Senior Solutions Architect (Microservices & Event-Driven Platforms)

About The Role

As a Senior Solutions Architect (Microservices & Event-Driven Platforms), you will make an impact by driving architecture governance, engineering standards, and large-scale platform transitions across distributed systems. You will be a valued member of the engineering leadership team and work collaboratively with client stakeholders, delivery teams, and cross-functional engineering groups.

Responsibilities

• Govern microservices architecture including service boundaries, API contracts, and resilience patterns using Spring Boot
• Lead event-driven architecture design including Kafka topic strategy, Schema Registry governance, and DLQ handling
• Define and enforce data architecture standards across MongoDB (schema design, indexing, scalability, consistency)
• Drive CI/CD and DevOps practices including GitHub Actions pipeline design, promotion gates, and secrets management
• Establish engineering standards for Python automation and operational tooling across the platform
• Oversee capacity and delivery governance, including velocity tracking, architectural debt, and SLA/KPI adherence
• Lead application transition strategy, ensuring successful execution of multi-phase handovers across application streams
• Act as a technical liaison with client stakeholders, supporting architecture decisions, vendor transitions, and rebadging initiatives

Work Model

We believe hybrid work is the way forward as we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is a hybrid position requiring 3–4 days a week in a Cognizant or client office in Atlanta, Georgia. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance through our various wellbeing programs. The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you’re engaged in, as well as business and client requirements.

What You Need To Have To Be Considered

• 15+ years of overall IT experience, with a minimum of 5+ years in architecture or technical leadership roles
• Strong experience in Java and Spring Boot (Spring Cloud, Security, REST APIs)
• Hands-on expertise in Apache Kafka (Streams, Schema Registry, producers/consumers)
• Proven experience with MongoDB (schema design, aggregation, replica sets, sharding)
• Experience designing and managing CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions (multi-service pipelines, gates, secrets)
• Proficiency in Python for automation, integration tooling, and data pipelines
• Strong experience with distributed systems architecture (observability, service mesh, fault tolerance)
• Demonstrated experience in transition and delivery governance, including SLA/KPI ownership and phased handovers
• Experience with build and containerization tools (Maven/Gradle, SonarQube, Docker, Kubernetes)
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to interact directly with clients and cross-functional teams

Salary And Other Compensation

The annual salary for this position depends on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate. This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.

Benefits

• Cognitive Health and Wellness Program
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Retirement Savings Plan (401(k))
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Disability Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Vacation and Personal Days
• Healthcare and Dental Insurance
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Short-Term Disability Insurance
• Parental Leave
• Volunteer Time Off (VTO)

Disclaimer

The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.