SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT

BID/JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

Solutions Architect

Department of Technology & Innovation

Number of Positions: 1

(Additional vacancies possible pending budget approval)

Starting Salary: $119, 244

This position is open to the public and all current City employees covered under the City's collective bargaining agreement with AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES (AFSCME) - BARGAINING UNIT 1, 3, 4 & 5. Only employees in City job titles in this bargaining unit are eligible to bid.

BID INSTRUCTIONS: Apply on the bid site: https://chicago.taleo.net/careersection/103/jobsearch.ftl?lang=en AND

1. Check the box on your profile titled "Currently employed by the City of Chicago"

2. Enter your employee ID (located on your pay stub labeled 'payee/employee number')

3. Select your correct bargaining unit

FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS WILL RESULT IN A REJECTED BID APPLICATION

Applications for this position will be accepted until 11:59pm CDT on 03/14/2026

Under supervision, the class proactively and holistically leads and supports Enterprise Architecture activities that guide the development and management of an array of solutions architecture within the City's strategic objectives; and performs related duties as required.

This class is assigned to the City's Architect Information Technology Job Family which consists of architects that develop technology strategy and vision, create technology roadmaps, select specific technologies, provide conceptual designs of the technology environment, and create high-level solution designs.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

* Provides the necessary leadership, analysis and design tasks related to support the development of technology solutions to ensure that solutions meet business needs and align with policy, architectural governance and standards

* Translates business and technical requirements into an architectural blueprint to achieve business objectives and documents all solution architecture design and analysis work

* Works closely with the product owners and product managers to ensure a robust architectural runway that can support future business requirements throughout the product life cycle

* Understands business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) and determines corresponding enterprise solution designs and change requirements to drive the organization's targeted business outcomes

* Monitors the current-state solution portfolio to identify deficiencies through aging of the technologies used by the application, or misalignment with business requirements

* Supports product managers in end-of-life product decisions to maintain, refresh or retire services, or systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information

* Understands emerging technology trends, disruptions and their practical application to enable new and evolving business and operating models

* Facilitates the evaluation and selection of software product standards and services, as well as the design of standard and custom software configurations

* Consults with application and infrastructure development projects to review products to ensure the architecture meets architecture standards and identify if it is necessary to modify designs to accommodate architecture standards.

* Leads evaluation, design, and analysis for the implementation of a solutions architecture across a group of specific business applications or technologies based on enterprise business strategy, business capabilities, value-streams, business requirements and enterprise standards

* Works closely with the program management office (PMO) to ensure the execution of plans corresponds with what is being promised throughout the project or product life cycle

* Understands the concepts of business goals, objectives and business outcomes, business capabilities, value-streams, and business processes and their importance in solution architecture

* Provides consulting support to application architects within development teams to ensure the project or product is aligned with the overall enterprise architecture

* Provides deliverables like standard definitions, reference models and architecture designs to support architectural governance to assess the impact of new and ongoing technology investment on the business and IT estate

* Provides the necessary leadership, analysis and design tasks related to support the development of technology solutions to ensure that solutions meet business needs and align with policy, architectural governance and standards

* Supports a community of practice (CoP), guiding and helping development teams, product owners to align with the overall enterprise architecture governance and assurance

* Designs and directs the governance activities associated with ensuring solutions architecture assurance and compliance

* Defines the principles, guidelines, standards, and solution patterns to ensure solution decisions are aligned with the enterprise's future-state architecture vision

* Ensures solutions within the portfolio adhere to documentation requirements including but not limited to software bill of materials

Additional duties may be required for this position

Location: 2 N. LaSalle St., Chicago, IL

Days: Monday-Friday

Hours: 8:00am-4:00pm (flexible)

THIS POSITION IS IN THE CAREER SERVICE

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

* Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information-Technology, Engineering, System Analysis or a directly related field, plus four (4) years of experience in IT solution development disciplines (e.g., technical or infrastructure architecture, network management, application development, middleware, database management or cloud development)

Should the above criteria not be fulfilled, the following options are acceptable:

o Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Master's degree or higher in Computer Science, Information-Technology, Engineering, System Analysis or a directly related field, plus three (3) years of experience in IT solution development disciplines (e.g., technical or infrastructure architecture, network management, application development, middleware, database management or cloud development)

o Graduation from an accredited college an Associate's degree in Computer Science, Information-Technology, Engineering, System Analysis or a directly related field, plus six (6) years of experience in IT solution development disciplines (e.g., technical or infrastructure architecture, network management, application development, middleware, database management or cloud development)

o Eight (8) years of experience in IT solution development disciplines (e.g., technical or infrastructure architecture, network management, application development, middleware, database management or cloud development)

SELECTION REQUIREMENTS

This position requires applicants to complete an interview. Interviewed applicants possessing the qualifications best suited to fulfill the responsibilities of the position, based on the interview will be selected.

For Information on our employees benefits please visit our benefits website at:

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/fin/benefits-office.html

For Information on our salary and title structure visit our classifications website at:

https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/dhr/supp_info/JobClassification/2025_Classification_and_Pay_Plan.pdf

APPLICATION EVALUATION: Initial evaluation will be based on information provided on the application and the documents submitted. Department of Human Resource staff will review applications after the final posting date. Staff will follow any and all required Employment/Hiring Plan provisions, federal, state and local laws, and Collective Bargaining Agreements when applicable. Staff will apply hiring preferences as required by the municipal code. Placement on an eligibility list is not an offer or guarantee of an interview nor employment with the City of Chicago.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY: To further our commitment to hiring applicants with diverse experience the City of Chicago has adopted the following ordinances 2-74-020 and 2-74-075. The ordinances provide a preference to applicants who meet minimum qualifications and who are veterans of the Armed Forces, and/or residents of Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Areas (SEDA) and/or Chicago Public School (CPS) high school graduates to be referred to departments for consideration. These hiring preferences do not apply to bidders, as Collective Bargaining Agreements define the hiring process for bidders. For positions covered by a collective bargaining agreement, bidders will be considered before external candidates. To learn more about our hiring practices click here.

ALL REFERENCES TO POLITICAL SPONSORSHIP OR RECOMMENDATION MUST BE OMITTED FROM ALL APPLICATION MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR CITY EMPLOYMENT.

The City of Chicago is an Equal Employment Opportunity, Military Friendly, and Fair Chance Employer.

City of Chicago

Brandon Johnson, Mayor