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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Salesforce Architect

💰 $150,000 - $220,000+

TechnologySalesforceCRMArchitectureIT

🎯 Role Definition

As a Salesforce Architect, you are the cornerstone of our CRM strategy, responsible for the overall design, integrity, and scalability of our Salesforce platform. You will serve as the lead technical authority, providing expert guidance to stakeholders, development teams, and business analysts. This pivotal role involves translating complex business visions into tangible, high-performance technical solutions that drive business value and user adoption. You will own the architectural roadmap, govern development standards, and ensure our Salesforce instance remains a powerful, secure, and efficient asset for the entire organization.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Salesforce Developer / Lead Salesforce Engineer
  • Principal Salesforce Consultant
  • Senior Salesforce Business Analyst (with strong technical aptitude)

Advancement To:

  • Enterprise Architect
  • Director of Business Systems / Director of CRM
  • Chief Technology Officer (CTO) / VP of Engineering

Lateral Moves:

  • Principal Solutions Consultant
  • Product Manager (CRM / Enterprise Platforms)
  • Mulesoft Architect

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead the design and development of robust, scalable, and secure Salesforce solutions, including data models, system integrations, and user interfaces, to meet complex business requirements.
  • Translate intricate business requirements from various departments into well-architected solutions that best leverage the Salesforce platform and its ecosystem of products (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud).
  • Define and document the end-to-end technical architecture for the Salesforce environment, ensuring it aligns with enterprise architecture standards, security policies, and strategic business goals.
  • Act as the senior technical subject matter expert for the Salesforce platform, providing guidance and mentorship to developers, administrators, and business analysts.
  • Govern and enforce Salesforce best practices, coding standards, and platform limits to ensure the long-term health, performance, and maintainability of the application.
  • Design and oversee the implementation of complex integration solutions between Salesforce and other enterprise systems using APIs (REST/SOAP), middleware (like MuleSoft), and ETL tools.
  • Create and maintain a comprehensive Salesforce technical roadmap, identifying opportunities for platform enhancement, consolidation, and innovation.
  • Evaluate and recommend new Salesforce features, third-party AppExchange applications, and emerging technologies to enhance business capabilities and user experience.
  • Conduct architectural reviews and provide technical oversight for all major Salesforce projects, ensuring solutions are built for scale and flexibility.
  • Lead solution design sessions, technical workshops, and proof-of-concept demonstrations to articulate solution options and secure stakeholder buy-in.
  • Own the data architecture and governance strategy within Salesforce, including data modeling, data migration strategies, and ensuring data quality and integrity.
  • Troubleshoot and resolve the most complex technical issues, performance bottlenecks, and platform-related incidents.
  • Develop and enforce a comprehensive testing strategy to ensure the quality, reliability, and security of all new developments and configurations.
  • Champion and drive the adoption of CI/CD and DevOps practices within the Salesforce development lifecycle to improve deployment frequency and quality.
  • Collaborate with security and compliance teams to ensure all Salesforce solutions adhere to data privacy regulations (like GDPR, CCPA) and internal security policies.
  • Provide expert-level guidance on governor limits, license optimization, and cost-effective use of the Salesforce platform.
  • Author and maintain detailed technical design documents, solution architecture diagrams, and other critical system documentation.
  • Mentor junior technical team members, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning.
  • Manage the technical aspects of large-scale data migrations, system cutovers, and release management processes.
  • Analyze business processes and identify opportunities for automation and optimization using Salesforce Flow, Process Builder, and custom Apex solutions.
  • Drive conversations with business and technical stakeholders to identify needs, negotiate priorities, and build consensus around proposed architectural solutions.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis using SOQL and reporting tools.
  • Contribute to the organization's broader enterprise data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate ambiguous data needs into concrete engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning, retrospectives, and other agile ceremonies within the development team.
  • Evaluate and prototype emerging technologies within the Salesforce ecosystem to assess their potential business impact.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Salesforce Platform Mastery: Expert-level proficiency across the Salesforce platform, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Experience Cloud. Knowledge of Marketing Cloud, CPQ, or Field Service is a major plus.
  • Custom Development: Deep expertise in Salesforce development languages and frameworks, including Apex, Visualforce, Aura Components, and Lightning Web Components (LWC).
  • Integration Architecture: Proven experience designing and implementing complex integrations using Salesforce APIs (REST, SOAP, Bulk, Streaming), Platform Events, and middleware platforms (e.g., MuleSoft, Dell Boomi).
  • Data Architecture & Modeling: Strong command of Salesforce data modeling, SOQL, SOSL, and experience with large data volumes, data migration, and data governance strategies.
  • Security Architecture: In-depth understanding of Salesforce security models, including profiles, permission sets, sharing rules, role hierarchies, and Shield Platform Encryption.
  • Solution Design: Ability to create comprehensive solution design documents, conceptual and logical architecture diagrams, and sequence diagrams.
  • DevOps & Release Management: Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines for Salesforce (e.g., using Copado, Gearset, SFDX CLI) and a strong understanding of release and environment management strategies.
  • Governor Limits & Performance Tuning: Expert knowledge of Salesforce governor limits, best practices for scalable code/configuration, and techniques for performance analysis and optimization.
  • MuleSoft: Experience or certification in MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is highly desirable for creating a seamless application network.
  • System Analysis: Ability to analyze and deconstruct complex legacy systems and business processes to inform future-state architectural design.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic Thinking: Ability to see the big picture, understand business strategy, and align technical solutions with long-term goals.
  • Stakeholder Management: Exceptional ability to communicate with, influence, and manage expectations of both technical teams and senior business leaders.
  • Communication & Articulation: Superior verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences clearly and concisely.
  • Leadership & Mentorship: A natural leader and mentor who can guide and inspire development teams to achieve technical excellence.
  • Problem-Solving: A pragmatic and analytical problem-solver who can navigate ambiguity and resolve complex technical challenges effectively.
  • Negotiation & Influence: Skilled at building consensus and negotiating trade-offs between competing business and technical priorities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in a relevant field.
  • Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) is highly preferred and a significant differentiator.
  • Other relevant certifications such as Application Architect, System Architect, or Platform Developer II.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Technology / Information Systems
  • Software Engineering
  • Business Administration

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 10-15+ years of professional IT experience.

Preferred:

  • A minimum of 7+ years of hands-on experience within the Salesforce ecosystem.
  • At least 4+ years in a dedicated Salesforce Architect, Lead Developer, or Principal Consultant role on enterprise-level projects.
  • Demonstrated experience leading the technical design and implementation of multiple large-scale Salesforce projects from inception to completion.
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