Adobe Experience Platform Architect

The Role

Most organizations split this work three ways. One team owns collection, another owns the platform, a third owns audiences, and then everyone spends the year arguing about whose fault the broken profile is. We do not split it. You are the architect of the whole spine, from the first event fired on the page, through Experience Platform, to the audience landing in a destination, and the integrations that connect Adobe to everything around it. We design as a team, and you own the data architecture decisions.

• Design the data model. Own the XDM schemas, field groups, datasets, and identity strategy, built to hold up when a second brand, region, or channel arrives, not just to pass the first load.
• Architect collection through activation. Set the design for Web SDK and mobile collection, datastreams, Real-Time Customer Profile, and Real-Time CDP audiences and destinations, so the whole path is coherent rather than stitched.
• Own the integrations. Design how Adobe connects to the surrounding stack, warehouses, CRMs, and downstream tools, with the data flowing both ways cleanly.
• Govern it. Set the standards for identity, consent, privacy (GDPR, CCPA), and data quality, and the sandbox and permission model that keeps them enforced.
• Stay hands-on. Build the hard parts yourself, prove the design with a working slice, and be the person who can debug the profile at 4pm on a launch day.

Your First 90 Days

Most platforms are not missing capability. They are missing a decision about how they are supposed to work.

• Weeks 1-3. Document the current state. Schemas, datasets, identity namespaces, merge policies, sandboxes, and who holds what access. Half the value is discovering what is already live before someone rebuilds it.
• Weeks 4-8. Fix the foundation. Schema, identity, and datastream design that survives the next source, the next brand, and the next channel, proven with a working slice rather than a diagram.
• Weeks 9-12. Make it governable. Consent enforcement, data usage labels, and a permission model where access follows the work someone actually does.

Why 5th Revolution

The Work Other Firms Can't Offer

• Challenge the status quo and put data and technology first, so your energy goes into the outcome and the growth it creates, not the org chart.
• Constant challenge from people at your level.
• Actually build, at Fortune 100 scale.
• Go wide, not siloed.
• All technology, none of the politics.
• Driven by results, not headcount or hours.

Compensation & Engagement

• W-2 from day one. Hourly to start, converting to salaried. You are a 5th Revolution employee from your first day, not an agency placement and not a 1099 contractor.
• You start hourly and overtime-eligible on a longer-term engagement, and convert to a salaried role from there. We typically evaluate conversion within the first six to nine months. Conversion depends on mutual fit and on business conditions, so we will not promise a date we cannot control, and we will tell you where you stand rather than leave you guessing.
• Competitive rate; total compensation reflects skill and impact, not just years.
• Annual certification and professional-development budget; conference attendance and speaking opportunities.
• Fully remote, up to ~10% travel. During the hourly phase your schedule is agreed in advance and all hours worked are recorded and paid, including overtime.
• Latest tools, hardware, and AI-enabled development environments.
• A small, senior team. You work directly with the principal architect on Fortune 100 accounts, not through layers of account management.

Pay Range

During the initial hourly phase, this role pays $95 to $160 per hour. On conversion to a salaried role, the base salary range is $135,000 to $230,000 per year. Be plain about the arithmetic. The two are not a like-for-like comparison. Hourly, you are non-exempt: you are paid for every hour you work, overtime included, and you carry the variability. Salaried, you are paid whether or not you are on a billable engagement, and overtime no longer applies. One trades stability for upside, the other trades upside for stability, which is exactly the choice conversion represents. These are good-faith ranges. Actual compensation depends on experience, skills, and location.

Benefits

• Paid sick leave
• Annual certification and professional-development budget

The Five Points

We hold every hire to the same five points, the five points of the 5th Revolution star. No one point carries a hire on its own, and no one point is a formality. If you are strong on most of them and straight with us about the rest, apply anyway.

• Business Communication & Leadership: You own the room and the outcome. You move fluidly between executive teams and delivery, framing everything in business value, and setting a direction cross-functional teams want to execute.
  • Translate fluidly between executive and technical audiences
  • Frame every decision in business value
  • Lead cross-functional delivery teams
• Technical Breadth & Depth: Deep hands-on AEP, centered on the data architecture itself: modeling the data into schemas, defining identity, managing merge policies, governing it all, and collecting it cleanly through the Web SDK.
  • Model the data into schemas: XDM schemas, field groups, and datasets built to hold up as sources multiply
  • Define identity and manage merge policies: identity namespaces and identity maps, and the merge policies that produce a defensible Real-Time Customer Profile
  • Data governance: consent enforcement, data usage labels and policies, and privacy (GDPR, CCPA)
  • Collect with the Web SDK: Alloy / Web SDK and datastreams, with event and consent design correct from the first hit, feeding Real-Time CDP audiences and destinations
• Strategic Thinking: You get from "we need a CDP" to the real business goals, a sequenced roadmap, and an ROI case that wins executive budget, sequencing for fastest measurable value, not activity.
  • Turn vague asks into goals, roadmap, and an ROI case
  • Scope, size against product licensing, and set realistic timelines
  • Protect scope, schedule, and budget when reality pushes back
• Drive to Learn & Grow, Together: You never accept the status quo. You stay current because you are genuinely curious, and you level up the whole team by learning alongside your peers.
  • Genuinely curious, always current
  • Level up the whole team, not just yourself
  • Best approach wins, regardless of title or tenure
• Relevant Experience: You have built and supported data pipelines into Adobe Experience Platform, not just configured a sandbox, and you have been on the hook when the profile broke in production.
  • 2+ years hands-on AEP and Real-Time CDP, or 5+ years in a closely related data-engineering or CDP role
  • Designed and delivered an AEP implementation from collection through activation; owning identity and integration architecture lands you higher
  • Adobe Certified Expert in Experience Platform or Data Collection is a plus, not a requirement