approve technical designs, ensuring that decisions are documented, defensible, and communicated clearly to the engineering teams.
- Integration & API-First:
- Define how our peripheral ecosystem (Salesforce, Pimcore, KSS – our student services platform, Drupal) connects to the central data spine.
- Enforce the API-First mandate. You ensure that systems communicate via governed interfaces (Azure API Management), minimizing brittle point-to-point connections.
- Security & Identity:
- Enforce Zero-Trust principles and Privacy-by-Design at the blueprint stage.
- Design patterns for internal service-to-service communication using InfoSec approved credential management (Azure Key Vault/Entra ID) and ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR.
- Collaboration & Quality:
- Partner with the Development Manager and QA Manager to ensure designs are deliverable/executable by the Development Manager and testable by QA.
- Champion "Shift-Left" thinking, ensuring that non-functional requirements (performance, scalability, observability) are baked into the architecture early, not added as an afterthought.
What You Bring
We are looking for someone who is passionate about Architecture, understands the importance of flexibility and security, and is able to help build a north-star strategy.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Azure API Management: Strong experience architecting solutions on Azure (App Service, Functions, Event Grid, API Management) and integrating with Microsoft 365 capabilities.
- Enterprise Architecture Management: Substantial experience working as a Solution Architect at enterprise organisations. You understand complex system setup and configurations (e.g. CRM, CMS, Billing) and have exposure to or understanding of eCommerce business models.
- Bridging Technologies: Comfortable working with both new (Cloud-Native) and legacy (Legacy PHP/Monolith) technologies. You have a track record of designing strategies to bridge the gap or migrate systems effectively.
- Governance Frameworks: Understanding of architectural frameworks (e.g. TOGAF, C4 Model) and experience applying them in both Agile and Waterfall environments. You value clarity over complexity.
- Communication: Excellent communicator, able to make technical concepts accessible to Director-level stakeholders and influence decision-making without direct authority.
Desirable
- Data Awareness: Understanding of modern Data Lakehouse concepts (Microsoft Fabric), including Medallion Architecture, to ensure your application designs support the Analytics team.
- SaaS Integration: Experience integrating with Salesforce Cloud (Edu, Marketing) or Microsoft Dynamics/Great Plains.
Our Technology Stack
You will be the architect for this diverse ecosystem:
- Cloud Core: Azure (PaaS, Serverless, Logic Apps), Azure API Management.
- Applications: Pimcore, KSS (Legacy PHP/Angular systems), Drupal, MuleSoft.
- Data & CRM: Salesforce Cloud (Edu), Microsoft Fabric.
- Productivity: Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform.
Why Join Kaplan?
- Strategic Impact: You are not just maintaining a system; you are architecting a migration to a modern, cloud-native estate.
- Authority: You are the design authority for the engineering function, defining the patterns that developers will follow.
- Culture: A collaborative technical environment where Architecture, Development, and QA work as a unified team to drive quality.
Click on Apply to know more.
